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This interesting piece comes form our Summer 1999 Heritage newsletter:

The year 1649 saw the trial and execution of Charles I, a monarch who had strong connections with Nottinghamshire during the English Civil War, especially Newark and Southwell. Centuries later, the start of the 21st century saw the climax of the anniversary celebration of events across the whole of the country, for groups involved in Civil War re-enactment – people who in their thousands recreate the life and battles of the 17th century. Events began in 1992, with the raising of the King’s Standard at Nottingham Castle, and the people of Nottingham continued to participate in events just as they did in the actual conflict, following in their ancestors’ footsteps!

Many people may have heard of Lucy Hutchinson, who wrote a famous set of memoirs describing the life of her husband John. John Hutchinson was the governor of Nottingham Castle, which was held by the Parliamentarians during the war. But as his portrait shows, he looked a long way from the stereotypical Roundhead! John Hutchinson, who lived in Owthorpe before the war, took control of the city at the start of the war and became Governor in the summer of 1643. He was also given charge of a regiment of foot soldiers. 3 companies of ‘Nottingham’ infantry took part in the Second siege of Newark, and these were probably soldiers from Hutchinson’s own regiment, based at Nottingham Castle.

Hutchinson was also present in 1646, when Newark – the last major Royalist garrison in the region – surrendered to the Scots in May. The Royalist governor at the time was Sir John Belasyse. His own personal regiment, again of foot, also took part in the summer of 1642, again from Nottinghamshire men, and also by soldiers from Yorkshire. It was part of the ‘Oxford Army’, the main Royalist field army, and fought in many of the major engagements of the First civil war, up to Naseby, in Northamptonshire, in 1645.

In various major re-enactment societies today, both these regiments still exist, Hutchinson’s being in the historically correct ‘Northern Association’ – echoing a group of counties that were brigaded together in Parliamentarian organisation over 375 years ago. Belasyse’s also exist, wearing all-blue uniforms that we know were worn by the ‘Oxford Army’, and carrying the colours that research has shown as being most likely those carried by their forbearers.

Maybe today, within these recreated regiments, there exists people who are the descendants of the soldiers of Nottinghamshire, who fought for different reasons beneath different flags, over 375 years ago!

This great article comes from our Spring 2000 Heritage newsletter:

Many of you will remember the days when going to the cinema meant a trip to the local ‘fleapit’. These were often large, impressive looking buildings that could accommodate a large section of the local community in one go. Some have been converted into bingo halls or warehouses and a few still retain their original interior decoration. The most fabulous and complete examples have been protected as listed buildings for some time now.

The cinema industry began in the 1890’s when the first shows were put on in small music halls and travelling fairs. The early films were made from highly combustible material and fires were a regular hazard. It wasn’t until the 1909 Cinematograph Act that the first ‘safe’ purpose-built buildings were constructed. By 1914, there were already some 3,500 cinemas across Britain. The ‘showman’s booth’ design was most common, with elaborate frontages behind which there would be a hall with a barrel-vaulted ceiling, panelled walls and, in more elaborate cases, a rear balcony. Names like ‘Electric’, ‘Picture Palace’, and ‘Imperial’ were typical, while the name ‘Coronation’ indicated a 1911 opening date. The Picture Palace, Long Row in Nottingham is a good example, dating to 1912, with its ornate front, decorated with marble and tile.

Following the First World War, a second generation of new larger venues were built. The Elite on Upper Parliament Street in Nottingham had an auditorium which could seat 1,500 people when it opened in 1921. Meanwhile in America, cinemas were even larger, incorporating the ‘splayed’ auditorium layout, and in 1927 the era of the ‘talkies’ was ushered in by the film ‘The Jazz Singer’. This was a time of rapid technological development and big business deals that produced the international chains like the ‘Empires’, and the British ‘Gaumonts’ and ‘Odeons’. Other Nottinghamshire cinemas from the 1920’s include the Majestic in Retford.

By the middle of the 1930’s and following the Second World War, the ‘Modern’ style came to be the one favoured by British cinema architects. Although essentially ‘international’ in style, regional variations are still visible, the Capitol in Radford is said to have Germanic influences, while the Regent in Kirkby has a softer ‘arts and crafts’ feel to it.

English Heritage have previously looked at cinemas that might be worthy of listing. They focused on pre-WWII cinemas or ones built before 1960 that have remained unaltered. Only the best examples of the nation’s cinemas were listed; for the rest, acknowledgement of their local important was more appropriate.

We already know about many of the old cinemas of the county. Here are some examples:

The Byron, Hucknall

The Regent, Kirkby

The Majestic, Retford

The Capitol, Elite and Picture Palace, Nottingham

Stanford Hall Cinema

The Strand, Market Warsop

This lovely article comes from our Winter 1999 Heritage Newsletter:

Quoting from Celia Fiennes, the trouble with Mansfield is that ‘there is nothing remarkable here’, an opinion echoed by a later commentator, Roy Christian who remarked that it is a ‘pity that this quite pleasant town that has had a market since 1277…should have so few distinguished buildings, though its locally quarried white and red sandstone has added distinction to such buildings elsewhere as the Houses of Parliament and St. Pancras Station’. There is, however, evidence to counter such views not only in the buildings that unfortunately have gone but also in those that are still standing. We shall look at one building in Mansfield and see what made it remarkable.

The Mansfield Public Baths were erected in 1853 near the corner site of Bath Street and Littleworth. Even though they have been demolished, it is fitting that they have been replaced by the Water Meadows Swimming Centre, thereby continuing the watery theme! They were built by the architect C.J. Neale and builder C. Lindley, when the population of England was steadily increasing, with a major growth in the population of England and Wales from around 8 million at the beginning of the century to over 32 million towards the end. The building was constructed from a local material, the grey Mansfield stone which was used in the building of the Houses of Parliament, as Roy Christian pointed out.

Barbara Gallon has given us a fascinating insight into how the original baths served the public before replacement by the modern version. Their purpose was arguably more important in that they provided facilities which the majority of the patrons would not have possessed. Baths and showers could be had at varying costs depending on the class of ‘cleaning’ required, as well as whether towels were hired out or not (with the charge of 3d for the pleasure) and the time of day one went for one’s toilet. For example, first class warm bath and use of warm towels cost 6d, whereas second class use cost 4d, whilst cheapest of all was a third class bath with only one towel provided for 2d. for using the swimming pool, 1d or 2d was charged depending on the time of day. The entrance hall was reputedly quite spacious, with the ladies’ area running off to the right and divided into first and second class bathing area. The gentlemen’s section was to the left of the entrance hall, again offering different classes of bathing.

The photograph shows how the building looked in August 1969, markedly changed – four decorative chimney stacks had been removed and modern windows replaced the stone mullioned originals. Ornate iron railings used to flank the building, only the wall gate piers remain as evidence of their former glory.

This lovely little article originates from our Winter 1999 newsletter:

Bells are part of our culture, and references abound:- ‘Ding-dong bell, Pussy’s in the well’, ‘Great Tom is cast…’, ‘…for whom the bell tolls’, ‘the sunken bells of lost Atlantis ring’, to name but a few.

The sound of bells was more common in medieval England than today; calling people to services, to work or play, to wake or sleep, or put out their fires in their thatched homes at curfew (couvre-feu, ‘cover the fire’) in the evening. Bells were rung at baptisms, weddings, funerals and festivals; for joy, sorrow and emergencies. People believed clanging bells drove away the evil spirits of storms, and Spalding Church records show ringers were paid three pence for ‘ringing when the tempest was’.

At Claughton, Lancs., a bell survives bearing the date 1296, and even older ones remain; the earliest were long and narrow in shape. In the 17th century, improvements in hanging and tuning bells to a musical scale led to change-ringing (unknown outside England).

Molten bell-metal, an alloy of copper and tin, was poured into moulds lined with cow or horse manure (still used today) at the foundry. The bells often carry beautiful lettering, inscriptions, names, foundry marks; things of great interest and beauty but rarely seen. The great frames on which bells were hung in the bell-tower were designed and constructed by expert carpenters using massive oak timbers, hand-sawn, split, adzed and joined together with mortice and tenon joints secured by one inch oak pegs.

At the dawn of the 21st century, belling ringing was given a tremendous boost by the prospect of ringing in the millennium. All over England, foundries were casting new bells, bell-hangers were improving existing bells and hung new ones, and new recruits were trained in the art of bell ringing. There are 5000 churches in England with 5 or more bells, and Southwell Minster has 13! But let us not forget the little villages; at Headon-cum-Upton there is just one bell, although two were recorded in 1740. The inscription should read ‘CUM VOCO VENITE’ (‘come when I call’) but the last word is spelt ‘VENITI’ and some of the Gothic capital letters are placed sideways or upside down. The bell is thought to be late 16th century, but the magnificent two-bay frame may be earlier.

This articles comes from our Winter 1998 newsletter:

Imagine being dressed in your smartest regalia, out for a stroll after a large Sunday roast, surveying your fine territory and gardens, when, oops, looking out across the well-cut lawns, you stumble, lose your footing and fall flat, while your friends and family around you have a good giggle at your expense. This could be the fate for anyone walking along in a garden ever since the turn of the eighteenth century, and the wicked culprit – the ha-ha.

The first ha-has were seen in England during the late seventeenth century and regarded as a way of seeing the garden landscape as well as the wilderness beyond it, where landscape architecture was becoming a rising feature of the well-to-do and their gardens. Whereas garden walls would restrict the prospect of what a person could see across the land, the ha-ha was viewed as something which wouldn’t limit what the eye could see and gave an awakening to sensations and curiosity where, according to the inventors of the ha-ha, Bridgman and Eyres – Royal Gardeners of Chiswick Park, variety and concealment were the pre-requisites of the art of landscape.

‘The destruction of walls for boundaries and the invention of fosses – an attempt then deemed so astonishing that the common people called them Ha! Has! to express their surprise at finding a sudden and unperceived check to their walk’ – Horace Walpole, ‘The History of the Modern Taste on Gardening’.

In reality, the sunken ditch of the ha-ha was used to separate the lawns from the working meadows and fields, though leaving the view of the entire countryside to the eye, while keeping the animals, i.e. the deer and the stock including the cows, out of the gardens. Normally the garden side of the ditch was vertical, faced with brick or stone, while the outer side of the ditch sloped up gently to the normal level of the ground, leaving the view of the countryside beyond free and unhindered.

Nottinghamshire has many examples of ha-has, some date from the early eighteenth century through to the late nineteenth century that have listed building status. They range from 150m long at Shireoaks Hall to over 800m long at Wollaton Hall;1m high at Brackenhurst Hall to up to 3m tall at Kelham Hall; made of bricks at Norwood Park to stone at Stanford Hall; and often incorporating other features of landscape architecture, such as fountains at Hardwick Terrace to gates at Scofton Church.