The Birkin Building in the Lace Market in Nottingham was designed by Thomas Chambers Hine another architect who, like Watson Fothergill, made a big impact on the city. It was, of course, a lace warehouse made for Richard Birkin, a lace manufacturer, in 1855.
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On Sunday I decided to go and photograph as many of the Hoodwinked: A Twist in the Tale art trail figures as I could; there are 33 in total and I managed around 25 or so before deciding that at 28C it was getting a bit too hot for me to comfortably continue walking around the city centre so I’ll pick up the ones I’m missing in the next few weeks. The trail of colourful robins is here until September when they will be auctioned off to raise funds for the Nottinghamshire Hospice – they are also raising funds through the official app, and apparently a souvenir guide which I haven’t seen yet but intend to purchase when I’m next near the Tourist Centre. Each design is really well done and represents a certain aspect of Nottingham that will be fun for locals and hopefully entertaining for visitors. The idea is that Robin has donned all these different disguises in order to outwit the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham (below, painted in a homage to Alan Rickman’s Sheriff of Nottingham).
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Last Sunday I went on the inaugural Watson Fothergill Walking Tour organised by Lucy Brouwer (@notrock on Twitter). Regular readers will know how much I love Fothergill’s architecture and this was a good opportunity to learn a bit more and also meet other Fothergill enthusiasts. The tour was great, with a good balance of information about the individual buildings and Fothergill himself. I’ve spent a fair bit of time photographing his buildings but not doing any real further research into their original uses so it was good to get an overview of that in the context of Victorian Nottingham. We started off at the site of what was the Black Boy Hotel (now Primark) before moving on to the old Jessops shop and workrooms (always difficult to photograph!).
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Bagthorpe Gardens are a community gardens I visited as part of the Heritage Open Day last year. They’ve been cultivated since the 1840s and have Grade II* listing with original hedging and restored bothies (a basic shelter).
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Wollaton Village’s Dovecote Museum is a little tricky to find though just a short walk from the village and at the end of a cul-de-sac. It’s a small building dating from the 16th century, having been built around 1565 by Sir Francis Willoughby of Wollaton Hall.
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The Nottingham Industrial Museum is based in part of the 17th century stable block at Wollaton Hall and as it’s only open on weekends and Bank Holidays it took quite a while before I got around to visiting. It focuses on a wide range of Nottingham industries including lace, bicycles and mining.
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The Newark Museum can be found inside the National Civil War Centre and spans a few rooms with displays of items that are in some way connected to the town. The most stunning piece there must be the Newark torc, found by metal detector Maurice Richardson in 2005 near the River Trent. Made from rolled gold wires twisted into eight ropes they would have been traded or given as gifts between tribes around 200-50BC.
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One weekend in April we headed on the train to the National Civil War Centre in Newark. We’ve meant to visit since it first opened in 2015 but a recent feature on the local news spurred us on to finalise our plans. The museum is a quick 5 to 10 minute walk from Newark Castle Railway station in a somewhat unprepossessing building next to the Palace Theatre.
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When exploring some of the buildings in Wollaton, Nottingham as part of September’s Open Heritage weekend we stopped off in the Admiral Rodney Pub for lunch (the food was delicious and I would absolutely recommend it).
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St Leonard’s Church in Wollaton, Nottingham, has been around since the 1200s and it would have fallen under the care of the Mortein and then the Willoughby families, owners of the nearby Wollaton Hall.
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