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Industry by Professor John Beckett

Number 2 colliery, Hucknall in 1909

Number 2 colliery, Hucknall, c.1909.

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Photographic

There is no dedicated local photographic collection relating to industry, but as with all subjects relating to the history of the county, researchers are advised to consult the picture collection held at Nottingham Central Library, Angel Row, Nottingham. Picture the Past - Picture Nottingham - a joint project by the local authorities of Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Derby who are currently putting a vast range of photos onto a website www.picturethepast.org.uk.

Mansfield Museum has a collection of photographs relating to industry of that area.

Bassetlaw Museum: see Welchman Collection on website for photographs of Bassetlaw district.

The Public Record Office holds the main coal industry archive, including much photographic material on Nottinghamshire collieries.

Publications by R Iliffe & W Baguley of the Nottingham Historical Film Unit: (Victorian Nottingham, vols 1-.19; Edwardian Nottingham, vols 1-3). The collection was broken up and dispersed amongst various organisations but the NLSL have the negatives to all of the collection. However, they are not fully indexed (only rough subjects) and are difficult to access.

Since the 1980s there have been many books of historic photographs of the county, published by local newspapers (especially Nottingham Evening Post), Alan Sutton Ltd, the European Library and ‘Reflections of a Bygone Age’, Keyworth {The “In Old Postcards” series}.

Film and video

NLSL has loan copies of various films and videos, including Saturday Night and Sunday Morning based on Alan Sillitoe's powerful novel of 1960, filmed in Nottingham, partly in now demolished Raleigh factories.

For specialist film and video evidence contact the Media Archive of Central England (MACE), whose director is James Patterson (james.patterson@nottingham.ac.uk. Tel 0115 966 448)

Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation (CISWO), The Old Rectory, Rectory Drive, Whiston, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, S60 4JG, Tel: 01709 728115 / 728109 has a good collection of British Coal educational and promotional films, many of which feature the Nottinghamshire coalfield.

Windmill on Skerry Hill, Mansfield. Detail from watercolour by A S Buxton.

Artistic

19th century engravings – Nottinghamshire Local Studies Library

For Nottingham, the earliest depictions of industrial activity are found in the plates of Thoroton 1677 and Deering 1751 [NLSL & Nottinghamshire Archives]. Prospects of the town by Kip & Knyff (1707), Samuel & Nathaniel Buck (1740s) and Thomas Sandby (1740s) are also useful [Nottingham Castle Museum].

The Nottingham Castle and Art Museum has a wide range of pictures of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire – a list is compiled in the Fine Art Collection handlist available at the Castle. Many are on show within the exhibition programme and researchers are advised to ring the Castle Museum fror details (0115 915 3700). Heather Williams, Nottingham Artists, 1750-1924, (University of Nottingham PhD Thesis, 1981) is a good source providing information on artists and what they painted.

In the late nineteenth century the work of T.W. Hammond has provided many atmospheric (but topographically loose) views of the town at work [Nottingham Castle Museum and Nottinghamshire Local Studies Library].