Following a request to the Historical Society from Nadia Archer from the RSPB Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre, several potential volunteers met in the former St. John’s Ambulance Brigade hut, Forest Corner, on Saturday, 10th March, to learn about the history of the village with a view to sharing the information with future visitors who come to Edwinstowe. A Power-Point presentation, given by Olwen and Margaret, highlighted important buildings in the village and associated history. Everyone was provided with a booklet, based on the presentation, to enable them to familiarise themselves with the village. Nadia thanked Olwen and Margaret for all the hard work they had put into the Presentation and organisation of the event.

The walk around the village commenced with a visit to the church where Greg Abbott provided a potted history of St. Mary’s. Other visits were made to the Craft Shops (Simpley Natural – where we were introduced to Minty Foot Soak), Calvie’s Gallery, Library, Forest Lodge, and finally Launay’s Restaurant, where we enjoyed welcome refreshments.

Edwinstowe Historical Society were invited by Gareth Broome (Representative of Nottinghamshire County Council) to assemble a display of photographs for the ‘Sparkling Sherwood Event’ (Friday 11th-Sunday 13th of November 2017.

2,000 tickets were sold and the event was very successful. Visitors thoroughly enjoyed the display which traced the forest history through time

Edwinstowe Remembers

Sunday 12th Nov 2017, was a bright but chilly Autumn morning, as over 170 people from groups or residents, gathered in Edwinstowe village for a march to St. Mary’s Church for a fitting and poignant service delivered by Lay Minister Greg Abbott.

At around 10:45, the march re-formed and moved on in column led by the Thoresby Colliery band and made up of Royal British Legion members, the Dukeries Academy Combine Cadet force, Guides, Scouts, Cubs, Brownies, Rainbows and other groups from the village. At the War Memorial garden, Greg Abbott read the Roll of Honour and Phil Jones delivered the Homage before a two-minute silence at 11am. This was followed by the laying of many wreaths before the march got underway again under the direction of the Parade Marshall Cadet Sgt. Major Ewen Lees, with the Royal British Legion (RBL) Standard borne by Cadet Sgt. Zak Higgins. The parade moved along the High Street where the salute was taken by the RBL  Edwinstowe President Sir David Naish, the Deputy Lieutenant, before arriving back at the start point on Mansfield Road a little after 11:30. This event produced an outstanding presence, from over 300 in the congregation at St. Mary’s where, once again, it was ‘standing room only’ and over 500 gathered at the Memorial Garden, with others viewing along the route of the march. The RBL is grateful to all of those who attended, and especially to the volunteers who positioned along the route to provide road traffic marshalling.

P. Jones

On the 6th September, 2017, the Tour of Britain Stage 4 cycle race, with 120 world class cyclists on their 175km route, The turnout from the community, including many children from the local schools was tremendous.

One media report stated that, “the turn out from the Edwinstowe was one of the largest they had seen so far”.

Well done Edwinstowe.

Edwinstowe Historical Society received a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund in 2015. The grant has been used to create an archive of the many photographs and documents which the society holds, digitise them and create a website which is accessible to anyone interested in the history of Edwinstowe and the surrounding area.

The event was held on Saturday 8^th July at Edwinstowe House. There was a comprehensive display of photographs and maps, films of the Lantern Parade and the Pageant were shown and the website homepage was projected onto a screen.

Chairperson, Shirley Moore preparing for the event

A short speech was given by, Shirley, the Chairperson of the society. She thanked the people that had worked and helped to achieve the aims of the project and outlined how the grant had been spent.  She was presented with a gift to show appreciation and to thank her for all her efforts in obtaining the grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and co-ordinating the project.

Shirley speaking at the event

The archive is at Edwinstowe House, in a room kindly provided by Woodhead Enterprises.

Members of the Woodhead family with Chairperson and Committee Members

Mrs. Margaret Woodhead (on the left) is a founding member of Edwinstowe Historical Society. Standing at the back are Tom and David Woodhead.

The website is in the development stage, but there are already many interesting pictures and articles on it.

The web address is:  www.edwinstowehistory.org.uk

The next meeting will be on 20th September, 2017. The subject of ‘Wartime Nottinghamshire’ will be presented by Howard Heeley. Meetings are from 2 p.m. until 4 p.m. Refreshments will be available.

For more information contact: Chairperson Shirley Moore tel. no. 01623 822264.

Following a well attended Annual General Meeting held on the 17th May, in the Church Rooms,  Edwinstowe, the members were shown a video entitled ‘A Portrait of a Thoresby Miner’

On 21st September 2015 at Edwinstowe Library many former miners were reunited sharing memories with workmates (including 5 former managers).

The opening of  Edwinstowe Historical Society’s exhibition celebrating 100 years of Thoresby Colliery was accompanied by former members of Thoresby Colliery Brass Band led by Stan Lippeatt.

Photographic displays from sinking of the Colliery and building the colliery village cover many aspects, from work at the coal face and on the surface including the Medical Centre, to St Johns Ambulance, the Pit Trip, the Band, Cricket, Football and Bowls, and the retired miner’s annual tea at the Welfare Hall.

Former members of the Thoresby Colliery Band provided background music at the event.

Supported by The Heritage Lottery Fund the exhibition ran until 31st October when it was transferred to Ollerton Library for a further four weeks.

Edwinstowe Historical Society has been awarded a grant of £10,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to enable us to establish a Community Archive Centre in Edwinstowe House.

The grant of £10,000 will help us make full use of the room, kindly given to us by David Woodhead, the Chief Executive of Nuture Enterprises Ltd (now Woodhead Enterprise Ltd)

In a planned project over the next 18 months, the group intends to train members in the use of digital technology to enable us to catalogue, archive and make more readily available the wealth of material that we hold, to a wider audience.

Edwinstowe Historical Society members with David Woodhead. Back: Liz Stewart-Smith, David Woodhead, Janice Lane. Front: Di Roker, Margaret Woodhead, Shirley Moore.

The creation of a Community Heritage website will enable schools, groups and individuals to access our extensive collection of resources ensuring the local past of our village is not lost.

Our Chairman in 2015, Di Roker, commented,”  I am absolutely delighted that we have managed to secure this lottery grant and am extremely grateful to  Shirley Moore and her team who have worked so hard on the project. We have been aware for some years that our methods of storage and conservation were becoming increasingly outdated, but lack of funds prevented us from addressing the issue. When David Woodhead kindly offered us a room in Edwinstowe House, it felt like the beginning of a new era, and now the Lottery grant will enable us to update all aspects of the work we do, and to give the public greater access to our archives through a newly designed website. Here’s to the future!

New Book Charts the history of Edwinstowe

On September 16^th 2015, members of the Historical Society congratulated Mrs Margaret Woodhead on the launch of the latest volume of history of the village.

Margaret Woodhead with members of the Edwinstowe Historical Society

This generously illustrated volume covers a decade of rapid change which saw the coming of the railway and the opening of the Dukeries Hotel built by Mansfield Brewery to cater for the large number of day trippers visiting the Major oak, or touring the Dukeries Estates in heavily-laden carriages.

At the same time, Earl Manvers opened a pioneering co-operative store for the village.

Octogenarian local historian Margaret Woodhead presents a fascinating miscellany, drawing on newspaper reports, letters and documen
ts from local archives and photographs from the Societies Collection.

Welcome to our new website, which is currently under construction.