Local history seminars

Choral societies were a feature of urban life in Victorian Britain; less common were choral societies based in rural villages. The widespread acclaim in contemporary sources at the beginning of the twentieth century for the choral society based in Fulbeck, Lincolnshire, thus makes it distinctive. This talk explores its origins and development, touching on features such as the impact of chapel music and the involvement of women school teachers.

The second part of the talk reflects on the importance of forms of leisure activity in shaping village life, illustrated by the place of cricket in Fulbeck, with the legendary W. G. Grace making a brief cameo appearance.

The archaeology and history of the Halam Valley and surrounding area, Nottinghamshire

This talk will outline previous and current research looking at the region around the Halam valley which has revealed a potential relic, late prehistoric, landscape that transformed through Anglo-Saxon and Norman settlement to wider medieval dispersal before contraction into its present form.

Early Christian settlement and church building in Argyll and Wester Ross, Scotland - centralized or dispersed? Finding the 'Silent Church'

This talk will examine the historical and archaeological evidence for the introduction and growth of Early Christian churches, chapels, and burials along the north-western seaboard and islands of Scotland. Several questions are posed around the dispersal of the physical evidence, and the potential for modern technology to aid research is discussed.

The fire at Fairfield Care Home in 1974 led to a public inquiry into what happened on that night and what had led up to the tragedy. The repercussions from the inquiry were felt nationally as well as by Nottinghamshire County Council and changes in legislation were made. The seminar looks at the evidence about what really happened that night and probes some long established misinformation. The inquiry report is considered alongside eyewitness accounts gathered during research into the fire, including from the emergency services people who attended. David Needham’s background as a fire investigation officer will allow him to explain about the dynamics of fire and why it spread so rapidly through this building, and he will discuss known aspects of human behaviour to fires. Questions about whether the building was ‘fit for purpose’, whether the county council had appropriate fire safety measures in place and whether the inquiry really got to the root cause of the disaster will also be examined.

In 1826 Mary Bailey, the wife of a tailor in Nottingham, published a booklet of her poetry to supplement her family’s income. This talk explores her poetry in the context of Nottingham and the lace industry in the early 1800s, revealing a unique and intimate account of one family’s struggle against poverty. It also tells the story of Mary’s family origins and uncovers the fate of her husband and children following her early death.

More details will be posted here soon.

James Wright, Buildings Archaeologist, Triskele Heritage: Mediaeval Great Houses of the East Midlands

The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries ushered in a new type of high-status residence in the midlands – the late mediaeval great house. Previous scholars were somewhat obsessed with the semi-fortified nature of these properties. However, modern research has demonstrated that they were multi-functional and highly complex structures which offered opportunities for socially rising elites to show off their status in society.

This talk is based on recent fieldwork and research at sites including Haddon Hall (Derbyshire), Greasley Castle (Nottinghamshire), Tattershall Castle (Lincolnshire) and Ashby Castle (Leicestershire).

“This Manor hath been the inheritance of lawyers”. Excavating a lost Mediaeval fortified manor house at Strelley Hall, Nottinghamshire

Construction work at the idyllic eighteenth century Strelley Hall led to the chance discovery of the remains of a much older precursor. The fourteenth century fortified manor of the de Strelley family lay beneath and as excavations proceeded a huge rock-cut moat became visible for the first time since it was filled in after a catastrophic fire in the sixteenth century. This lecture looks at the evidence for this manor including hidden towers, stunning archaeological artefacts and hidden tunnels…

Nottingham Nursing Group: Aspects of Nursing History in Nottingham

Researching nursing outside of the usual hospital nursing.

Discussing a community project online to research the migration of workers to and from the Evans' mills at Darley Abbey, Derby largely in the 19th century. This involved collating entries from parish registers and census returns to look at personal histories for individual workers. In a somewhat scaled back version, the project has continued over the last year and we are now trying to publish and disseminate the outcomes.

Nottingham Women's History Group will be speaking to us on Women Artists of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.

Most people will have heard of Dame Laura Knight and be familiar with her work, but Nottingham Women’s History Group’s aim is to find forgotten or deliberately erased women and bring them to life for a new audience. Therefore, in this talk we want to introduce you to some less well-known and less well-documented women artists, ranging from the early 19th century to the late 20th century. You may have heard of some of them, some of them may be a complete surprise, but we hope you will find all their stories enjoyable.

Christina Lee is our guest speaker from the University of Nottingham.

‘Dimming Eyes and Things that Come by Night: how to cure and care early medieval style’. This seminar explores how health was conceptualised in Early Medieval England (c 750-1100 CE), and which healing and caring options were open to people of the time. Medieval healing and health care are often depicted as either non-existent or terrible. By contrast, Christina will show that this was a period of innovation: Christianisation introduced medical texts and procedures from Classical Antiquity, long-distance trade made expensive ingredients accessible, and the rise of monasticism and hospitals introduced new communities of care.

Christina is an Associate Professor in the School of English and this seminar relates to her work on ancient biotics, more information about which can be found at: https://ancientbiotics.co.uk/.

James Wright will be covering two presentations:

East Midlands great houses: https://triskeleheritage.triskelepublishing.com/mediaeval-great-houses-of-the-east-midlands/

Strelley Hall: https://triskeleheritage.triskelepublishing.com/this-manor-hath-been-the-inheritance-of-lawyers-excavating-a-lost-mediaeval-fortified-manor-house-at-strelley-hall-nottinghamshire/

Matthew Roberts, Sheffield Hallam University on "Feminist Pioneers? Nottingham Women in Protest and Politics, c.1789-1848"

Nottingham has many claims to fame, but perhaps one of the less well known is that there is a long tradition of female political activism in the town, that long predates the more famous Suffragettes of the early twentieth century. Many of these women remain ‘hidden from history’ and their stories deserve to be more widely known.

The first part of the seminar will provide an overview of the mainly working-class women from the Nottingham area who were prominent in the protest, reform and radical movements from the 1790s through to the 1840s. In the second part, we will take some cases studies and look at some of the challenges and rewards of writing women’s and gender history. Key themes will include: rescuing women hidden in the archives; ‘reading between the lines’ of source material written by or about women; and using online digitised newspapers as sources.

Matthew Roberts is Associate Professor of Modern British History, Sheffield Hallam University. He works on radical politics and protest in 19th-century Britain.  

Alistair Mutch on "Supporting actors: buttresses in the Decorated church architecture of the East Midlands"

The East Midlands possesses some of the finest examples of the Decorated church architecture of the fourteenth century in England. The focus of writing on this period has been on features such as widow tracery. A neglected feature has been the nature of buttresses but this talk argues that such features can tell us much about the nature and development of church architecture. The talk outlines the development of the buttress in medieval church architecture before focussing on the Decorated style. Examples are drawn from across England in order to show what is distinctive about the buttresses on churches such as Heckington and Gaddesby.

Dr Helen Foster on "'It were only one thing in Nottingham in them days, lace, Nottingham Lace': exploring the public history of Nottingham's Machine-Lace Industry"

Nottingham was the global hub of the machine-lace industry in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The industry exported its laces across the world, to North and South America, mainland Europe, Asia and Australia. Locally, it employed thousands across the city and surrounding lace towns. Nottingham Lace leaves a visible mark on the landscape today through its red-brick factories and warehouses, repurposed for twenty-first century housing and recreation.  

This talk considers how the heritage of Nottingham Lace is remembered at local level. We consider the Lace Market, once a vital marketplace for the industry, as a heritage site and look at recent renovations in lace galleries at the city’s Castle Museum and the Industrial Museum at Wollaton Hall. Alongside this, we explore ways in which 'hidden' stories of lace - such as the lived experiences of the workers - have been recorded and interpreted, using methodologies such as oral history. We consider where there might still be gaps in the lace story that we communicate to the public, and how some of these gaps might be filled in the future.    

*Mrs Cooke (b.1896, interviewed 1982) / Nottinghamshire Oral History Collection, Nottingham Local Studies Library

Kate Crossley on "Bennerley Viaduct"

Bennerley Viaduct is a unique wrought iron viaduct, one of only two left in the country. Derelict for 50 years it has been reopened recently by a grass-roots volunteer organisation. Hear the story of this incredible piece of Victorian engineering and the work done to save it. Part of the work of the Friends of Bennerley Viaduct includes research into who built the viaduct, not just the engineers and foundry owners, but the Navvies and individual workers. The session will discuss research methods for uncovering ordinary people in archives, and the successes and failures which have resulted. 

Kate Crossley is a heritage professional who has worked in museums in Derbyshire for seven years. She has specialisms in folklore, storytelling, and community engagement.

Speaker: Emeritus Professor John Beckett

Emeritus Professor John Beckett returns for our first Local History Seminar of the year to discuss his ongoing research and catch up in-person with regular attendees. Professor Beckett retired from university service in the summer of 2020 after running Local History Seminars for several years. This year he will be handing the baton of organiser to Dr Gaunt but will still be attending many of the seminars and continuing his ongoing research into local history.

Speaker: Dr David Appleby

A talk on various Nottinghamshire women and their experience in the Civil Wars, from the literate and relatively high-born Lucy Hutchinson to the illiterate and unknown Rose Oldershaw of Nottingham. Not entirely unknown, as our Civil War Petitions project has unearthed quite a lot about Rose and her work in nursing wounded soldiers.

As a point of local interest, Rose Oldershaw housed her patients in her house in Warser Gate in Nottingham. Her main patient for two years was a Yorkshireman - Timothy Holt from Sheffield. The only thing we don't know about Timothy Holt is where he was wounded. We know roughly when he was wounded, which leads me to suspect that he was probably hurt during one of Parliament's early assaults on Newark. Oldershaw was clearly well known to the Nottingham Parliamentary Committee, who referred to her simply as 'Rose' in many of their documents.

Dr Appleby is a specialist in the British Civil Wars, the Commonwealth and Protectorate, the Restoration, and crime and punishment in early modern England.

Speaker: Dr Chris Brooke

Spectroscopy is a scientific technique used to analyze and identify materials through their individual chemical composition. It is employed in a wide variety of fields including medical, military, and criminal research, but its ability to characterize pigments and associated materials means it can also play a key role in investigating art and cultural heritage artefacts.

The first part of the seminar will look at how various types of spectroscopy work and what they can tell us and will feature several case studies both in Nottinghamshire and elsewhere. The second part will discuss the ongoing work at Southwell Minster to try to determine if the late C13th Chapter House, with its important carvings, was once adorned with colour.

Speaker: David Needham

The story of Nottinghamshire’s fight for survival during the Second World War is based upon eye witness accounts from people interviewed for the book, Battle of the Flames. These have been interwoven with information from documents detailing the air raids on the county. The actions of the civil defence and the fire service are described in detail, in relation to the Nottinghamshire raids and also when they went to the aid of others, in London, Coventry, Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield.

Some of the photographs used, came from interviewees personal albums. Various ‘then’ and ‘now’ illustrations help bring those bygone times to life.

Speaker: Professor Richard Cust

Chapels belonging to gentry families were a common phenomenon within post-Reformation parish churches. They generally provided pew seating for the family and servants, or burial chambers for family members, or both. Their general neglect by historians of parish churches can be accounted for in part by historiographical fashion: the interests in tracing changes in the layout of churches that reflected the spiritual priorities of Calvinists and later Laudians, or in exploring pew disputes as an indication of social relations within the parish. But perhaps more importantly, it is because so many of these chapels were obliterated by the refurbishment of parish churches in the nineteenth century.

Richard Cust is an Emeritus professor of early modern history at the University of Birmingham, specialising in the political and cultural history of late sixteenth and early seventeenth century England.

Speaker: Professor Anna Greenwood and Sophie Clapp

The history of Boots the Chemists, which started as a humble herbalist’s shop on Goose Gate, Nottingham in 1849, is relatively well known. However, Boots as an international venture is less understood. Yet, from the end of the First World War, Boots actively worked to extend its wholesale and manufacturing business abroad, establishing international agents, and building collaborative networks overseas. This talk introduces the ways Boots looked outward beyond national borders, identifying how developments and influences in America, Europe, and Britain’s colonial world both spurred company reach overseas and helped the business at home. Whether sourcing the finest international materials for the discerning customer at home, exporting Boots products to expatriates overseas, mimicking management practices from America, or taking staff to international exhibitions, Boots's British ascendancy relied on looking internationally for opportunity and inspiration.

Anna Greenwood is Professor of Health History at the University of Nottingham, Sophie Clapp is Head of Archives at the Boots Archive- both are working together (with Richard Hornsey, Hilary Ingram and Jamie Banks) on a large four-year Arts and Humanities Research Council project on the history of Boots in international perspective, which will culminate in a large exhibition at the new central library in Nottingham.

Speaker: Dr Pam Fisher

John Nichols tells us that Henry Meriton was a broken man when he died in 1710. He had restored and ‘beautified’ Lutterworth church following damage from a lightning strike, but his parishioners pursued a legal case against him in Chancery for misapplying the money raised. Other evidence points to deeper motivations and grievances. The testimony of townsfolk in the local church court speaks vividly of the tensions between the Anglican rector and the nonconformists in the period immediately following the Toleration Act of 1689. Dr Fisher is Volunteer Project Manager for Leicestershire VCH and is currently working on the histories of Ibstock and Lutterworth, for publication in 2020 and 2021. 

Speaker: Dr Chris Brooke

Dr Brooke will discuss his most recent work examining several archaeological sites in Nottinghamshire from the air using remote sensing. He will also present the results of recent ground-based thermal imaging, mainly in churches, to reveal hidden archaeological features.

Speaker: Professor John Beckett

At the end of 2019 John Beckett’s five year project on the First World War comes to an end. In this session he will be looking at one of the ‘hidden histories’ of the First World War, the use of what is now the University of Nottingham’s Sutton Bonington campus as a POW camp for German officers, 1916-19.

Speaker: Kevin Powell 

Kevin, who is a regular attender at Saturday morning seminars, will talk about his work on the General and Church Cemeteries in Nottingham, their history, and some of the people buried in them. Kevin leads the guided walks programme for Nottingham Civic Society.

Speaker: Dr Denise Amos

Denise runs the Nottinghamshire Heritage Gateway (a website hosted by the Thoroton Society), and has recently been working on the conscientious objectors of Nottingham and further afield following the introduction of conscription in 1916.

Speaker: Scott Lomax, Nottingham City Archaeologist

This talk will provide a narrative of the processes of urbanisation in Nottingham during the late medieval period. It will examine some of the factors responsible for significant changes to the town, as well as some of the consequences of such changes upon the morphology of the town and the lives of those who inhabited it. The talk will focus upon the period 1300-1540, although, by way of background, relevant information for the earlier period of 1066-1300 will be presented. The methodology and results of ongoing archaeological and documentary research, including research for Scott’s ongoing PhD, will be discussed.

*This event has been cancelled owing to concerns about the coronavirus epidemic*

Speaker: Dr David Appleby, University of Nottingham

Dave Appleby spoke to the seminar in 2016 on the subject of the British Civil Wars and the Restoration. Since then he has joined with Professor Andy Hopper at the University of Leicester in a major, AHRC funded project on Civil War Petitions, entitled ‘The Human Costs of the British Civil Wars’. The seminar will examine what petitions were, what they tell us about people caught up in the Civil Wars, and where the project is heading over the next few years. 

Speaker: Helen Bates

After giving an overview of some of the recent projects looking at colonial links to country houses and the physical legacies of this, Helen will present a case study on the 2nd Duke of Montagu's ill-fated quest to conquer part of the Caribbean for George I. She will focus particularly on how indentured servants played a key part in this conquest and how she traced the involvement of people like John Beeston, 'briches maker' of Bingham, Nottinghamshire.

Dr Bates is a lecturer in Public History and Heritage at the University of Derby and she is also based at Newstead Abbey as Academic-in-Residence exploring the colonial links to the estate. 

Speaker: Rosemary Muge

Poaching increased from the mid-eighteenth century, and became a cause for concern for landowners and all those involved in upholding the law. Often referred to as the Poaching Wars, and dubbed 'The Long Affray' by one historian, the night-time fights between gamekeepers and poachers have entered into popular myth in some cases. The session will examine poaching in the East Midlands counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire from 1820 to 1900.

Dr Muge is a retired teacher, who recently completed her PhD at the University of Nottingham, and is a regular attendee at the local history seminars.

Speaker: Marilyn Palmer

In the second half of the 19th century, technology played an important role in enabling owners of country houses to achieve a comfortable home which functioned efficiently and largely invisibly. Dwindling personal finances from the late 19th century has meant that the physical evidence of these earliest examples of domestic innovations has often survived rather than being swept away by later modernisation, as was often the case in town houses and middle class dwellings. The owners of many houses, recognising the changing composition of their visiting public, have begun to open up the below stairs area as well as the state rooms and to conserve the remains of earlier technologies. 

Marilyn is now an Emeritus Professor of Industrial Archaeology at Leicester University having served as Head of the School of Archaeology and Ancient History from 2000 to 2006.

Speaker: Hannah Nicholson

Fake news is often thought of as being a modern phenomenon, spread with the help of social media such as Facebook and Twitter. However, sensationalism is nothing new. During the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, local newspaper editors used a variety of courses and tactics to fill the pages of their publications, spreading gossip and rumours, especially in the run-up to elections.

Dr Nicholson graduated from the University of Leicester, and subsequently completed an MA and PhD at the University of Nottingham. She has been a regular attendee at the Saturday morning seminars. 

Speaker: Michael Crane

Michael will be discussing some of the longer term changes and developments in Derby through the industrial revolution. The city has never really had a major academic study of its role in industrialisation, and Michael's work helps us to understand both the process, and the people involved.

After a career in teaching, Dr Crane has recently completed a PhD in the Department of History.

Speaker: Professor David Stocker and Dr Paul Everson

A study, bringing together previous and some new published work, regarding what can be said about the establishment of urban churches, and therefore about urbanism more generally in the 10th-12th centuries, using the large body of new information made available through the cataloguing of the AHRC-funded Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture Project. Amongst other considerations, they argue that this alternative environment and legal background imposed unusual relationships on such monastic houses, both with their patrons and with the animals of the Chase.

Speaker: John Beckett

Jesse Boot purchased the Highfields estate in 1919. Part 1 of this seminar will look at how the twin parks (University and Highfields) were constructed in the 1920s. Part 2 will be an exercise in reconstructing Boot's original motives, and why his initial plans had to be abandoned.

John Beckett has been researching the role of Jesse Boot in Nottingham since he started work on the University of Nottingham history published in 2016.

14 Oct 2017

Speaker: Jenny Alexander 

Lincoln Cathedral's Angel Choir was built in the second half of the 13th century both to provide a site for St Hugh's shrine and to promote his cult. By the end of the Middle Ages the part of the choir closest to the shrine had become the chosen burial site for royalty, senior clergy, and the nobility and this impacted on the role of the shrine within the building. Not all of the tombs survive but they can be reconstructed from drawings in the Book of Monuments and from other sources and it is now possible to re-examine both the form of the tombs and their relationship to the new building work underway in the cathedral during the 14th century. 

Dr Alexander is Principal Teaching Fellow, History of Art, at the University of Warwick.

11 November 2017

Speaker: Richard Gaunt 

The Pentrich Rebellion failed in its intended purpose of triggering a nationwide revolution on the evening of 9–10 June 1817. However, the story does not end there. In this seminar, timed to coincide with the bicentenary of the execution of three of the Pentrich ringleaders, Dr Richard Gaunt reconsiders the aftermath of the rebellion. Using evidence provided by court transcripts, newspapers, spy evidence, and estate records he investigates not only what happened to the identified rebels themselves but to the families and villagers of Pentrich and district whom they left behind. 

Dr Gaunt is Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Nottingham

13 Jan 2018

Speaker: David Crook

An illustrated talk about the origins of the legend associating the outlaw with the Nottinghamshire village of Edwinstowe, followed by an introduction to some of the sources for the history and geographical location of the legend in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire and elsewhere. 

Dr David Crook is an Honorary Research Fellow in History at the University of Nottingham following a career at The National Archives. He is engaged in writing a book on the origins of the Robin Hood legend.

10 Feb 2018

Speaker: James Wright

Rising from a Lincolnshire family of limited political influence, Ralph Cromwell became one of the most significant figures of the mid-fifteenth century. Linking structure to biography, the personality of a man on the rise from Lord of the Manor to Lord Treasurer of England is reflected in the power statements of his castles, great houses and ecclesiastical buildings. This can be contrasted with glimpses of the vulnerabilities and status anxieties bound up in his social identity with emphatic, yet revealing architectural statements revolving around his motto, heraldry, livery badges and repeated architectural devices. Those structures which he commissioned then went on to have an extraordinarily powerful legacy which lasted for over 150 years of English architecture. 

James Wright is an expert on castles, and is currently doing a PhD at the University of Nottingham. 

10 Mar 2018

Speaker: Stephen Walker

In the 18th century, the Robinson family established mills to produce cotton thread. They created one of the earliest large-scale industrial complexes in Nottinghamshire. In 1785, they were the first in the world to apply a steam engine to a factory. This session will describe the extent of the physical remains, review evidence for the operation of the mills, and details about the workforce. 

Dr Walker is a retired school teacher who recently completed his PhD at the University of Nottingham. For many years he has been researching the development and operation of the mills, and he has been chair of the Friends of Moor Pond Woods. His work spans historical geography, industrial archaeology, and social history. 

Speaker: Derek Wileman 

This seminar will describe the stories of some of the people who went into Southwell Workhouse, and attempt to show why they were admitted, what happened while they were there, and what happened to them afterwards. There will be a discussion of the documents available to give information for such stories, and the way they can be linked to tell a social history of the people concerned.

Derek Wileman’s first degree was in Physics and Maths. After 30 years teaching Physics he worked as Clinical Audit Officer in Medicine at Nottingham City Hospital. Since retiring he has spent the last 18 years as a volunteer researcher with the National Trust at Southwell Workhouse. At the age of 67 he studied for an MA in English Local History at Leicester University.

Speaker: Chris Brooke

Techniques for the non-destructive examination and analysis of historic buildings and archaeological sites under excavation using electromagnetic sensing methods were first developed at this University during the 1980s. They comprise techniques that can be used to investigate non-visible information including hidden wall paintings and illegible inscriptions.

Dr Christopher Brooke has been an Associate in the Department of History at the University of Nottingham for many years where he is also joint editor for the Southwell and Nottingham Church History project. He is additionally an Hon. Research Fellow at the University of Durham where he continues to develop ground-based and aerial remote sensing techniques for use in archaeology and the study of historic buildings.

Speakers: Marion Caunt, Rosemary Collins and Pauline Woodhouse

Since 2013 a U3A and Heritage Lottery Funded project has been exploring the impact of the First World War on Radcliffe on Trent in Nottinghamshire. Researchers have identified nearly 400 servicemen connected to Radcliffe, written their biographies and explored what happened locally, including the role of village women, opening of war hospitals and creation of a memorial park in memory of an officer who died at Paschendaele. The paper addresses three questions: How do we discover what ordinary people did in the war? How do we present their stories? How was the war experienced by those who participated?

Two sessions:

Session 1 - Bromley House

Speaker: John Beckett

The role of the private subscription library in Nottingham in the development of scientific thinking in the early 19th century. The paper also looks at how over time the library was superseded by other specialist societies and organisations, which themselves linked eventually to the University College which opened in 1881.

Session 2 - Regions of Enlightenment: Women and Scientific Culture in the East Midlands during the Nineteenth Century

Speaker: Paul Elliott 

In Family Fortunes, their well-known study of English middle-class family life, Leonore Davidoff and Catherine Hall argued that an ideology of the private domestic sphere became prominent between 1780 and 1850 and circumscribed female behaviour, while men dominated the public sphere life of the arts and government. This paper examines the degree to which the experience of women in scientific culture between 1780 and 1850 conformed to the separate spheres model.

Speaker: Julie Attard

Dr Julie Attard is Project Development Officer for the HLF-funded Charnwood Roots project based at the University of Leicester. The project is part of the ongoing work in Leicestershire for the Victoria County History. In this seminar she will be talking about the project, its origins and current organisation, and looking at what is coming out of the ongoing research into this area of north-west Leicestershire.

Two sessions:

Session 1 - Farming on the Templar estates in Lincolnshire following the arrest of the Order in 1308

Speaker: Mike Jefferson

After the arrest of the Templars on 10 January 1308 their estates fell into the hands of Edward II and were managed through his agents. The estates’ accounts from the period 1308–13 give a detailed insight into the farming practised by the Order and initially continued by the king's agents. It is the response of the Templars to the Lincolnshire landscape which forms the focus of the presentation.

Session 2 - Public Ritual in English Towns, c.1630–1670

Speaker: Amy Calladine

The period 1630–1670 was characterised by intense political and religious dislocation as Britain experienced civil war, republican rule and, finally, Restoration of the Monarchy. At such times, urban centres used moments of large-scale ritual practice to negotiate these unfamiliar circumstances. Focusing on a number of ceremonial forms including civic entries, public procession and the marking of regime change, the talk explores the nature of ritual performance with a special focus on East Midlands towns.

Speaker: Cal Warren (10 Oct 2015)

On the anniversary of the burning of Nottingham Castle in 1831, this session considered the £24m Heritage Lottery Fund redevelopment of the Castle, and explored some of the issues which face curators and gallery designers, in transforming the site into a world-class visitor attraction.

Speaker: Dr Judith Mills

Judith reflected on her recent research into Robin Hood, and considered his changing role in popular legend as a champion of social justice.

Speaker: Sir Neil Cossons (14 Nov 2015)

The future of museums and how we care for historic places is the subject of animated debate, the result of changing tastes and attitudes and severe reductions in public funding. What do we wish to take forward from the past to illuminate and inspire the future? Are we burdened by too much? And, who pays and how?

Sir Neil Cossons, former Chairman of English Heritage, surveyed the options.

Speaker: Dr Helen Fenwick (12 Dec 2015)

The Beresford's Lost Villages website was made possible by a generous legacy bequeathed to the University of Hull by Professor Maurice Beresford, and initially it concentrated on settlements identified in his 1971 volume Deserted Medieval Villages. The seminar reviewed the work undertaken creating the website and the sources used to investigate deserted medieval settlement, considered the task of updating the original gazetteer and the question, ‘Is the study of deserted settlement still relevant today?’

Helen is co-director of the ‘Beresford’s Lost Villages’ project. Her main research interests include medieval settlements and landscape. She lectures in Archaeology at Hull.

Speaker: Dr Naomi Sykes (30 Jan 2016)

Very little of the fauna that we see around us today is ‘native’. Most of the animal species found in Britain arrived from elsewhere: some brought purposefully by migrating peoples, some arriving as stowaways, whilst others were sent as gifts from far-off lands. Whatever the case, each animal is a reflection of British cultural history. However, as many animals arrived in the long-forgotten past, reconstructing the timing, circumstances and impact of their introduction cannot be achieved through a single discipline, it requires the integration of different sources of evidence. The seminar reviewed the methods and results of recent research on animal introductions to Britain, considering when, how and, most importantly, why these animals were brought here.

Naomi is senior lecturer in zooarchaeology (the study of ancient animals) in the Department of Archaeology, University of Nottingham, also director of the AHRC-funded ‘Fallow Deer Project’ and co-director of the AHRC-funded ‘Chicken Project’.

Speaker: Dr Joan Knight (20 Feb 2015)

In the summer of 1918, as the First World War was entering its final stages, a great plague of influenza erupted and spread around the globe, killing millions. This session considered how the pandemic entered the East Midlands, from its first appearance amongst the troops on the battlefields of Europe, and how it affected the region's civilian population.

Joan is a tutor at Loughborough University and is currently involved in the Victoria County History Trust's Charnwood Roots project.

Speaker: Dr Anne Woodcock

Methodist membership was an important personal commitment, both initially and on a continuing basis. However, the circuit records relating to four parishes in south Nottinghamshire reveal that much of it was short-term and often conceal a significant level of turnover.

Anne Woodcock is retired, interested in local history, and has recently completed her doctorate on Methodism in south Nottinghamshire.

Speaker: Dr Dave Appleby (19 Mar 2015)

David Appleby talked about his research into the demobilised soldiery of the British Civil Wars, both in the 1640s and after the Restoration, and how this research has fed into the creation and future plans of the new National Civil War Centre in Newark. The discussion then moved on to consider the current state of Civil War and Restoration historiography.

Dr Appleby is Lecturer in Early Modern British History at the University of Nottingham, and an historical adviser to the National Civil War Centre.

Speaker: Ellis Morgan (11 Oct 2014)

Ellis joined the Southwell Community Archaeology Group in 2012/3 and their All our Stories project on the history and archaeology of the Burgage Green area of the town.

Ellis led the history research group and his colleague, Matt Beresford, the archaeology group. The seminar covered such questions as what was discovered, how it was found, how not to organise a history group, and why archaeologists need historians and vice versa!

Speaker: Professor Carolyn Steedman (8 Nov 2014)

How do you write about the local, when you’re not a local? How do you determine a context to one working man’s life, lived out in Nottinghamshire in the era of Luddism?

The seminar explored the questions and decisions that framed Professor Steedman’s account of Joseph Woolley (c.1770–1840) the framework knitter from Clifton who lived close to magistrate Sir Gervase Clifton who also kept records of a working life, though of a very different kind.

Carolyn Steedman is Emeritus Professor of History at Warwick University.

Speaker: Steph Mastoris (13 Dec 2014)

The Welbeck Atlas comprises more than 80 maps based on surveys of the extensive estates of William Cavendish, Earl (and, later, Duke) of Newcastle. These were commissioned from the surveyor William Senior between 1629 and 1640 and provide an important source for landscape studies in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and four other English counties. This seminar described the origins and structure of the Atlas and its relationship to Senior's written surveys.

Steph Mastoris currently works for the National Museum of Wales.

Speaker: Dr Steve Hollowell (3 Jan 2015)

New legislation places a time limit on claiming lost ways and having them placed on the Definitive Map – the legal record of public rights of way. While Parliamentary inclosure provides strong evidence for the existence of these lost routes, there are many other historical sources which are able to add to the story. We examined the historical background to the early ways and the legal jungle of proving their existence in order to have them restored.

Steven Hollowell is an historian and Public Rights of Way Consultant.

Speaker: Professor Michael Jones and team (14 Feb 2015)

The White Book is a collection of the privileges, title deeds and other records relating to the Collegiate church of St Mary, Southwell, the Chapter which governed it and their estates.

Begun around 1335, it was largely completed by 1460. Many relate to lands acquired by the Chapter, especially along the Vale of Trent. The White Book thus furnishes valuable evidence not simply for medieval ecclesiastical history but for social and economic developments, including local impacts during the period of the Black Death.

Brian Davey (14 Mar 2015)

The seminar surveyed the debate about law, magistrates and summary justice in the 18th century as the context for the study of the notebooks of Thomas Dixon of Riby (1787–1798). The second part of the seminar examined the unusually full sources available for the study of crime, courts and policing in the wapentake of Bradley Haverstoe (the rural hinterland of Grimsby) between 1830 and 1850.

Brian Davey is a local historian with a special interest in crime and policing. He taught Regional and Local History courses for the University of Hull and the University of Lincoln.