Volunteers and staff at Ruddington’s Framework Knitters’ Museum are once again showing visitors the delights of their unique heritage site, following the completion of refurbishment work there costing £62,295. The funds for the work were awarded through the Arts Council of England’s Museum Estate and Development Fund (MEND). MEND is an open-access capital fund, which is designed to help museums and local authorities undertake infrastructure and urgent maintenance that are beyond the scope of day-to-day maintenance budgets. The fact that the Grade II listed cottage and frameshops at the Chapel…
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‘The Big Swap Shop’ in Ruddington
Recycling and re-using are at the heart of a special ‘pre-loved’ clothing event coming to our village next month. Ruddington’s award-winning Framework Knitters’ Museum is teaming up with ‘The Big Swap Shop’ to host a swap and ‘slow’ fashion event on Saturday 10th June from 6pm to 9pm. Organisers say it will be ‘family-friendly’ event, which will be held at the museum on Chapel Street. It will see a ‘twilight’ evening with a fashion mini market as well as local slow traders. Guests will also experience textile demonstrations and an…
Read MoreAdopt a Flower Bed!
An imaginative volunteering idea has been unveiled by a Ruddington tourist attraction aiming to get all generations involved at its village centre heritage site. The Framework Knitters’ Museum on Chapel Street has launched a campaign to find two ‘green fingered’ families over the summer holidays. Those chosen will adopt a flower bed, in the museum’s gardens, and be given British cottage flowers to tend to once a week throughout June, July and August. Families will also explore and identify the type of plants and flowers, how best to care for them, their…
Read More60th Anniversary of Closure ‘Open Day’
To mark sixty years since the loss of a full passenger service on the Great Central Railway Main Line, the Nottingham Transport Heritage Centre on Mere Way is hosting an exhibition of the railway’s history. They’re combining this with a chance to explore Rushcliffe Halt and Hotchley Hill signalbox. Since ‘big trains’ have not restarted yet, instead there’s a FREE heritage bus service from Ruddington linking the two sites. More details can be found on the event poster below: Organisers say: “We hope to see you there!”
Read MoreRuddington’s ‘Big Trains’ Could Restart Soon!
For almost three years now, a previously familiar weekend sound drifting across Ruddington has been sadly missing – that of the distant whistles and gentle chugging of steam trains making their way in and out of Nottingham Transport Heritage Centre. Since RUDDINGTON.info published the news piece ‘What’s Happening at our Heritage Railway’, back in January 2022, it’s continued to be one of our most searched for items – as villagers and visitors alike seek the elusive answer! In particular, the legendary ‘Santa Specials’ in the run-up to Christmas have been…
Read MoreNew Rail ‘Reunification’ Bridge Arrives!
Reaching the stage when trains will once again be able to run all the way from Ruddington to Leicester has got another step closer this week – with the lowering into place of a replacement Great Central Railway (GCR) bridge over the A60. As RUDDINGTON.info reported last month, this brand new structure was needed to replace the old bridge (number 326) near the Brush factory, on the outskirts of Loughborough, which was in such poor condition that the line over it needed to be closed on safety grounds back in September…
Read More£8k Funding for Improved Museum Shop
Staff and volunteers at Ruddington’s historic Framework Knitters’ Museum are celebrating the award of new cash to upgrade their newly established café and shop. ‘Parker’s Yard’ was added late last year when the museum site expanded into the former ‘Gun Cottage’ – between the original workers’ cottages and frameshops and the old Knitters’ Chapel. This allowed a brand new visitor entrance, hospitality and retail area – including a separate new garden. It was achieved via grants totalling hundreds of thousands of pounds from The Heritage Lottery Fund, FCC Communities Foundation, various…
Read MoreGoodbye Bridge As Rail ‘Reunification’ Gets Closer
A future era when trains will once again be able to run all the way from Ruddington to Leicester has got another step nearer this month – with the removal of an unsafe railway bridge over the A60. The old bridge near the Brush factory, on the outskirts of Loughborough, has been a landmark for road users visiting the town during the last 125 years. Originally it was not anticipated having to replace this historic structure as part of Great Central Railway’s ‘Reunification’ plans – an ambitious railway reconnection project to…
Read MoreSeeds and Strolling for Uganda
It’s now three years since we first found out that Ruddington’s last remaining public telephone box would be decommissioned – when BT Payphones announced its lack of use made it no longer viable to keep it in service. The Grade II listed, traditional, red, cast iron kiosk in front of the War Memorial on Church Street {pictured top left} is a Type K6 designed in 1935 by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. Because it’s an important heritage landmark, within our village Conservation Area, ideas were invited to put it to an alternative use through…
Read MoreTelly Fame For Our Framework Knitters!
Ruddington will feature on national television again this week – after a well known presenter and her camera crew secretly dropped in on one of our village’s heritage attractions earlier in the year. It was at the start of February that BBC1‘s Bargain Hunt came to Nottinghamshire, where host Natasha Raskin Sharp and experts Ben Cooper and Izzie Balmer brought the two teams antique hunting. During the morning of Friday February 4th Natasha visited Ruddington’s Framework Knitters’ Museum on Chapel Street to discover how a 16th-century curate revolutionised the world of knitting –…
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