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…
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Thanks to King Charles III, this year we’re getting no less than THREE Bank Holiday Mondays during May. For most villagers, the most significant of these is this coming weekend, 6th to 8th May 2023, when Ruddington will once again be pulling out all the stops to celebrate the Coronation of our new monarch. Village centre businesses such as The Honeycomb Christian Charity Shop (pictured top) are already decorated and stocked up for the occasion! Before that, this Friday (May 5th) children attending St Peter’s Junior School will will be…
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Visit the Village Museum that’s housed within part of St Peter’s Rooms, which was Ruddington’s former Victorian school. It’s open on Thursday 10.00am – 12noon from 6th April to 28th September. This museum was founded in 1968. It explores retail life in late Victorian and early Edwardian Ruddington through a series of displays which recreate the village shops of yesteryear. These include the world’s oldest surviving Fish ‘n’ Chip shop interior – relocated from the original premises on the corner of Ruddington High Street and The Green. ADMISSION Adults: £2.50…
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Ruddington’s Framework Knitters’ Museum is celebrating its long-standing textile artist and technical demonstrator, Helen Brownett, by presenting her with an achievement award for International Women’s Day, which is TODAY (Wednesday 8th March 2023). The accolade is in recognition of Helen’s 28 years of service here, inspiring thousands of visitors and encouraging many to become interested in knitting on the museum’s hand powered ‘Griswold’ machines. Helen is best known for her elaborate ‘office’; which is filled with hundreds of yarns of wool, creating a unique and vibrant workspace! Museum manager Sarah Godfrey…
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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!”
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The retail area of one of Ruddington’s top tourist attractions has been transformed this week thanks to a significant cash boost. We reported in October how £8,335 had been awarded towards The Framework Knitter’s Museum‘s ‘Shop Improvement Project’ through the Museum Development East Midlands (MDEM)’s Recovery and Reboot Grants. This also included core funding and a donation from ‘The Friends of the Ruddington Framework Knitters’ Museum’. It’s involved the installation of a reception desk for ‘point of sale’ alongside extensive new display cabinets and shelving in ‘Parker’s Yard’ – which sits within the former…
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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…
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A Ruddington legend has been busy again – this time launching her new book about a very specific bit of our village history. You may or may not have realised that 2017 marked the 50th anniversary of James Peacock Infant and Nursery School‘s move from St Peter’s Rooms on Church Street to its current, larger premises at Manor Park. At the time of this half-century celebration, Barbara Breakwell was a School Governor (from 2009 to 2018) and also the Treasurer of ‘The Friends of James Peacock School’. “I like local history…
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The recently opened coffee shop within the new extension and gardens at Ruddington’s knitting and textile museum is now officially in new hands – following its ‘launch’ this weekend. The Split Screen Coffee Company – which has previously traded from The Bottle Top on High Street as well as from its famous converted VW camper van – is now running the hospitality area at Parker’s Yard within the former ‘Gunn Cottage’. Along with the museum gift shop and its Old Chapel, these are areas of Ruddington’s internationally famous tourist attraction which can…
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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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