Nottingham Industrial Museum
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The Nottingham Industrial Museum is a volunteer-run museum situated in part of the 17th-century stables block of Wollaton Hall, located in a suburb of the city of Nottingham.[1] The museum won the Nottinghamshire Heritage Site of the Year Award 2012, a local accolade issued by Experience Nottinghamshire.[2] The Museum collection closed in 2009 after Nottingham City Council withdrew funding, but has since reopened at weekends and bank holidays, helped by a £91,000 government grant,[3][4] and run by volunteers. [a] The museum contains a display of local textiles machinery, transport, telecommunications, mining and engineering technology. There is a display of cycles, motorcycles, and motor cars. There are examples of significant lace-making machinery. It also houses an operational beam engine, from the Basford, Nottingham pumping station.
Context
Collections
The museum divides the displays relating to five areas: Textiles, Transport, Communications, Mining and Steam.
Textiles
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Two key inventions originating from Nottinghamshire gave rise to the local textile industry:
- In 1589, William Lee (inventor) of Calverton (just north of Nottingham), developed a framework knitting machine that enabled the manufacture of large volumes of stocking hoses at speeds far in excess of those achievable by hand knitting. By the 1760s there were some 20,000 of these machines installed in cottages dotted around the East Midlands and centred on Nottingham.[5] This represented approximately 90% of the total number of such machines in the UK. The Nottingham Industrial Museum has a number of examples of these machines. One of the museum's framework knitting machines incorporates a Lace Bar Attachment. This attachment, invented in Nottingham in about 1760, enables a form of knitted lace to be made on a framework knitting machine.
- In 1808 Luddites broke into Heathcoat's Loughborough factory and smashed many of his machines. Rather than accept government compensation for the damage to his factory, Heathcoat elected to move his operations to Tiverton in Devon.[6] Following the expiry of Heathcoat's patent in 1825, there was a rapid expansion in machine lace-making in the Nottingham area. The firm of John Leaverssoon became major manufacturers of such machines. These machines were installed in Nottingham's lace factories and driven by overhead line shafts powered by stationary steam engines located in the factory engine houses. At its peak, the Nottingham Lace Industry used over 1,000 such machines and was the centre the World's machine-made lace industry. Some 30,000 people were employed in that industry in the Nottingham area.
The galleries at Nottingham Industrial Museum feature
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Transport
There is a small collection of restored
Communication
Exhibits show how Nottingham changed the communications industry, and how the communications industry changed the daily lives of Nottingham people. Visitors can see and hear restored vintage radios and gramophones dating back to the 1920s, and tap their own Morse code message on a telegraph system [10]
Mining and agriculture
In the yard is a coal truck from Clifton Colliery from the days when this mine was providing most of the coal for the nearby Wilford Power Station which was situated on the site of what is now the Riverside Retail Park. Nearby is situated a restored living van. These were towed behind steam engines and steam rollers and provided accommodation for labourers whilst working on farms or road works. There are usually a number of tractors to be found in the tractor yard and these can sometimes be seen working during steaming days.
Outside the engine-house is a yard which is home to a number of barn engines, used previously to drive items like pumps and agricultural machinery. There are examples from manufacturers such as Wolseley. The barn engines are usually seen operating at steaming days.
Engines
The Steam Gallery
Other exhibits
An operational model railway can also be seen in the steam hall along with a working model of a Robey stationary engine. In a separate room, there is a very large stationary mill engine that was previously housed in a Nottinghamshire pub before being rescued by the museum. Behind the mill engine lies a 00 gauge railway display. Alongside the communications exhibits are clocks and printing machines. There are also items from prominent local companies such as
Notes
References
- ^ "Nottingham Industrial Museum".
- ^ "2012 Nottinghamshire Heritage Awards".
- ^ Nottingham Industrial Museum reopens after three years, BBC News, Nottingham, 17 March 2012. Retrieved 7 April 2017
- ^ Nottingham Industrial Museum, events calendar 2017, Retrieved 7 April 2017
- ^ a b "Short history of Nottinghamshire". BBC. Retrieved 30 July 2017.
- ^ a b "History - The University of Nottingham". www.nottingham.ac.uk.
- ^ "Historic Brough motorcycles discovered in Cornwall barn". BBC News. 14 December 2015.
- ^ Nottingham Industrial Museum - Transport Gallery
- )
- ^ Nottingham Industrial Museum - Local Industries
- ^ Nottingham Industrial Museum - Live Steaming Day
- ^ Nottingham Industrial Museum - Steam Hall
- ^ Grace's Guide to British Industrial History
External links
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