News - Top prize goes to museum of county's mechanical history

A MUSEUM dedicated to showcasing the mechanical history of Nottingham landed the top prize at an awards ceremony.


The county's best historical museums were among the award winners at the Nottinghamshire Heritage Awards, at the Lakeside Arts Centre.

The top prize, for Heritage Site of the Year, went to the Nottingham Industrial Museum at Wollaton Park, with their collection including restored Raleigh bicycles and lace making machinery.


Councillor David Trimble, Nottingham City Council's portfolio holder for leisure, culture and tourism, said: "This is fantastic news and a great accolade for our 75 volunteers who have made it possible for the Industrial Museum site to re-open this year.

"The museum offers an insight into Nottingham's rich industrial heritage and the collections include transport, steam engines, agricultural machinery and technology from the city's past, plus some of the most important lace making machinery which put Nottingham on the textile map.

"We're delighted that over the past year we have been able to work with such a hugely enthusiastic group of volunteers who have committed thousands of hours to develop their skills and make improvements to the museum and revitalise the museum's collections."

Other winners on Wednesday included the Nottinghamshire Archives, which took the prize for Inspiration Award for Best Special Project and Outstanding Achievement Award.

Team manager Mark Dorrington said: "We are obviously very pleased with the awards – we don't just keep records here, we are keen to share the county's history with as many people as possible."

Other winners included the Mansfield Museum, the Bilsthorpe Heritage Society, and The Queen's Royal Lancers and Nottinghamshire Yeomanry Museum.



Doctor Kevin Gould, principal lecturer in late medieval and early modern history at Nottingham Trent University, was on the judging panel and paid tribute to the winners.



He said: "Choosing the winners from such a strong field has been an extremely difficult task."

From: http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/prize-goes-museum-county-s-mechanical-history/story-16567764-detail/story.html

Event - Project aims to throw new light on Dark Ages ‘Thing’ (Birklands)

CASH from the Heritage Lottery Fund will allow a two-year research project to be carried out to uncover the history of a Viking assembly site in Sherwood Forest.

The “Friends of Thynghowe” group has been awarded £49,900 to launch a study entitled “Thynghowe and the forgotten heritage of Sherwood” in the Birklands, near Worksop.

In January, a Lidar survey will be carried out, using optical remote sensing technology.

Volunteers will then be recruited to look at the results of the survey and also use archives and other sources to discover the area’s history.

The project will have a public launch and display at the beginning of March at Mansfield Museum.

Lynda Mallett, one of the project managers, said: “We aim to include people who would not normally participate in these sort of activities for all sorts of reasons.

“We have funding to pay for transport where required, and even carer support for those who have elderly parents or children.”

The Friends of Thynghowe group was formed seven years ago from members of the three local history groups, after Stuart Reddish and Lynda Mallett rediscovered a Viking Assembly site called a “Thyng” or “Thing” deep in Sherwood Forest.

During the last seven years the group have worked hard to research the area and to bring it to national and international attention.

Emma Sayer, head of the Heritage Lottery Fund for the East Midlands, said: “This is a fascinating site, this project has the potential to open up our understanding of the history of Sherwood Forest.”

From: http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/around-yorkshire/local-stories/project_aims_to_throw_new_light_on_dark_ages_thing_1_4059982

 

Event - Metal Box exhibition opens at Mansfield Museum

An exhibition celebrating one of the town's biggest ever employers has opened at Mansfield Museum.

Metal Box has produced tins in Mansfield for more than 150 years and once employed more than 1,000 people.

The displays tell the story of the company and its former Rock Valley factory through hundreds of tins, original artwork, photographs and interviews with former employees.

Mansfield Metal Box at the Leeming Street museum runs until 7 January 2012.

From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-15149273 (also video at this site)

Event - Food glorious food at museum (Mansfield)

This year Mansfield Museum’s summer exhibition will be called Our Local Larder: Mansfield Food Past And Present, which will be taking a look at food, marvellous food, in all its guises.

The exhibition will be running from Saturday, August 6, to Saturday, November 26, and displays will be looking at the history of British food and the influence of foreign cuisine on our diet, with plenty of space given to such local specialities as the Gooseberry Pork Pie.

There will be lots of activities on offer throughout the summer including making and decorating your own chef’s hat, food tasting and a full-blown Food Fair.

Jodie Henshaw, museum development officer, said: “As always we would like to involve as many of our visitors in helping put our displays together as possible. We would like people to tell us all about their own family-favourite dishes and if we receive enough we plan to make them up into a modest recipe booklet to sell in the museum to celebrate Nottinghamshire nosh!”

The museum is also on the look-out for the loan of retro and vintage kitchen utensils and recipe books. If you feel you can help with this or any other aspect of what promises to be an intriguing project, ring Jodie Henshaw for an informal chat on 01623 463088.

From: http://www.eastwoodadvertiser.co.uk/lifestyle/theatre/food_glorious_food_at_museum_1_3579709

Event - New exhibition at Mansfield Museum

MANSFIELD Museum’s summer exhibition will be called Our Local Lareder: Mansfield Food, Past and Present.


The exhibition, from 6th August to 26th November, will look at the history of British food and the influence of foreign cuisine on our diet, while visitors will be able to take part in food-themed activities.

Staff also want folk to submit recipes and is on the hunt for the loan of retro and vintage kitchen utensils and recipe books. For details contact 463088.

From: http://www.chad.co.uk/lifestyle/new_exhibition_at_mansfield_museum_1_3514602

News - Mansfield museum the most family friendly in the UK (Guardian Awards)

After being visited by small but dedicated teams of undercover children – and their parents – the Mansfield museum in Nottinghamshire has been declared the most family friendly in the UK.


It won the 2011 Guardian family friendly museum award from a shortlist that included the Abbey House museum, Leeds; the Corinium, Cirencester; the Horniman, south-east London; Kilmartin House, Argyll and the Potteries museum and art gallery, Stoke.

The local authority-run Mansfield museum's collection includes 19th-century porcelain and glass cabinets of stuffed animals.

One of the undercover judging families were Karla Lesingham, from Northampton, and her children Aidan, eight, and Nadia, five.

"She said her children enjoyed the dinosaur exhibits at Mansfield and also the activity trail, which uses a recycled junk character called Eco Dude. "The museum has a happy family feeling," she said. Aidan wrote in the visitor's' book that it was the best museum he'd ever been to.

The award was first given out in 2004 by a charity founded by occasional Guardian writer Dea Birkett after a drama at the Royal Academy when her two-year-old son was shown the exit for shouting "Monster! Monster!" at the Eagle-man statue. Birkett said: "The feedback about Mansfield was fabulous, they treated them as individual families and there wasn't a one-size-fits-all approach. Also, there was no sense of them thinking, 'we've got it right' and then sitting back on their laurels – they change things all the time, they take risks and are very playful.

"I love the fact that the local choirs are invited in to practise, it turns on its head this idea of museums being places for quiet."

The venues are judged against a 20-point manifesto drawn up by Kids in Museums, which includes demands that museums are height aware, and that attendants should never shush.

From: http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2011/apr/08/mansfield-museum-guardian-award-family-friendly

News - Guardian museum award shortlist announced (Mansfield Museum)

Six attractions across the UK have been shortlisted in the 2011 Guardian Family Friendly Museum Award, the winner of which is due to be announced on 7 April.

Abbey House Museum, Leeds; Corinium Museum, Cirencester; Kilmartin House, Argyll; and Horniman Museum, London, are among the museums in the running.

Mansfield Museum, Nottingham; and the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent are also vying for the 2011 Guardian Family Friendly Museum Award.

A panel of experts led by Heritage Lottery Fund chair Dame Jenny Abramsky selected the six museums as part of the award, which is run by charity Kids in Museums.

 

Each shortlisted attraction will be visited anonymously by families and measured against the Kids in Museums Manifesto in order to determine the winner.

From: http://www.attractionsmanagement.com/detail1.cfm?pagetype=detail&subject=news&codeID=249833&site=AM&dom=N

News- Record week at Mansfield Museum

MANSFIELD Museum has enjoyed its most successful Half-Term break for 16 years. During the recent school holiday there were 2,463 visitors to the Museum, beating the previous best of 1,826 set in October 2010.

Curator Liz Weston was delighted at the record-breaking figures: “We were pleased on two counts. Firstly, they indicate that the previous holiday’s figures were not a one-off. And secondly, it was very gratifying to see how long many of our visitors, particularly family groups, stayed – much longer than we would normally expect.”

The increase in numbers might partly be explained by the activities on offer over the holiday. These included a Dinosaur Picnic to tie in with the current Age of the Dinosaurs exhibition. Also available were popular daily drop-in craft sessions to complement the exhibition, including the chance to make your own ready-to-wear dinosaur feet!

Overall visitor figures for February were also higher than any for that month during the same 16 years, with over 5,000 people through the doors.

Age of the Dinosaurs runs until Saturday 19th March with lots of activities for all the family.

From: http://www.chad.co.uk/news/local/record_week_at_mansfield_museum_1_3128395

 

Exhibition - The Dinosaur Footprints Found In Mansfield (Mansfield Museum)

During the last 100 years there have been several discoveries of what were thought to be dinosaur footprints, in the Mansfield area.

Some of the discoveries have a proved to be footprints but, as is the case with most impressions of this kind, no one has been able to identify, beyond doubt, what type of animal actually made the prints.  We can only draw conclusions about what it was like from the footprint itself.  The task of identifying the footprints has been made even more difficult by the fact that no dinosaur remains have been found in the Midlands, except from in Kenilworth Sandstone.  This rock has been found to contain pelycosuar remains, which are about 20 million years older than the footprints found in Mansfield.

The first discovery was made in October 1897 by Mr Francis Holmes in Rock Valley Quarry in Mansfield.  He found a series of footprints forming two double rows, parallel to each other. One row could be followed for about two feet, but the other one could be traced for nearly seven feet.

The first description of these footprints was published in 1906 by George Hickling who suggested that the tracks were made by two animals of the same type, walking side by side.  One was slightly larger than the other – because the lengths of the strides were different. The prints themselves showed that the animal’s weight was taken on the palm (being the deepest imprint) and the hind feet were bigger than the fore feet, each having five toes. The feet were possibly webbed and almost definitely clawed and Hickling also suggested that the animal had an awkward, clumsy gait (because of the irregular spacing of the prints) the animal was named ‘Chelichnus Hicklingi’ an exact match could not be made with other records.

A later examination of these prints by W.A.S Sarjent in 1966 revealed evidence of ‘tail drag’ showing that the tail was not continually touching the ground and was probably relatively short.

It is thought that the animal was not particularly large – its body was probably about 2½ - 3 feet (nearly one metre) long. It wasn’t very active and was quite slow moving. However there is not enough evidence to tell what the animal was; it could have been a predatory amphibian or an herbivorous reptile. These prints are now in the Natural History Museum at WollatonPark in Nottingham.

A second set of footprints was discovered in 1986 at Gregory’s Quarry in Mansfield. These are much larger than those of the Chelichnus Hicklingi but are about the same age, around 250 millions years old.

These prints are not in clearly defined track ways like the pervious set, but groups of three or four closely spaced prints were found probably made by one individual. Most are about 15-16 cm long and wide. The larger ones consist of four forward pointing toes and one big toe which points sideways. The animal trod heavily on the sole of its foot but also using the toes to some extent.

The smaller prints are less well preserved and the number of toes has not been identified yet. They may have been made by a hand or a smaller animal. It is more likely to be a hand because the small prints are over-trodden in parts by the larger ones where they are in the same line as each other.

It is thought that the animal which made the prints was a plant eating reptile, perhaps 2-3 metres in length, similar to plant eating reptiles now. (If it was carnivorous it would have had claws)

We must remember that neither of the animals which made any of the footprints were anything like the better known dinosaurs like the T-Rex. They were smaller and more reptile like and would have looked much less dinosaur like than many people imagine.

We have very little evidence to go by yet towards identifying the animals or being able to discover exactly what it looked like.

The Author Of This Article Is Unknown

The dinosaur footprints can been seen on display at Mansfield Museum until Saturday 19 March 2011.

From: http://www.ourmansfieldandarea.org.uk/page_id__353_path__.aspx