Written by our volunteer Charlie (aka-Santa's elf!)   At the beginning of Queen Victoria’s reign, Christmas was barely celebrated in Britain. By the end however, it was considered to be the most important event of the calendar, with a  focus on traditions and family. Charles Dickens contributed massively to the spread of these traditions through his famous book ‘A Christmas Carol’, a book that influenced how many Victorian families approached the season. It is widely believed that Prince Albert was responsible for the introduction of the Christmas tree. He was born in Germany, where Evergreen trees were traditionally brought into...

Blog written by Max Biddulph J. P. Collins and Sons Waltzer De Luxe, Ilkeston Market Place, October 1957.www.picturethepast.org (copyright uncertain As the days shorten and September moves into October, Ilkestonians look forward to Ilkeston Charter Fair which, along with Oxford St Giles and Loughborough Fair, is unique in England as one of our few remaining great street fairs. This year’s event will be held between the 19th and 22 October, 2016, and will celebrate the 764th granting of the Charter by Henry III in 1252. As a young person growing up in the town in the 1960s, my memories of the...

Hi my name is Jasmine and I’m a year 10 pupil at Kimberley School. I’ve not been volunteering at Erewash Museum verylong and I only usually do 1 hour a week as I am studying for my GCSE’s. At every parent’s evening I always get the same report as I have done since I was in year 1: ‘Jasmine is an excellent pupil, her class work and homework is good but she is too quiet. Sometimes you don’t know sheis there. She needs to contribute more in class’ I am very shy and after my last parent’s evening my mum said...

We are nearing the end of National Volunteer's Week and our next blog has been written by our Volunteer Coorodinator Rebecca.  Rebecca joined us at the end of 2014 as part of our Heritage Lottery Funded project and since then our volunteer programme has flourished.  “Volunteering is the ultimate exercise in democracy. You vote in elections once a year, but when you volunteer, you vote every day for the kind of community you want to live in.” (Unknown) The UK’s Office of National Statistics estimates the value of volunteers to the economy as £23.9 billion. This Volunteers’ Week, I want to...

I’ve been a volunteer at the museum since March last year. After retiring from work at the end of January last year I felt I would like to do something which was completely different to my working life and also hoped it would enable me to meet new people. I haven’t been disappointed. A warm welcome is guaranteed from the moment you walk through the door; the museum is such a friendly place and I have also met some lovely people amongst the other volunteers too. I mostly do general admin work when I’m there which utilises my word processing skills, but I have also done such...

Our fourth blog post celebrating National Volunteer's Week is written by our of our Young Creative Curators John Cosslett who has been working with the collections at the museum since last year. 'I enjoy working as a volunteer at The Erewash Museum because I get to scan photographs and see things like royal visits to the town in the past, and photos of Stanton Ironworks.  I like looking and seeing what it was like to live in the past.  I have always wanted to do this kind of thing since I was a young boy and I would love to have more knowledge...

  Today is the first day of National Volunteer's Week- here at the museum we have been working hard over the past 18 months to develop our volunteering opportunities and increase our volunteer team.  We now have over 40 active volunteers carrying out a range of projects and activities from event work, helping to document and care for the museum's collections, assisting with school visits and more recently running our brand new tea room for us! During National Volunteer's Week we will have a display in the museum entrance with testimonies from our volunteers.  If you are interested in joining...

Here at Erewash Museum we thought it important to mark International Women’s Day (IWD) even though it came at an extremely busy time for us as we are preparing for Old Stables at Dalby House launch. Planning began a few months ago at a staff meeting and we came up with a few ideas and the project evolved and will continue evolving into 2017. As Dalby House was a former residence we asked some of our volunteers to help research the important women associated with the building Erewash Museum occupies. We soon found out that although we have extensive files relating...

Changing times at Dalby House… From the time it was built until the end of the Second World War, Dalby House had been a private house where women were wives, mothers, daughters or servants of the influential men of the house. Censuses from the time do not list women’s occupations, only those of the men, unless those women are servants. But, as society changed, so did the position and influence of women. The status and use of Dalby House would change forever, as would the influence of women on the property and its uses. In 1946, Dalby House was up for...

A Victorian Maid at Dalby House Throughout its history as a private family residence, Dalby House would have been looked after by a team of servants. Dalby House was quite a small house compared to some of the stately homes in the country but would still have employed domestic servants such as housemaids, a cook, stable boys, grooms, gardeners etc. Until the twentieth century, domestic service was one of the most common occupations for working women. Girls often became maids as young as ten years old. Usually, they would start as a Scullery Maid, doing the worst jobs in the house...

International Women's Day- blog written by our museum volunteer Jeff I was asked to write something about why I, as a man, was supporting International Women’s Day. I found this quite hard to put into words at first, so I had a look at the United Nations web site for some inspiration. The hash tag being used for International Women’s Day is #PledgeForParity. Parity is defined in the dictionary as “equality, as in amount, status, or character.” The motto the United Nations is also using for IWD is “Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality” Looking at both of...

International Women’s Day at Erewash Museum Welcome to the first in a series of blog posts celebrating International Women’s Day. This year’s theme is ‘Pledge for Parity’ – celebrating women’s social, political and cultural contributions all over the world but also recognising that, in some parts of the world, progress towards true gender equality has slowed, so action is needed to achieve parity. At Erewash Museum, we feel International Women’s Day is very important. In discussing ways we could do this, we found ourselves comparing the lives and expectations of the women who had lived and worked in our museum building...

It’s finally here! We are excited to say that The Old Stables Learning and Visitor Centre redevelopment will be open next month! This launch is a culmination of over five years of work by the museum team to secure funding to enable us to restore the original stables, coach house and hayloft and build an extension to improve visitor facilities and provide improved access via a platform lift. During these last few weeks we are busy installing our exhibitions and getting everything ready for our grand opening on Saturday 26th March 2016 Building works included an extension to the hayloft, a...

Our Arts Development team are raising awareness of two amazing projects they are running.  Arts At The Heart is a project for isolated older people. If you live by yourself in Kirk Hallam or are not able toget out and about this could be for you. Big Kirk Hallam are working with Erewash Borough Council to provide isolated older people with up to 8 free weekly arts and craft sessions at home and assistance to take part in a free local community arts group too. Our next community arts groups are at Kirk Hallam Community Hall,Kenilworth Drive. Next to the Children's...

On Friday 9th October we attended the 9th annual Derbyshire Heritage Awards at Cromford Mills and were delighted to come away with the Judges Special Award for our work engaging with the local community!  This award recognises the Museum Roadshow events that have taken place all over the borough of Erewash this Summer and are part of our Heritage Lottery Funded project. The Awards are run by the Derbyshire Museums and Heritage Forum and celebrate all the wonderful work taking place in museums, historic houses and heritage sites across the county. The Awards were funded by the Derbyshire Museums and Heritage...

Work started on site at the museum in April to transform the Old Stables area of the museum into a new Learning and Visitor Centre.  This exciting development at the museum has been funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and will incorporate an exhibition area, learning and community space, and there will also be a refreshment area run by The Friends of Erewash Museum. The exhibition will tell the story of Dalby House, the museum building, and the people who once lived and worked here.  The Hayloft will serve as a learning suite for delivery of formal and informal education sessions,...

This moulded wall plaque (number 2012.47) is a depiction of Leonardo da Vinci's 'The Last Supper' and was donated to Erewash Museum in 2011. The plaque was produced at Stanton Ironworks and is believed to have been made as part of an apprenticeship. It recently featured on an episode of ITV's 'Dickenson's Real Deal' when Museum Manager Nicola Wood took an assortment of Stanton Ironworks related objects along to the show and spoke about the importance of the role the Ironworks has in the heritage of the local area. It is known that a number of similar wall plaques depicting 'The...

On Saturday October 18th we celebrated Ilkeston's 762 Charter Fair with our very own Charter Fair Event. The day was a great success and we had over 1500 visitors to the Museum. The Gavioli Organ created a great atmosphere in the car park with fairground music and the steam engine was as popular as ever with crowds assembled along High Street to see it leave the Museum at the end of the day. The Ilkeston Fair Association was also in attendance with fantastic displays and objects to tell the history of Ilkeston Fair. A brief history of Ilkeston Charter Fair Henry III...

Long Eaton Roll of Honour In honour of Remembrance this year we are reissuing our blog linking to the Long Eaton Roll of Honour. This brilliant resource is put up here in simple form with the kind permission of Peter Fox and Keith Reedman.  This is a list of the men and women from Long Eaton and District who served in the armed forces during World War One. It was created from various lists, letters and obituaries published in the Long Eaton Advertiser and the names on the Long Eaton ‘Roll of Honour’. It has around 1,700 names but may not be...

This magnificent axe-head was discovered in West Park, Long Eaton in 1968. It dates to the Early Bronze Age period, approximately 2000 BC. An examination of the stone suggests that the axe was made somewhere near Nuneaton. The polished finish shows how skilled the maker must have been. A hole has been drilled at one end to allow a shaft of wood to be attached and used as a handle. The Bronze Age in Britain lasted from roughly 2500 BC to 700 BC and was a period of great change. The production and use of bronze tools and weapons increased dramatically...