Tag: History

Museum’s ‘Victorian Life Swap’

Graham Wright

Back in July we reported how Ruddington’s Framework Knitters’ Museum had reopened with a more personal and ‘socially distanced’ visitor experience – having been shut for four months due to first COVID-19 ‘lockdown’. With full Coronavirus restrictions sadly now back on, once again the doors are firmly closed to the public until at least December 2nd. However, with spare time on their hands once more, staff at the popular village visitor attraction began to wonder what life must have been like without many of the things we take for granted. How…

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Museum Reopens for a New Chapter

Graham Wright

Having been closed since ‘lockdown’ began in March, Ruddington’s Framework Knitters’ Museum is reopening on Wednesday July 29th.* During closure, the team has been developing a more personal and ‘socially distanced’ visitor experience which it’s promised will be fun, interesting and safe. From this date, anyone visiting will be able to book the whole site for two hours to explore it with their family or social bubble. To make the tour as safe as possible, visitors will be asked to wear (knitted) cotton gloves as they explore the workers’ cottages…

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‘Fork Handles’ Gets Connected

Graham Wright

A small but state-of-the-art new property development in Ruddington will again be the cause of some good old-fashioned roadworks this week – as the site gets reconnected to the mains gas supply! The crumbling, former Bostock’s DIY shop at 70, Wilford Road, which closed in 2015, was bought by Ruddington’s Mascari Design Solutions Ltd and demolished two years’ ago to make way for two contemporary homes on the land – to be called ‘Fork Handles’ and ‘The Yard’ in tribute to their heritage. Since then a rather lengthy spell of construction work has been taking place –…

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Extraordinary Tales from Ruddington and Beyond

Graham Wright

After months of research and preparation, Ruddington Village Museum‘s eagerly awaited ‘Objects and Stories’ exhibition opens to the public today. It’s being staged in the Old Chapel at the Framework Knitters’ Museum and presents “a small but diverse” collection of objects loaned by local residents, each with a fascinating story behind its existence. This project is the first of its kind to be jointly co-ordinated by the museum and staff and students from Nottingham Trent University. To kick things off, their now rather famous MA student, Feixue Huangdu, is directing…

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Planning Permission Blow for Village Salon

Graham Wright

A much loved Ruddington hairdresser is having to relocate her business, and a single mum to leave her home, after Rushcliffe Borough Council (RBC) planners approved controversial new redevelopment proposals earlier than expected. {There’s now an update below.*} We reported last week that an application had been made to convert 25 and 25A Easthorpe Street back into two, purely residential properties. Unfortunately no one thought to tell current occupier, Jane Hallam of the ‘Hair Flair’ salon – who instead heard about it from her neighbour! When RBC was made aware of her plight, it agreed to extend the window…

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Village Salon Threatened With Closure

Graham Wright

A Ruddington business owner has learned with shock and dismay that she will lose her livelihood if proposals to redevelop her historic premises are given the go-ahead by Rushcliffe planners. Jane Hallam’s ‘Hair Flair’ salon is thought now to be the village’s oldest hairdresses and has been at 25A Easthorpe Street for around half a century. Mrs Hallam has rented the unit for the last twenty five years, since she took over the business. It’s a successful and popular salon used by many people from our village and beyond –…

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Have Your Say on ‘A Right Good Yarn’

Graham Wright

We’re being invited to share our views on the Framework Knitters’ Museum expansion proposals – for a chance to win £100. The Ruddington tourist attraction is inviting you to have your say on its “emerging development plans that are set to transform the site as we know it today”. It says the aim is to deliver new displays and exhibitions along with an improved visitor route connecting the three spaces and offering better retail and catering facilities. After the museum received initial National Lottery support for its redevelopment and expansion project called…

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Bombs to Butterflies Revisited

Graham Wright

Older Ruddingtonians will remember the days before Rushcliffe Country Park – when this sizeable area of the village was used as an Ordnance Storage and Disposal Depot. Our senior citizens will perhaps have even earlier memories – when it housed a bomb-filling factory during the Second World War. In 2003, a book called ‘Bombs to Butterflies’ was published by The Ruddington History Society and The Friends of Rushcliffe Country Park. It was edited by Margaret Lawson and told the history of the area from wartime up to when it became a…

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Museum Helps Secure £70k of Lottery Funding

Graham Wright

One of Ruddington’s museums has helped to secure a major cash boost for for a regional project recording our textile heritage. ‘Textile Tales’, which is being led by Nottingham Trent University,has received a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant of £70,000 for an initiative across the East Midlands shared between our own Framework Knitters’ Museum, Mansfield Museum, Erewash Museum and Nottingham City Museums at Lakeside Arts. Made possible by money raised by National Lottery players, the project aims to engage local communities here in the historic heart of the UK’s textile industry. It’s also being supported by The…

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Village Museum’s 438,000 Visitors in One Day!

Graham Wright

It’s been revealed that Ruddington’s rather compact and bijou Village Museum in St Peter’s Rooms received an astonishing 438 thousand visitors when it was open this week – all of whom managed to see some of its many treasures within just an hour and twenty minutes! It was thanks to a visit by Nottingham Trent University (NTU) student Feixue Huangdu – who undertook a comprehensive tour of the museum accompanied by a variety of volunteer guides whilst ‘live streaming’ it all on the internet. It seems Feixue’s webcasts have become extremely…

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