Heritage Open Days 2011 Scrapbook

My recollections of Heritage Open Days 2011

As usual the weekend’s activities started with the visit to Chilwell Depot which again was over-subscribed and this year we were also graced with the company of the Mayor of Broxtowe, Cllr Jacky Williams.  This year was Capt. Pascoe’s last as he is retiring in a few month’s time, but we were assured by Lt.Col Archibald that he is willing for the tours to continue, and there was even a suggestion that we may be allowed to increase our numbers.  This year besides the video by the  BBC ‘s Anne Davies, Capt Pascoe had also prepared a slide show and presentation of the history of the Depot.   We then saw the 2 Memorials, had a prayer inside the small chapel, and refreshments inside the Sergeant’s Mess.   A very interesting 2 hours.

This year there was nothing else happening on the Friday, but Saturday saw an early morning start with the Inham Nook Allotments, where they had a lovely selection of home grown produce on sale as well as serving tea and cakes.

Next stop to the Beeston Muslim Centre where Mr.Din was showing round quite a lot of people.  Barbara Selwood was there at the same time,  as well as other civic society members, and we were all very courteous and took our shoes off before entering.

Mr.Din explained that he was looking for new premises as the present building was not big enough, but it must be somewhere in the Centre of Beeston, as the Muslim tradition is to walk to prayer.

A quick pop-in next to John Clifford Primary School where Simon Thompson the Head Teacher and his Assistant Head, were busy showing people around the Victorian building.  A lot of reminiscing was going on as quite a lot of the visitors had been taught at the School when it was Nether Street Girls Secondary School .   A big thank you must go to Simon for opening the School up because he was running the Nottingham Marathon the next day.

Next stop was our timed visit to Boots Archives.  This venue had been on our ‘Must have’ list for about 6 years and eventually we were there.   It was particularly nice for us because in their Archives was the Nottingham University Programme  containing the list of people who had been presented to King George V on 10^th July 1928 at the opening of the Nottingham University new building.  It had always been a legend in the family that my husband’s grandfather was presented to King George V, but the first time that we had seen it in Black and White.  He is listed as Mr.A.Atherton, General Foreman.  The staff kindly gave us a Photostat copy as ‘proof’.    In return we handed over to them for their archives about 9 photos that had been carefully preserved by my Mother-in-Law of the building of Boots Ireland Street Factory in the 1915 period.  Alfred Atherton, my husband’s grandfather had again been instrumental in its construction.  A sobering thought that they had been preserved for nearly 100 years.

On the way home for Lunch I did a quick trip to Barton’s and G.H.Hurt’s  where to say it was hectic is an under-statement. A combination of the publicity put out by Barton’s themselves, the vehicles on display and the Exhibition mounted by Beeston & District local History Society was certainly dragging people in.  The crowd was obviously over-spilling into G.H.Hurt’s  as when I went by again at 3.15.p.m. Hurt’s had still not managed to get the door shut, even though it had been their declared intention to close at 1.0’clock.  These 2 together are an obvious crowd pleaser and draw breath from each other and long may it continue.  I was later told that over 1,250 people had been counted in to Barton’s and if half of those had made their way to Hurt’s it must have been chaos.

After Lunch moving from what must be one of the most popular to the least attended I moved to Guiding in Beeston  where quite clearly the expectations of the Guides had not borne fruit.  I felt very sorry for the Guides and their Leaders who had clearly gone to a great deal of trouble with displays and cake-making etc and seen very few visitors, although 3 Councillors had managed to find their way there.  Exactly why the public had not turned up here is frankly beyond my comprehension.

Next stop was Christ Church Chilwell, on the list for the first time this year and they reported that they had had a lot of visitors and were already planning more activities for next year.

Another first-timer was St.John’s College, arranged for us by Val Bird of the Bramcote History Society who were giving hourly tours of the College,  and we had a talk first by Val and by a recently qualified Student as well as extensive Exhibition Material.  A very interesting corner of our patch that is not known to many people and I do hope that they will continue next year.

 On Sunday morning I started off by looking in on Barbara Brooke who was gathering a healthy crowd for her walk of  Stapleford Town Trail.   I stayed long enough to participate in taking a group photograph but having done this interesting  walk before I decided to press on to Bramcote Old Church Tower.   Last year I managed to squeeze in here only just before they closed and probably missed some of the flavour so it was indeed a real treat to get there mid-morning whilst things were in full swing.  Amongst other things the ever active Peter Hillier explained to me the progress that had been made over the years and whilst enjoying  a very enjoyable cup of coffee from the helpers I was shown a model of the old Bramcote Hall of which guided tours of the site were being given.

Back home for a quick bite before setting off for Beeston Square where Robin Phillips was giving one of his Beeston Heritage Trail Walks  round the West end of Beeston.  Always well attended this year’s attracted a phenomenal 66 walkers who took over 2 hours to walk the 2 miles.  Such is Robin’s knowledge of the territory.  11 people purchased our Trail Guide and frankly I don’t know how Robin coped with this many people virtually on his own for the first part of the walk.  For the last hour or so he was given some assistance by Alan Dance of the Beeston & District Local History Society.

Next stop St.Mary’s Church, Attenborough, who have been one of  our Heritage Open Day venues almost from the word go.  A little friction here, as the 2 people on duty pointed out that the description on our leaflet suggested that there would be tours of the Church and Music on offer.  They coped by playing recorded Organ Music and putting themselves around as much as possible, but they clearly felt that we had dropped them in it.  Must make sure that next year our descriptions of what is on offer is accurate, not just here, but everywhere.

And so to my finale’ St.Helen’s Church, Stapleford where I encountered Barbara Brooke, she of the Stapleford morning walk, who had moved on to here with a very interesting display taken from the Stapleford and District Local History Society’s archives.  Interesting tombs, plaques, etc, but I got there just as they were winding down ready to close and frankly by this time I was exhausted by having visited all 15 venues, over the 2 days.   My one regret being that I had never managed to catch sight of the Traditional Morris & Sword Dancing who performed at several places around Beeston on the Saturday.  Never mind, I caught them last year, and maybe next year.

Eileen Atherton.