1. Home
  2. Heritage

The Great Nottinghamshire Local History Fair Went Digital Throughout May 2021

""

We have been proud to present our annual Local History Fair since 2013 (excepting 2020!), bringing local groups together to celebrate the variety of heritage activity in Nottinghamshire. This year the celebration was digital, featuring a selection of photographs, video, talks and presentations from groups and organisations from all over the county.

A big ‘thank-you’ to all those groups and individuals who took part, whether it was in supplying content, spreading the word, participating in one of our online events, or simply taking a look at the site. In particular we would like to thank the Nottinghamshire Local History Association (NLHA)  for helping to promote via their newsletter and online; the Nottinghamshire Heritage Forum for their help in promoting  the fair and for sharing lots of posts on social media; and all those individual societies who also promoted it widely to their contacts. 
 
We hope you all enjoyed a fascinating journey through the history of Nottinghamshire, and we look forward to welcoming you all back for our next history fair in May 2022!

Photo author, broadcaster, curator and former Nottinghamshire resident, Lucy Worsley

Lucy Worsley at the Great Nottinghamshire Local History Fair 2021

The headline event for this year’s digital Great Nottinghamshire Local History Fair was a live online interview with Lucy Worsley!  We were delighted that the author, broadcaster, curator and former Nottinghamshire resident agreed to be interviewed by Inspire Board member John Hess.

Our famous guest was just as knowledgeable and fascinating as we see on television, and very willing to share stories of her local connection.

We received some very positive comments from the audience including:

Lovely to see one of my most admired historians give her experiences

Would certainly do this again!

Absolutely fantastic, a thoroughly enjoyable hour and a bit!

I thought it was a delightful and an informative event using a celebrity with a strong local connection.

Very enjoyable & fascinating.

Excellent event. Lucy is so amusing and interesting that you hang on her every word in all her programmes.

Just delightful!

Absolutely fabulous talk and Q&A this morning

Participating Groups

In all we were pleased to welcome 52 local history groups and organisations as contributors to the fair.

Some groups, such as Laxton History Group and Nottingham Women’s History Group, have participated in our fairs for many years; others we were pleased to welcome for the first time.  These included the Nottinghamshire YMCA which celebrates its 150th anniversary this year and the Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club who presented a very topical presentation about the effects of Covid19 on the county’s cricketing community.

A full list of participants is included at the bottom of this page.

Groups’ contributions included presentations, videos, podcasts and quizzes.  Most pieces of content were made available to view as YouTube videos on the Inspire website and were also promoted and shared on Inspire’s Facebook page @nottslibraries. These social media posts reached over 50,000 people, and over 2,500 people engaged with the content. We were pleased to see that several of the presentations sparked memories, conversations and comments about visiting Nottinghamshire places and heritage venues.

To complete this overview of the virtual Great Nottinghamshire Local History Fair of 2021, we would like to include just a few examples of the feedback received, both directly to us at Inspire, and comments we have observed across social media:

“The History Fair is brilliant. Thanks for all your hard work.” (Local History Fair participant)

 “We are really pleased with the feedback.  I shared it across our various Facebook groups which helped make sure it had plenty of exposure.  I've enjoyed watching many of the other contributions.  Thanks for all your work for the local history communities.” (Local History Fair participant)

 “I had a look yesterday at the website and it is all very impressive...lots of content.” (Local History Fair participant)

 “We should be doing something like this too.” (Civic Society in another part of the country)

And Finally….

A final thank-you to all those groups which took part.  They were:

Arnold Local History Group

Aurora Wellbeing - Heritage and Health project (Worksop)

BACKLIT - Nottingham Asylum Project

Bassetlaw Museum and the Pilgrims Gallery (Retford)

Beeston and District Local History Society

Blidworth & District Historical & Heritage Society

Bob Massey History

Canalside Heritage Centre

Chesterfield Canal Trust

Chris Rose - Local Historian (Rattlejag Morris)

Dorothy Harrison Trust - Walks of Life Museum (Tuxford)

East Leake & District Local History Society

Edwinstowe Historical Society

Farnsfield Local History Society

Flintham Museum

Friends of Nottinghamshire Archives

Friends of Thynghowe

Ice Age Journeys

Keyworth Conservation Area Advisory Group and Keyworth & District Local History Society

Kirkby and District Archaeological Group

Laxton History Group

Lydia Kirk - Young Local Historian and Junior Reporter for Mansfield 103.2 FM

Mansfield Fire Museum

Mansfield Museum

Mansfield Townscape Heritage

Mansfield Woodhouse Heritage Link

Mine2Minds Education

Miner2Major

Museum of the Horse at Tuxford

National Trust Mr Straw's House and Clumber Park

Nottingham Women's History Group

Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Labour History Society

Nottinghamshire Building Preservation Trust

Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club

Nottinghamshire Family History Society

Nottinghamshire Local History Association

Nottinghamshire Mining Museum

Nottinghamshire Nursing History Group

Nottinghamshire YMCA

Old Mansfield Society

Old Warsop Society

Radcliffe-on-Trent World War One Group

Sam Millard - Local Historian

Sherwood Forest Trust

Southwell Minster (The Leaves of Southwell)

Sutton Heritage Society

Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall (Nottingham)

Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire

Trent ARCH (Attenborough, Rylands, Clifton Heritage)

Triskele Heritage / Collingham & District Local History Society

Warsop Old Hall (Revealing Our Community Roots – Uncovering  Warsop Old Hall's Origins and History Project)

West Bridgford & District Local History Society

Events in this series

There are currently no events in this series