Flowers and ‘Busy Bug Trail’ in Ruddington

You may already have spotted the new, knitted floral displays adorning parts of our village centre this summer, thanks to the collective creative talents of those ‘Ruddington Yarn Ninjas’. What perhaps you might not realise is that, as well as this latest ‘yarn bomb’, there’s a ‘Busy Bug Trail’ around Ruddington for the kids to follow, too. Ninja Katie Goy explains: “Some of the lovely traders around the village have been visited by our busy bugs this summer. How many can you find and where are they?” “ALSO enter our free prize…

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Museum Volunteer’s Lasting Legacy

Ruddington’s Framework Knitters’ Museum has had some very special visitors from America this month – the family of a woman whose generous gift greatly helped to make its recent expansion plans possible. Many villagers will already know that our internationally famous tourist attraction has been transformed in the last couple of years by the purchase of the former ‘Gunn Cottage’ at the end of Chapel Street. It’s been converted into an impressive new entrance and reception area – plus shop and cafe – acting as a proper ‘gateway’ into Ruddington’s…

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Framework Knitters Ready for the Summer!

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…

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Adopt 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…

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£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…

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New Ruddington Café Launches

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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Telly 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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New Museum Manager Announced

Following the stepping back of former manager and curator Jim Grevatte, Ruddington’s Framework Knitters’ Museum has just revealed its latest boss. After completing “a competitive recruitment process” for their new ‘Operations Manager’ role, the venues’ Trustees say they are “delighted” to announce that Ruddington resident Sarah Godfrey has been appointed. Sarah is already well known for her extensive community work within our village. The Trustees add: “With a strong arts background, Sarah brings us an unusual combination of both creativity and commercial awareness, as well as a wealth of experience…

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It’s Goodbye to Jim

The man who has guided a Ruddington museum through one of the most important periods in its history has now left for pastures new. Jim Grevatte, who’s been the Manager and Curator at The Framework Knitters’ Museum since December 2018, has just stepped down from the role following the appointment of a new ‘Operations Manager’.* However, he will continue as a trustee for our internationally famous Chapel Street tourist attraction. Over the last three years, Jim has been instrumental in implementing (amongst many other things) the ‘Right Good Yarn’ project…

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