Villagers and visitors are being given the opportunity to view the progress on an ambitious project enabled by National Lottery cash and other funding sources to double the size of a unique Ruddington heritage site on Chapel Street.
From Sunday 6th June to Saturday 12th June there are tours ‘Behind the Scenes’ at the Framework Knitters’ Museum as part of ‘National Lottery Open Week’ 2021. It’s a chance to see how the expansion work is progressing into the recently purchased ‘Gunn Cottage’ – which sits between the existing museum and its Old Chapel – and will link the two sites together. This remodelled building will provide the brand new entrance area for our internationally recognised village tourist attraction, and house its reception, gift shop and cafe – as well as providing an attractive new community garden to the rear.
Playing a key role in bringing these long held ambitions to fruition is Jim Grevatte, the museum’s Manager and Curator, who’s been in post since November 2018. The Ruddington tourist attraction has been closed for much of the past year – due to the Coronavirus pandemic and now this major refurbishment. However, ahead of their ‘Open Week’ Jim kindly invited RUDDINGTON.info to have a look around and take the photographs for this news article, to give visitors a taste of what’s in store. He is particularly excited about restoring the original workers’ cottages to how they would have been – since they will no longer be needed to house the reception, shop and cafe.
“We are now able to use this set of buildings as they were historically intended – as cottages to interpret the full story of the lives of the people that lived and worked here” explains Jim. “Where the little tearoom was we’ve been able to turn back into what it was originally – the Managers’ Office. What was the shop has been returned to being a back-to-back cottage which was owned by the Waldron family. He was a knitter, she was a seamer, they had four children who also went on to work in the trade, and they lived in these three, small rooms, one on top of the other, renting from the Parker family, working onsite often 12 to 14 hour days, in really about the poorest conditions you can imagine for the time.”
The ‘time’ chosen for the site is 1890 – with the rooms and workshops refurbished to depict how they would have looked during this period in history. Chapel Street was actually built in 1829 on former farmland – purchased by a forward thinking developer who could see that framework knitting was the next big thing. The back-to-back cottages, workshops and Gunn Cottage (until recently a private residence for many years) were all constructed at this time to support the new village-wide industry, with its workers housed on-site.
Jim says: “The street was known for a while by a different name – ‘Ranter Gate’ – which I rather like. Because they were non-conformists – primitive methodists with their own chapel – their form of preaching was quite ‘fire and brimstone’ – so ‘ranting’. For a time that became official – and there was even once a street sign here with ‘Ranter Gate’ written on it!”
The upstairs of Gunn Cottage – not a listed building because of extensive changes made to its structure during the twentieth century – is being remodelled once again to create two flats which the museum can rent out for an income. The downstairs part (shown in the slideshow below) will form an impressive new arched entrance area – visible from the end of Chapel Street – to give museum visitors a much more welcoming vista as they approach. The Old Chapel (once ‘The Starlight Rooms’) will also have an access from the new reception area, and host museum workshops during the day, but remain as a community asset to rent out for various public events and exhibitions at other times.
Volunteers have been on-site to clear the garden to and the current building work, and plan to dig a wildlife pond once it’s completed. Jim continues: “We’ve also got to bring the story up-to-date and show people where knitwear’s going – smart textiles and wearable computing’s where it’s at – and Nottingham’s still at the forefront. We’ve been working really closely with Nottingham Trent University and their students to develop the interpretation, create knitwear and smart yarn to engage our visitors. Nottingham College have been brilliant as well, developing our new visual identity.”
Part of this new identity is a partial rebranding of the museum as ‘Parker’s Yard’ – a historical nod to the family in 1890 who owned and ran the whole site. In fact, by this time, framework knitting was on its way out – partially thanks to increasingly stringent Government ‘factory acts’ which prevented young children being used as ‘free’ workers – and becoming more of a niche market as the big factories took over. The site was wound down in 1929 – when John Parker passed away and the family moved out – selling off the buildings. It wasn’t until 1971 – fifty years ago this year – that a group of textile historians formed a trust to preserve and restore the workshops. Subsequently they decided to buy back some of the other associated buildings to start a museum showcasing the site’s rich history. It’s a project which continues to this day thanks to full-time manager Jim, part time workers Jan Perrett, Matthew Hamilton and Helen Brownett and no less fifty long term volunteers.
As well as showing groups of up to six visitors the work completed so far – including a look at the restored cottages – the COVID safe tours during ‘National Lottery Open Week’ will include a visit to the frameshops. “You’ll be taken ‘Behind the Scenes’ into spaces that no one usually sees to find out what’s required to bring back historic interiors and how artists have been inspired to create new artwork for the museum. You’ll also be able to make your own souvenir on an antique machine and help ‘dress’ the rooms again following their refurb” adds Jim.
Yours truly was pleased to be one of the first asked to choose an object from the museum’s extensive collection and place it in one of their rooms. I chose a candle snuffer and decided it would probably be most at home in the Manager’s parlour – sitting on top of the vintage pianola.
My thanks to Jim, Jan, Matthew and Helen for showing me around the site during this period of major progress and for sharing some of its fascinating history. You can sign up for one of the remaining ‘Behind the Scenes’ tour slots whilst they’re still available >>HERE<<.
It’s hoped the museum can reopen to visitors on Saturdays in July and August, then on other days in “late September or Early October” when most of the current work should be completed.
