What's New

If you fancy going to a heritage event this new year, we’ve got you covered! Here’s some events going on this January:

Until Monday 13th January: An exhibition at Bilsthorpe Museum called ‘Mining Stories’ is currently running and will be open until 13th January. This exhibition allows you to immerse yourself in stories of the mines using Walkman’s. For more details, visit the event page here.

Tuesday 14th January: The librarians at Inspire will be hosting online one-to-one meetings to help you discover your family history. This event is free to attend, but booking is required. Spots are limited so book your place here.

Friday 17th January: Opening on 17th January, an exhibition at the University of Nottingham Museum featuring incredible Iron Age artefacts. ‘This exhibition will feature a fascinating range of everyday objects from both hillforts, with a spotlight on a spectacular hoard of chariot fittings from Burrough Hill’. The exhibition is free to attend, and booking is not required. For more information, visit the event page here.

Wednesday 22nd January: A talk by ‘Local historian and retired theatre consultant Bob Massey unravels the story behind some of the fascinating [Victorian] optical toys and how they informed the work of our earliest cinema pioneers’. This talk at Beeston Library is £3 per person and booking is required. Book your place here.

Thursday 23rd January: 'Find out how to party like it’s 1639, in this fascinating talk about the role of dance in Stuart England' at the National Civil War Centre in Newark. Booking is required and tickets cost £10 per person. Book your place here.

Thursday 30th January: ‘Curious to learn more about your family's history? Join one of [the Inspire] librarians for a small group session, where they will demonstrate some of the key features of this valuable online research tool’. This event takes place at Kirkby-in-Ashfield Library and Learning Centre and is free to attend. Booking is required however so book your place here.

Friday 31st January: Newark's National Civil War Centre's 'Tudor Hall will become Westminster Hall for this interactive performance event in honour of the 400th anniversary of Charles I’s accession to the throne. Take part in the trial and decide if you would sign the warrant to execute a King!' Booking is required and tickets cost £10 per person. Book your place here.

Above: A projecting praxinoscope, 1882 (by Louis Poyet, from La Nature, Public Domain)

November is absolutely full of exciting and educational heritage events. If you're looking for something to do this autumn, check out our list below for some inspiration!

Friday 1st: 'Do you have any questions about what conservators do? Or about how the Nottinghamshire Archives care for the archive? The Nottinghamshire Archive conservators will be available to answer your questions online via Instagram on Friday 1st November between 10am and 3pm.’ To find out how to submit your questions, visit the event page here.

Saturday 2nd: Head to the Bassetlaw Museum ‘for a poignant presentation that delves into the life of Kveta Lefkovicova, a 16-year old girl, who escaped from Prague a year after the start of World War II. Kveta was one of the few who survived. Tragically, her entire family perished in Majdanek, a Nazi German concentration camp in occupied Poland. Kveta’s story will be brought to life by her daughter Gillian, who will bring some of her mother’s treasured keepsakes, such as two rings and a jewellery box made out of scrap metal in the prison camp'. Entry is free but booking is required. Book your place here.

Tuesday 5th: Join Professor Mark Pearce of the University of Nottingham for a talk that ‘will explore the reasons why more than 200 Bronze Age metal objects were deposited in the River Trent, and what these weapons – many of which are clearly of high status – can tell us about the warrior chiefs and their bands who lived along the river in the second and early first millennium BC’. Booking is required, prices vary from free to £3. Book your place here.

Thursday 7th: ‘Celebrate the dark and learn about the dangers of the night in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries’. The National Civil War Centre in Newark, will be hosting ‘Evening Talk: Female Highwaymen’ in which you will ‘find out more about the real renegade women who might have robbed you of your purse’! Tickets cost £10 and booking is required. Book your place here.

Friday 8th: Head to the National Civil War Centre in Newark for a comedy performance of Professor Von Goosechaser’s Halloween lecture about the strange beliefs of the seventeenth century. Tickets cost £10 and booking is required. Book your place here.

Sunday 17th: ‘Join Byron expert Geoffrey Bond at Southwell Minster as he explores the life and times of Nottinghamshire’s most famous poet. The Newstead Abbey Singers will also perform songs, setting some of his poems to music’. The event is free, and booking is not required. For more information about the event, visit the event page here.

Monday 18th: ‘To coincide with the new exhibition at Creswell Crags’, their curators will be hosting the online talk ‘The Science of the Ice Age’ which will answer questions such as: How do we know how cold and how warm it was? What can be used to reconstruct past vegetation? How do we know when things happened? And what can we understand about the animals that survived the Ice Age? Tickets are free but booking is required. Book your free place here.

Above: Pit pony working in the mines. (By Heinrich Börner (1864 – 1943) - Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)

Tuesday 19th: A talk by Nottinghamshire County Council's wonderful Historic Buildings Officer Janine Buckley at the Mansfield Central Library 'celebrates the tremendous efforts of the county’s pit ponies’. ‘With first-hand accounts from former pony drivers and freshly discovered documentary and photographic evidence, this talk delves deeply into the lives of a workforce that gave all they had. Learn how their working conditions changed over time, and how they are remembered by their former handlers’. Tickets cost £3 and booking is required. You will also receive a copy of Janine's new book 'Colliery Stables and the Nottinghamshire Pit Pony'Book your place here.

Wednesday 20th: ‘Join former miner and mining historian, Phil Whitehead, at Worksop Library to hear tales of engineering, endeavour and enterprise from the area’s earliest colliery’, Shireoaks Colliery. ‘It existed for 137 years and touched the lives of thousands of local people – perhaps more than any employer in the locality’. Tickets cost £3 and booking is required. Book your place here.

Wednesday 20th: Our Historic Buildings Officer Janine Buckley will also be hosting a ‘talk celebrating the pre-eminence of the horse on Nottinghamshire’s country estates’ at Beeston Library. In the event, you will be able to ‘explore our legacy of highly architectural stables and discover how horses experienced these spaces’. Tickets cost £3 and booking is required. You will also receive a copy of Janine's new book 'Country House Stables of Nottinghamshire'.Book your place here.

Friday 22nd: At Bassetlaw Museum, ‘local author and historian Adrian Gray will give an illustrated and entertaining introduction to his new book, ‘The Scandalous Lives of the Sherwood Forest Nobility’. Featuring ‘Clumber, Rufford, Thoresby, Welbeck, Newstead and perhaps the less well known Bestwood and Worksop Manor. Adrian will cover a range of scandals including lustful affairs, disastrous marriages, vast sums lost in gambling and even some political corruption’. This event is free but booking is required. Book your place here.

Friday 22nd: At the National Civil War Centre in Newark, ‘join costume historian Meredith Towne find out how to blend in in the seventeenth century. Delve into our dressing up box and make sure you know your doublet from your mantua!’ Tickets cost £10 and booking is required. Book your place here.

Thursday 28th: Aimed at home-educated Key Stage 2 children, Mansfield Museum will be hosting ‘a fun and interactive workshop exploring the incredible story of how humans evolved’. Student will ‘explore important steps in our evolution, like tool-making, language, and culture, along with the genetic changes that make us unique’. Tickets cost £7.50 per child (accompanying adults are free) and booking is required. Book your place here.

Saturday 30th: ‘Meet the National Civil War Centre curators Glyn and Kevin and kick off the festive season with a delicious Christmas cream tea in their café. Join them on a special tour of the galleries; open display cases, handle objects from their collection and find out what’s involved in looking after their treasures’. Tickets cost £25 which includes the cream tea and gallery tour. Booking is required. Book your place here.

There will be some exciting heritage events this October, here is a list of some of our favourites:

1st October: Join the director of the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute, Dr Lindy Crewe, for a fascinating talk ‘Beef and Beer: Working and Feasting on Bronze Age Cyprus’, about the ongoing excavations at Kissonerga-Skalia in western Cyprus. The site ‘a number of pyrotechnical installations and associated finds within a ‘monumental’ complex dating to around 1650 BC’. Located at the Djanogly Theatre, booking is required, and tickets are £3 per person. Book your place here.

3rd October: Opening this Thursday, Lakeside Arts is hosting the ‘Tales from the Caves: Exploring Nottingham’s Underground Stories’ exhibition until March 2025. The exhibition allows you to ‘delve beneath the surface and discover the many-layered history of Nottingham's famous caves and the people who have carved out a life within their walls for over a thousand years’. Booking is not required and entry is free. For more information about the exhibition, visit the event page here.

6th October: The Nottingham Industrial Museum will be hosting a Live Steaming Event this Sunday. During this event, you can watch their ‘extensive collection of working static and portable engines and enjoy the magnificent Basford Beam Engine in steam’. Booking is not required, tickets cost £6 per adult, children under 16 go free. Visit the event page for information here.

9th October: ‘Enjoy a deeper look at the food on the tables of the elite and ordinary people of Stuart England’ with Dr Mark Dawson with his ‘Evening Talk: Food In Seventeenth Century England’, at the National Civil War Centre in Newark. Booking is required and tickets cost £10 per person. Book your place here.

18th October: In another evening talk ‘Newark in the British Civil Wars’ at the National Civil War Centre, ‘meet local historian Stuart Jennings and discover what it was like to live through Newark’s sieges’. Booking is required and tickets cost £10 per person. Book your place here.

18th October: ‘A gin tasting experience with a difference will be on offer’ at D.H. Lawrence Birthplace Museum on October 18th. The Gin and Gaslight event ‘will give guests a taste of Victorian decadence, with a chance to learn about and sample several gins, whilst experiencing this award-winning museum at night. On arrival guests will be greeted by their Victorian hosts with an aperitif, before taking in the magic of the museum and its historic rooms and exhibitions by gas light.’ Booking is required and tickets cost £17.50. Book your place here.

26th October: Southwell’s annual Bramley Apple Festival of Food and Drink returns this October at Southwell Minster. ‘Dozens of stallholders offering all manner of food and drink including pies, chocolates, jams, chutneys, pickles, sausages and much much more’. Booking is not required, suggested entry fee of £3 (donation). For more information, visit the event page here.

26th October: Also celebrating Southwell’s Bramley Apple Day, the Workhouse and Infirmary will be hosting festival activities ‘with the longest apple peel competition. There will be multiple apple themed prizes throughout the day. Apple printing will also be available’. Booking is not required and the activities are free, however the fee for access to the property is still in place. For more event information, visit their event page here.

Above: Bramley apples. (By Red58bill - Own work, CC BY 3.0)

This coming September will be very exciting for heritage lovers in Nottinghamshire with the return of Heritage Open Days’ annual community festival!

The festival, which has been running for over 25 years in the UK, provides individuals with the chance to get involved in heritage through exclusive local events. This festival contributes to the European Heritage Days in which 50 signatory states celebrate diversity, culture, and heritage every September.

Heritage Open Days aims to celebrate heritage and community by organising talks, workshops, and tours of historical sites. All the events in this festival are free. This includes rare visits to selected sites that normally ask for an entry fee. For example, usually closed on Sundays, the DH Lawrence Birthplace Museum will be opening its doors to the public, for free, on Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th September. Other sites included in this festival are Trent Bridge cricket ground, Newstead Abbey, Bromley House Library, and the Workhouse and Infirmary. Visit the Heritage Open Days website for the full list.

Running from Friday 6th September until Sunday 15th September, there are over 70 exciting events happening in the Nottinghamshire area.

Above: 22 & 24 Kirkgate, Newark. To learn more about timber buildings in Newark, there will be a guided tour of Newark's timber framed heritage on Sunday 8th and Sunday 15th September. Visit the event information here.

Here are some of the events we’re excited about:

• Join the University of Nottingham’s Manuscripts and Special Collections team for a captivating journey through time. In a talk titled 'On the Road: Nottinghamshire's Early Tourists in Europe and Beyond', you will follow in the footsteps of early travellers from Nottinghamshire who ventured abroad on the 18th and 19th centuries. The talk takes place on Friday 6th September, booking is required. Book your place here.
• Nottingham Trent University will be offering an opportunity to visit the original Bramley apple tree in Southwell, Nottinghamshire on Saturday 7th September. No booking required. For more event information, visit the event page here.
• Join a guided tour covering the rich history of a beautiful community-owned wildlife site of Spa Ponds Nature Reserve that sits on the edge of the historic Clipstone Deer Park near Mansfield. ‘The site's story connects with Sherwood Forest, King's Clipstone, and King John's Palace’. The tour will take plan on Saturday 14th September, booking is required. Book your place here.
• A demonstration on how to maintain and repair historic buildings will be hosted in Newark by Nottinghamshire Buildings Preservation Trust and Newark Civic Trust. ‘There will be demonstrations of the skills and techniques required and the chance to get hands on with some of the skills. There will be stalls around the demonstration area related to the experts and the groups involved’. This event is due to take place on Saturday 14th September, no booking required. For more information, visit the event page here.
• ‘Celebrate nature and heritage at Mill Waters, Sutton in Ashfield, with free traditional crafts demos and activities, nature-based crafts for kids, story trail, heritage display, traditional games, abseil of England's oldest railway viaduct, live music and more’. This event takes place on Saturday 14th September, no booking required. For more event information, visit the event page here.

To find out about all the events being offered in Nottinghamshire, including dates and booking information, please visit Heritage Open Days.

Please be aware that free entry to some sites is only on specific set days and some events may require booking.

If you’re looking for something to do with the family this school holiday or just something special to do during the summer, take a look at our list of heritage events running in the county this August:

Every weekend of August: Head to Sherwood Forest for the special annual Robin Hood Festival scheduled for every weekend of August. Each weekend features a different themed event: ‘Knights Ride Back into Sherwood’ (3rd and 4th August), ‘Fantasy in the Greenwood’ (10th and 11th August), ‘Inspiring Wildlife’ (17th and 18th August), and ‘The Outlaws’ Return and Nottinghamshire Day Festival’ (24th, 25th and 26th August). Entertainment includes ‘displays of jousting on horseback and medieval hand-to-hand combat, archery, historical re-enactment, music, comedy, children’s entertainment and much, much more’. Please be aware there is a parking charge of £15. For more information on the festival weekend events, click here.

Throughout August: ‘The D.H. Lawrence Festival is coming very soon with a huge variety of events across heritage, arts and culture, music and literature and more’ at the D.H. Lawrence Birthplace Museum as well as other locations across Eastwood and Broxtowe. For the full festival information, click here.

1st – 3rd August: Creswell Crags is hosting a variety of prehistoric workshops which gives you the opportunity to learn and practice a range of techniques used to manipulate natural material once practiced by our prehistoric ancestors with professional archaeologists. Tickets cost £95 per person. Here is the full list of workshops:

• 1st August: ‘Discover the ancient use of textiles through an exploration of techniques and discussion with experimental archaeologist, Sally Pointer. You will also make an antler needle (from naturally shed antler) using flint tools to take home’. Book your place on the Introduction to Prehistoric Textiles Workshop here.
• 1st August: ‘Create your own Stone Age jewellery using a range of techniques that would have been available to makers over 10,000 years ago’. You’ll begin with an introductory talk into personal ornamentation in the Stone Age. Next, take a closer look at what artefacts have been found in Britain. Then, you’ll doing some experiential archaeology, working with stone age tools to discover how these artefacts would have been made to create jewellery of your own to take home. Book your place on the Prehistoric Jewellery Making Workshop here.
• 1st and 3rd August: ‘Discover the art of the oldest craft in the world: Flintknapping. The aim of the day will be for attendees to go home with a variety of different stone tools they have made, new flintknapping skills and a new appreciation for prehistoric technology.’ Book your place on the Flintknapping Workshop here.
• 2nd August: ‘Bone and antler has been used from the start of prehistory up to the modern day for making tools and ornamentation. People in prehistory had a close relationship with the animals these resources came from, what does that tell us about the past? There is a huge selection of prehistoric objects including harpoons, needles, pins, spear points and fish hooks to name a few - which will you choose? Your tools to make these replicas will include sandstone files and flint tools, just like in the Stone Age’. Book your place on the Bone and Antler Carving Workshop here.
• 3rd August: ‘Explore the evidence for nets in prehistory, compare ancient and modern tools, and learn how to set up a rectangular or round net before starting work on a natural fibre net bag to take home with you’. Book your place on the Net Making Workshop here.

3rd August: Southwell Minster has ‘teamed up Southwell Workhouse and the Town Council to bring you a Family Fun Day in celebration of 140 years since becoming a Cathedral town. There will be a Victorian theme throughout, with costumed characters to meet, tower tours, games, crafts and activities provided by the Minster team and Southwell Workhouse. The local shops and businesses are getting involved with a shops trail through the town, and we hope it will be an anniversary for everyone to enjoy’. No booking required and entrance to the Cathedral is free (Attendance on the Tower Tours requires booking, click here). For more information, visit the event page here.

15th August: At the National Holocaust Centre and Museum, ‘join Jonathan Smith as he offers a talk on his extensive collection of vintage postcards, pre- and post-Holocaust.’ Contemporary postcards showed ‘images of diverse and settled Jewish communities across Europe and the world. Postcards also show these in both prosperous or poverty-stricken detail.’ Please note that you will require both an admission and an event ticket (event tickets are £10 for adults). Not suitable for children under 14. Book your place here.

Above: Flint Knapping. (By Tonto National Monument - Flint-knapping Demonstration, CC BY 2.0)

Heritage sites hosting kids activities in the summer holidays:

From 27th July to 1st September: ‘Enjoy a range of events and activities for a great day out at Newstead Abbey and Gardens’. Entry into the historic house will be free for kids this summer and events include pirate days and pirate trails. Find out more here.

From 30th July to 30th August: Head down to the Bassetlaw Museum for amazing daily events for kids. Events include Notts Wildlife Trust Activities, CHAOS Science Roadshow, Legos days and many craft days. All events are free, and no booking is required. Find out more about what events will be on here.