Local History Cafe

Given that some of our group members are in the #coronavirus 'at risk' category, or caring for others, we think it sensible to pause Local History Cafes as a precautionary measure until later in the year. We will keep you up to date with any future events through our social media and our partners.

Another lovely session today although 4 people sent their apologies, some through not feeling 100% and others are on holiday. Hope they are all getting on well and we’ll see them soon.

Today we did a virtual tour of Ilkeston town. It’s like a walking tour but with photographs instead of actual walking. That way we can enjoy our walk from the comfort of our heated Hayloft with our tea and cake. We did enjoy it- one of the brilliant things about so many of us being local is at each place on the tour we’ve got stories to swap. This pub here, that pub there. The cinema. The library. The market. The church. All of them are redolent with memory for us.

We had a good old argue: “that picture can’t be from 1904 because the tram tracks are already in!” or “how can that be that shop when I bought my boots there in 1956?!” The old photos brought a great old vs. new aspect to the session which was great fun.

The volunteers have outdone themselves and bought extra nice cakes today. All in all it was a good session and we’re looking forward to the next one. Easter has thrown our timetable off so we’re meeting later in the month but the volunteers are making Easter treat baskets for everyone. Can’t wait.

Kate Crossley

Collections Officer

Erewash Museum

The group braved the narrow twisting climb up to Breedon on the Hill Church on a very blustery day. Betty Cawte gave a very clear summary of the history of the church before being available to answer questions while we looked around at the Anglo Saxon carvings and Tudor monument. A number of the group said they would come back on a better day to take in the stunning views. Everyone then drove to Staunton Harold for tea/coffee and delicious cakes before some availed themselves of the shops and garden centre. All said they had really enjoyed their day. Lesley Gretton

A lovely presentation by Debbie on the Alexandra Quilt, with examples of poetry, letters and captivating images.

It was exciting to begin our next set of our Local History Cafés, particularly when we had ten new guests, as well as five people who have continued with us from the last set. Although our table settings are having to grow, there were still plenty of delicious cakes and cheesy biscuits to go with the copious amounts of tea and coffee that we managed to consume.

At the start of any new group you wonder how you might encourage people to chat to their neighbours….this group needed no encouragement and it was a real pleasure to see how willing people were to talk to each other.

After we had had an introduction to Crafting Relationships and then to this particular café, we embarked on some ice breakers to try and learn a little more about each other. It’s amazing what you can do with smarties and duplo figures! We learned where people were born and the majority of members for this particular café came from Leicestershire, those of us who were ‘incomers’ were definitely in the minority; this was quite different from the previous Café group. We shared laughter and smiles as the smarties exercise led us to contribute embarrassing moments, favourite places and interesting hobbies.

I can’t believe it’s a new round of cafes again! The time goes by so fast. We celebrated our first café with our usual talk on the heritage and people behind the buildings of Dalby House, Erewash Museum as we know and love it. It was a good chance to get to know each other. Attendance was brilliant so our volunteers were walking on the moon. We’ve invited back 10 previous members. The group were really despondent about the end of the project and we felt we were only just starting to build some really good relationships. We have 7 new members, 2 of whom were away this month. Next month we’ll have a full house! Hope we can hear each other over the happy buzz of chattering.

After the talk we discussed a programme for the next sessions. Each group brings new ideas and this one was no different. We had ideas we’ve never had before: they want to learn about Place Names and the origins of local villages (wow!) and also archaeology, ancient peoples and their lives in Erewash. I can’t wait to get some new speakers in and find out new things about our area. In the meantime I’ve been looking at one of my favourite websites, the Key to English Place Names by the University of Nottingham’s place names Institute. Almost every settlement in the UK is on this incredible interactive map ! Have a look: http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/

Our first meeting of this five-month session was attended by 25 people, with 14 new attendees. Sue Styche gave a fascinating talk ‘Finding Nanny’ which explained her difficult search for the background to Henry Harpur’s wife - said to be a ladies maid.

Heather Griffin came from the John Moore Local History Cafe to explain how their groups had moved on which created some interesting discussions. The new visitors had the option to visit the stables and have a talk by Tony Bates on the carriages stored there.

A great session with Tony Jarram talking about William Railton the architect. He took us on a journey from Loughborough to Nelson's Column, looking at how Railton influenced architecture on a local and national scale. Tony added extra humorous detail to his stories, such as why the lions of Trafalgar Square are sitting in the wrong position! 

A lovely touch by Tony was that he sat down with our members after his talk and chatted through questions and interests, taking the time to engage with everyone on a personal level. 

This session demonstrated how someone with a passion for a subject can become an expert through research and enthusiasm - a great way to prepare for our Extended project which kicks off in April. 

Also, some other good news! A local Loughborough café will be providing cakes for our sessions in return for some help with researching the history of their building, which I'm sure will be an interesting, and tasty, topic to explore.

Two cafés in January has meant not just two lots of heritage but two lots of cake too! Hopefully everybody felt that this was a good way to start the year.

We have welcomed someone new every month and today was the same. The group is very welcoming and members who have been coming along for a while always make a big effort to get to know and include new people.

We also welcomed an external speaker too. Joanne Vigor-Mungovin, author of ‘Joseph: The Life, Times and Places of the Elephant Man’ gave a fascinating talk on Joseph Merrick and highlighted his link to Leicester and the fact that his town of birth is barely mentioned when he is referred to. Although Joseph wasn’t a pioneer he is probably the most well known and earliest example of a person with a disability who attempted to make his own way in the world.

With the first round of cafes completed we look forward to February and welcoming more people to the Museum to relax and enjoy interesting talks and good company and conversation.

Sixteen of us sat down for our final café in this first cycle. We’ve developed a lovely pattern on arrival, of chat, coffee, cake and tea. This is followed by a topic or activity to stimulate discussion, usually related to the topic offered by our speaker.

This week we were asked to think about our favourite building, in Leicester and then elsewhere. A very relaxed but fascinating discussion followed. The Curve theatre building in Leicester created some interesting responses .  It has been described as a ‘marmite’ building, you either love it or hate it…and our group was pretty divided on its merits with some of us thinking it was beautiful and others thinking it was ugly!  Other building choices took us round the world via Brighton Pavilion, the Eiffel Tower, the Houses of Parliament, Bath and the Taj Mahal. We agreed that our response to architecture was a very personal thing.

After topping up our cups and plates we were then taken on a guided tour of some Victorian and Edwardian buildings in Leicester, whilst staying in our comfortable chairs and ably guided by Leigh Pecciano Moss. Usually, Leigh conducts physical guided walks around the City centre but treated us to some wonderful slides and anecdotes as she guided us down the High Street, up Gallowtree Gate and into Town Hall Square. She encouraged us to look up at the wealth of interesting Victorian and Edwardian architecture, often missed by concentrating on the modern shop fronts. Amongst others, we found a Chemist by Appointment, complete with beautiful ceramic pictures, the Coronation Building replete with statues, flags and chains, the Thomas Cook Building with wonderful reliefs of his original journeys. It was really interesting and will encourage us all to walk around Leicester looking upwards and see our city with new eyes.

Happy New Year and welcome to the first Local History Café of 2020 at New Walk Museum & Art Gallery!

We are still benefitting from the willingness of some of our members to share their knowledge so once more one of our group members Karin started the first one of the year with a presentation to the group.

Her talk was about the Growth of the Shoe Industry and how it has become mechanised. She also spoke about the Health and Safety associated with the shoe industry including a focus on Lady Factory Inspectors. It was interesting and she also used various pieces of information and objects to highlight the talk. One of her son’s shoes was even used to show us what it takes to make shoes and save money and material doing so.

As always the group joined in with questions and comments and included the new members in their conversations.

Thank you very much Karin for your entertaining contribution!

Happy New Year!

Thirteen of us sat down to the first of our January meetings (we have an extra January meeting to catch up!). It was good to welcome back some who had been poorly before Christmas and we missed those who had gone down with the lurgy now!

We had a ‘celebrity’ theme to this Café. We were treated to an excellent talk by Jo Vigor Mungovin about Joseph Merrick…. but more of that in a minute! Given the ‘celebrity’ theme of Jo’s talk, we explored which famous historical or contemporary person we would like to meet. There were some fascinating and wide ranging choices with everyone contributing ideas and comments. Next time we shall be inviting William Shakespeare; Galileo; Richard Feynman; the Kray twins; Boris Johnson and Dr Watts to enjoy our fabulous cakes with their tea and coffee!

Jo’s interesting talk took us on a tour of Victorian Leicester, before moving to London, via Belgium. Her interest in Joseph Merrick, the ‘Elephant Man’ was sparked when doing some family history research of her own, she discovered a relative who had been the showman who had exhibited Merrick. She recounted Merrick’s story and illustrated it with an excellent collection of slides. It was particularly exciting when one of our group was able to point Jo in the direction of the LRI records for some additional information. Several of us were keen to take away copies of her book ‘Joseph: The Life, Times and Places of The Elephant Man’.

With the Christmas break nearly upon us the December café was a really great way to finish the year. Yet again we were fortunate that one of our group members offered to present on a topic of interest to everyone, so we were treated to a talk about the ‘Story of Leicester Trams’. 

Mike is a member of the Leicester Transport Heritage Trust and a Director of Archives and Research so we knew that he would provide us with a really interesting talk and we were right!

We have been very fortunate that both of our presenters so far have encouraged discussion throughout their talks which has allowed the other members to really get involved and share information or ask more detailed questions. In fact, the conversation carried on into the break when we stopped for more tea and cake.

He also brought along with him some tram related handling objects which the group really enjoyed looking at particularly as there had been some fantastic pictures in the presentation and the objects really brought the information alive.

Yet again we welcomed new members who were made to feel very welcome and part of the group by the existing members.

A big thanks to Mike for his engaging contribution!

Seasons greetings to everyone!

There was a little bit of Christmas in our theme this month…. and fourteen of us, including two new guests, sat down for an informal, and very relaxed, mini Christmas Party. There was no mistletoe, but plenty of delicious homemade cakes, as always, with copious amounts of tea and coffee!

We played ‘I went to market and bought…’. This wasn’t a memory game, but it stretched our brains a bit, all we’ll say is that ‘Barbara went to market and bought bananas’!! This all prompted much conversation and laughter about the games we all remembered playing at Christmas, including ‘Aunt Hetty’; ‘The man in the moon’; ‘Scissors crossed or uncrossed’ and ‘Flip the Kipper’. With some hilarity and some poignancy, we shared memories of Christmas past, what we’d enjoyed, what had been more tricky, (having to cope with ‘the grown ups’ going to sleep after dinner) and whether you came from a ‘listen to the Queen’ family or a ‘never listen to the Queen’ family.

This led to sharing the contents of some memory boxes and even dressing up – sou’westers, ‘nippy’ outfits, overalls and hats were all exhibited, to general hilarity! It was interesting to hear about the careers that people had and the ways in which things had changed.

It was a really enjoyable session, with everyone participating. Replete with cake, tea and laughter, and with all our guests taking home an individual Christmas cake, we wished each other a happy Christmas and a peaceful and healthy New Year.

Everyone enjoyed our pre Christmas get together. The group were greeted and served by the butler, house keeper, cook and  maid from Calke with sherry and Christmas nibbles. Mike Kelley gave a really interesting talk on the history of Cromford Canal and the amazing restoration work completed by lots of local volunteers. Finally everyone joined in and made their own Christmas table decoration and had great fun getting creative.