Event - New Work in Nottinghamshire (Nottingham)

Wednesday 14 November 1pm - Djanogly Art Gallery, Lakeside Arts Centre, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD

Emily Gillott, Andy Gaunt and David Budge - Nottinghamshire County Council Community Archaelogy Team

The team discuss some of their latest projects with community volunteers including their current audit of archaeological sites along the River Trent between Newark and Gainsborough, and their hunt for the Great Fire of Mansfield Woodhouse in 1304.

Come and hear about how these discoveries are providing us with new information about the county. You can also handle objects from the excavations and find out about volunteering for future projects.

All talks take place in the Lecture Theatre next to the Museum at 1pm.

Admission FREE. Places are limited so please book in advance with the Box Office on 0115 846 7777

From: http://www.lakesidearts.org.uk/Exhibitions/ViewEvent.html?e=2070&c=5&d=2305

Book - A grisly history of Nottinghamshire

A new book for children reveals the gory details of the bloody and gruesome history of Nottinghamshire. The book is the Council's first local history book for children, and is entitled ‘A Grisly History of Nottinghamshire in 10 Spine-chilling Chapters’.

The book has been written by local children’s author Michael Cox, and is illustrated by Clive Goddard. It has been published by the council’s Libraries, Archives and Information Publications Group.

The book covers the history of Nottinghamshire in ten grisly and humorous chapters and wonderful illustrations. It reveals:

• Which horrid king dangled screaming children from the walls of Nottingham Castle until they were dead
• Why the River Trent ran red with blood on one sunny summer afternoon in 1487
• How a posse of blood-thirsty Nottinghamshire ‘hard-cases’ massacred woolly mammoths
• Which Nottinghamshire town was blasted to bits in three bloody sieges then devastated by a gruesome plague!

The book will be launched at Arnold Library in Front Street on Wednesday (Nov 16) by Nottinghamshire County Council Vice-Chairman Coun Carol Pepper. She and the author Michael Cox will then be joined by Year 6 pupils from Robert Mellors School.

Pins and needles 

One absorbing tale in the book centres on an unusual case of pins and needles involving Kitty Hudson, a six-year-old from Arnold who lived with her grandfather at St Mary’s Church in Nottingham in 1765.

Her job was to sweep the church floor and pick up pins which had fallen off women’s dresses. Kitty kept the pins in her mouth to keep her hands free for sweeping, but the habit eventually made her toothless. Then at the age of 18, she began to suffer with numbness in her legs and arms. So, in 1783, she went to Nottingham General Hospital and doctors discovered she had been swallowing the pins and her stomach, feet, legs, chest, and all the rest of her, was full of them! The doctors set about removing the pins and in 1785 she was discharged, completely pin-free, and went on to have 17 children.

Other features of the book include a grisly Nottinghamshire timeline, how the county was affected by the two world wars and letters from the past retold with a fun twist, which paint a vivid picture of yesteryear.

Ideal Christmas present

Nottinghamshire County Council Vice-Chairman, Coun Carol Pepper, said: "This book presents the history of Nottinghamshire in a most humorous and fun way and would make an ideal Christmas present for children aged 10-14.”

‘A Grisly History of Nottinghamshire’ can be bought for £5.95 from Nottinghamshire Archives and major libraries. It can also be purchased by post by sending a cheque for £8.95 (including £3.00 for postage and packaging) payable to Nottinghamshire County Council to: Libraries, Archives and Information, 4th Floor, County Hall, West Bridgford, Nottingham, NG2 7QP.

Events- Notts CC Community Archaeology Riverside Audit - Upcoming Dates

Join the Community Archaeologists on one of the upcoming Riverside Audit dates. The Audit aims to record archaeological features along the River Trent. An audit day is essentially a walk along a stretch of riverbank, where we keep our eyes peeled for any archaeological features. Anything we see is recorded with photos and a GPS location.

So why not come along and stretch your legs, and hopefully spot a bit of archaeology along the way!

If you would like to come along to any of the following audits, please let us know. (We need to know who may be coming in case we need to cancel or change arrangements.)

Thursday 24th November - Farndon

Meeting outside the Riverside pub, North End, NG24 3SX, at 10am.

Walk is approximately 4 miles. Bring suitable footwear and clothing, and something to drink en route.

Thursday 1st December - North Clifton and Bubble Dyke

Meeting at North and South Clifton Church (lies on the road directly between the two villages), at 10.30am.

Walk is approximately 4 miles. Bring suitable footwear and clothing, and something to drink en route. Also, bring your lunch if you want.

Thursday 15th December Morning - Laneham and Dunham

Meeting by Laneham church, in Church Laneham, opposite the Ferry Boat Inn, at 10am.

Walk is approximately 4 miles. Bring suitable footwear and clothing, and something to drink en route.

Afternoon - Trent Port and Littleborough

Meeting by Marton church at 2pm

Walk is approximately 3 miles. Bring suitable footwear and clothing, and something to drink en route.

or visit there website at www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/communityarchaeology

News - Sunny Jim the weather king (Nottinghamshire)

UNSEASONABLY warm autumns, flash-flooding and violent storms may seem like modern phenomena – but a Notts researcher has proved that unusual weather is nothing new.

Retired meteorologist Jim Rothwell, 80, has spent more than 20 years collating climate data. His information dates back to 56 BC and includes logs on severe storms, flowers blooming at Christmas and an ice floe so severe it destroyed a bridge on the River Trent.

Mr Rothwell said: "People talk about things like last winter being the coldest in 130 years, but really it's not unusual.

"We have always had extremes, dating back to when Julius Caesar was in Britain, when the records start, so it's not as quirky as people think.

"In the short term people notice these things, but if you look at it on a wider scale it has all happened before."

The data includes cold, wet weather in August 1357, when wolves were seen in Sherwood Forest, and a thunderstorm on July 17 which, along with a tornado and large hail, destroyed Lenton and Wilford and killed five people.

Mr Rothwell has long been fascinated by weather. He said: "I'm a retired weather forecaster and I worked for the Met Office for 38 years. I've always had a feel for climatology."

He became interested in the shifts in weather at an early age. "My interest started during the war in 1940,'' said Mr Rothwell.

"There were no forecasts then because they were secret, and they would have given the Germans information they could use against us.

"I went to bed one night as a little boy, and then when I woke up there was six inches of snow. It was like magic and I wanted to understand it better."

From 1990, he has spent a few hours every day creating reports on the weather from 56 BC to the current day.

He donated the reports, called the Central England Weather Series, to Nottinghamshire County Council's archive services in 2008, but still works on them now.

His sources include council and university archives, weather reports from the Middle Ages, newspaper reports and history books.

His work as a meteorologist has even taken him to the set of a James Bond film, when he was an advisor for 1965 film Thunderball, which was filmed at RAF Waddington. "I worked as an advisor, because they needed good, Caribbean weather and wanted to know when that would happen.

"It was only five minutes of film, but it took us a week of waiting for the right moment.

"Unfortunately I didn't see any Bond girls."

Mr Rothwell continues with his work, spotting the trends in weather. He said: "For me, something like a storm in October is unusual. But the weather has always had extremes."

From: http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/Sunny-Jim-weather-king/story-13687078-detail/story.html

News - Nottingham city museum opens up archaeological stores

Nottingham City Museums is offering a chance to go behind the scenes at its archaeological stores, offering a rare look at its prehistoric collection.

 

Manager Ann Inscker said: "Visitors will see material that hasn't seen the light of day for a long, long time."

 

The objects include flint tools from 50,000BC and an array of axes, hammers, spears, swords and pottery.

 

Most of the items in the collection were found in Nottinghamshire or the East Midlands.

 

Many have been found on the banks of the River Trent, through dredging in the 1960s and 70s.

 

"One of the former county archaeologists refers to it as the richest river in Europe for archaeology," said the collections manager. "The richness is here but it is behind the scenes."

 

The reason for this, Ms Inscker explained, is down to space and the national curriculum in schools, which starts with the Romans.

"[This has meant] we have a lot of material that doesn't have a front end," she said.

 

The archaeological collection began life at the Castle Museum in 1878. It has been built up over the last 130 years through donations.

 

It generally has less than one per cent of its 23,000 objects on display at any one time.

 

"People don't understand how much material we have," said Ms Inscker.

 

The objects are available for research and scientific analysis and Ms Inscker stresses the importance of keeping a local collection.

 

She said: "If everything is in London it will go into deep storage and it will take six months for an enquiry for you to actually get access to that material.

"By having it here it means that it is more accessible to the public.

 

"We want to learn and understand the local area from which this material comes," the collections manager added.

 

"If we left it all to people in London - they're not going to want to come up to the provinces and learn about archaeology here, not to the same extent and with the same passion we do.

 

"We need to make sure the facility stays here."

 

Behind the scenes tours of the prehistoric collections at Brewhouse Yard, Museum of Nottingham Life, will take place on 18 February, 6.30pm to 7.30pm, and 24 February 2011, at 10.30am and 2.00pm. Advance booking is advised, as places will be limited. Telephone: 0115 915 3620

 

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/nottingham/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_9398000/9398120.stm