Event - Bestwood Heritage Day now arranged for Saturday 2nd February

A HERITAGE day to remember Bestwood Village in its colliery heyday was forced to be postponed last Saturday because of the heavy snowfall overnight.

The morning was planned for visitors to Bestwood Country Park to look back at the area’s past helped by special guests.

The event, which is being organised by owners of the country park, Nottinghamshire County Council, will now take place tomorrow, Saturday February 2 from 10am to noon at the Dynamo House.

“We just couldn’t risk running the event last Saturday with the arrival of so much snow from a health and safety point of view,” explained community liaison officer at Bestwood Country Park, Sue McDonald. “The nature of the event meant we would have attracted more elderly people but even the short distance from the car park to the visitors’ centre was trecherous.”

Holly Godward, 20, a BA (Hons) History student at Nottingham Trent University will be interviewing people about their memories of Bestwood as part of her final year dissertation.

And colleagues from Picture the Past, an archive library project managed by Nottinghamshire County Council in partnership with Derbyshire County Council, Nottingham City Council and Derby City Council, will also be at the event to scan images and documents for visitors.

“We hope the British weather will be kinder to us this weekend and enable the event to go-ahead,” added Sue. “We are looking forward to it and hope it will be a real celebration of the country park and Bestwood’s historic past.

“Do you have any memories, stories, old photographs or artefacts of old Bestwood village, the colliery, and the people who lived and worked here? If so, bring them along to the day to share your experiences and take part in this interesting research.”

Members of the Winding Engine House Volunteer Group and Friends of Bestwood Country Park are set to be at the Heritage Day.

Sue added: “And there will be plenty of warm drinks and cakes for a reasonable charge supplied by the WI and the Friends.”

For further details call Sue McDonald on 07500 106567.

From: http://www.hucknalldispatch.co.uk/news/local-news/bestwood-heritage-day-postponed-due-to-snow-now-arranged-for-saturday-2nd-february-1-5362414

Angel Awards - Attraction makes awards shortlist (Bestwood)

A NOTTS attraction has been shortlisted for a heritage award.

The Bestwood Winding Engine House – the last remaining part of the old Bestwood Colliery which closed in the late 1960s – is one of 16 projects nationwide to be nominated in the Best Rescue of an Industrial Building or Site category of the English Heritage Angel Awards.

It has also been accredited under the Places of Interest Quality Assurance Scheme.

The award was officially handed over last week by the Chairman of Notts County Council councillor Keith Walker and the cabinet member for culture and community, councillor John Cottee.

Mr Cottee said the engine house provided "a fascinating insight into Nottinghamshire's mining heritage" and was "fully deserving of these accolades".

He said: "Both the accreditation and award nomination are testament to the hard work, dedication and knowledge of the volunteers at the Engine House who make visitors' experience so interesting.

"It's with great pride that I have seen Winding Engine House transformed from a derelict site to the impressive, fascinating insight into local history that it is today."

The Engine House is a community run tourist attraction in Bestwood Country Park, which is managed by local volunteers, supported by Notts County Council Park Rangers.

From: http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/Attraction-makes-awards-shortlist/story-13411507-detail/story.html

English Heritage Angel Awards - North leverton Windmill/Pleasley Colliery/Bestwood Colliery

Several local buildings are up for this award:  

Pleasley Colliery, Nottinghamshire, was immaculately-restored by local volunteers
When people in the Mansfield area got together in 1996, to rescue run-down Pleasley Colliery, which closed 1983, everyone agreed it was a good idea. They weren’t so sure, however, when they actually went to inspect the premises.

“What a mess!” recalls Robert Metcalfe, one of the Friends of Pleasley Pit. “Floor plates missing, engine parts missing, trees growing through parts of the engines, the remaining part of the roof on the verge of collapse, everything covered in rust and pigeon guano.”

Fast forward 15 years, and many thousands of hours of what Robert calls “unstinting, back-breaking efforts” by the Friends, and you have today’s immaculately-restored heritage site, in which engines and engine houses are back in rust-free, pigeon-free working order.

“The future of the buildings and structures is now assured”, says Robert. “A whole generation who will never know ‘how it used to be’ will at least to be able to marvel at these survivors of the great age of steam.”

North Leverton Windmill, Nottinghamshire, is still grinding corn after almost two centuries.

Whole industries have come and gone in the meantime, but since it was built in 1813, North Leverton Windmill, near Retford, has never stopped working.

“It is one of the few mills, if not the only one, in the country, that has never stopped milling and has never been restored”, says Julie Barlow, one of the many devoted Friends of North Leverton Windmill

That the sails still revolve is due to the huffing and puffing of several generations of volunteers, who had to step up their efforts to gale-force levels recently, when it was discovered that two of the sails were rotten, and the main structural beams had holes the size of fists.

Endless abortive application forms were filled in, until, with the help of grants from English Heritage and the Building Better Communities organization, plus numerous Friends fund-raising events, the target £100,000 was reached.

“The repairs haven’t been completed, but the doors remain open, and the windmill is still doing what it does best, grinding corn”, says Julie. “Come rain or shine, if the wind is blowing, the sails are turning every Saturday.”

The winding engine at Bestwood Colliery, Nottinghamshire, helped make it the most productive mine in the world

No one was able to save the British coal industry, but in this part of the Midlands, they did manage to prevent a historic piece of mining heritage from ending up on the scrapheap.

Enter, hissing, the steam-powered engine that for nearly a century (between the 1870’s and the 1960’s) powered the winding mechanism at the Bestwood Colliery, lowering colliers into the shaft (in a metal cage), and bringing mined coal up to the surface.

Today, Bestwood lies dormant, but it was once the most productive mine in the whole world, being the first to excavate one million tons of coal in a 12-month period. Key to its continued productivity was the reliability of its winding engine, and that tradition has been continued post-closure, thanks to the work of the Bestwood Winding Engine Volunteer Group, headed by stalwart Robert Gow, which took over the site more than 20 years ago.

Not only do Robert and his team keep the engine and the premises in full working order, but they open up the engine house to the public, free of charge, every Saturday from Easter to October.


Telegraph subscribers can vote at http://subscriber.telegraph.co.uk/loyalty/, and follow the links, or by post to PO Box 604, The Daily Telegraph Angel Awards, 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 0XE. Please remember to give your name, address, telephone and subscriber numbers. The deadline is midday October 17. One vote per subscriber.

English Heritage members can vote online at www.english-heritage.org.uk/angelawardsvote, or by post to English Heritage Angel Awards, Customer Services, PO Box 569, Swindon SN2 2YP.

The English Heritage Angel Awards ceremony is on Oct 31 at the Palace Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1. Tickets are available exclusively for Telegraph subscribers and English Heritage members, at £5 each. Call 0870 333 1183 to book, Telegraph subscribers should quote their subscriber number.

All from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/angel-awards/