Bennerley Viaduct is an extremely important local historical monument which the local community hold close to their hearts. In 2016 we hosted an exhibition telling the story about its fascinating history and how it relates closely to the historical development of Ilkeston and the Erewash Valley.  This has been very worthwhile and made many more people aware of the great heritage assets they have on their doorstep. Sustrans’ proposal to restore Bennerley Viaduct and make it publically accessible by building ramps and paths up to it and across is very popular in the local community. By bringing the viaduct into use...

We are pleased to announce that we are working with Long Eaton and District 50+ Forum for their “Toton Sidings Remembered” Project The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) have awarded £9,600 to the Forum to work for 18 months with The Erewash Museum and local schools to revive memories of this amazing local heritage, once the largest railway marshalling yard in Europe handling 2 million wagons a year. The project management group includes Pete Wearn and David Farley from the forum, local railway enthusiasts Brian Amos and Phil Burton who some readers will know from their inspiring talks about the yards and Helen Martinez...

The cottages were built around 1779 at Sandiacre Lock on the Erewash Canal. Although each of the 14 locks along the twelve and a half miles length of the Canal had a lock cottage attached, Sandiacre Lock cottages are the only ones that remain today. The cottages at Sandiacre housed the families of the lock and toll house keepers. When the canal first opened Industry along the Erewash Canal was extremely busy and sometimes hectic. The movement of commerce along the canal included coal and iron products as examples and the links with other canals and the River Trent meant goods...

Last month, the museum marked Holocaust Memorial Day. During the week, we shared blogs from our volunteers Susan, Kate and Jessica, all of who felt moved to put their thoughts into writing. In the museum itself, we had a display to mark the day. It presented materials provided by the Holocaust Memorial Trust, to allow our visitors to engage with the history of genocide, to understand the Holocaust and the genocides which have happened since. We also asked them two important questions: How can life go on? And what can we learn from history? In response, staff, volunteers and visitors wrote...

Blog and poem by Jessica Palmer Holocaust Memorial Day is, in my opinion, one of the most important days in the year and it should be treated in the same way as Remembrance Day. HMD isn’t just about the genocide that took place during World War II, it is also about remembering victims of the other genocides that have happened in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. It is about remembering the huge and incredibly unjust loss of life that has taken place and to serve as a reminder that this should never happen again.27th January is the date chosen for HMD...

When my Grandpa was a little boy all his parents’ wanted for him was a safe place for him to grow up and get his education. They were living in Russia and as Jews they had been horribly racially abused and persecuted pogroms. Germany between WW1 and WW2 was being run by a liberal government called Weimar and my Great-Grandparents decided that they would live a better life in this artistic and prosperous country. After Hitler came to power, through manipulating this democracy of Weimar, he stirred up anger against the harsh terms imposed on Germany at the end of WW1...

This blog has been written by Sue Dickson, one of the museum's volunteers.  In the 20th century, thousands of men, women and children died at the hands of Hitler's henchmen for maintaining their neutrality in political and nationalistic issues. These were subjected to either hard labour, torture, medical experiments, death by firing squads or the gas chambers. The triangle was the symbol of identification used within the Nazi concentration camps e.g. Yellow star for Jews, red for political prisoners, purple for Jehovah’s Witnesses, pink for homosexual men and black for the mentally ill or mentally disabled. For this blog I will...

  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...

here is a blog written by one of our young volunteers Aiden reviewing our recent Heritage Day, we hope you enjoy it! In the museum we had several organisations come in to explain what they do. This included - The Local History Society, Portable Antiques Scheme and Friends of the Museum group. Firstly, I spoke with the local history society that came in to support the museum on the society’s 50th anniversary. This society hold information about the history of the museum and other local areas. They produce books about which are sold worldwide. They do this because they want to...

Event blog written by our young volunteer Aiden: When I walked through the gates of the museum, I felt like I had actually travelled back in time tothe forties. There were people wearing old fashioned clothes like old police and military uniforms; people were singing old fashioned songs and others were dancing to them. There were also old fashioned cars like ‘Austins’ and old ‘Willys jeeps’ from the war. Inside the museum was a lady who was telling people about the rations and how it all worked using the ration book to get a certain amount of food and using coupons...

The Big Knit Blog- written by one of our young volunteers Aiden Here at Erewash Museum, we have contributed to World Wide Knit in Public Day again this year. Our event was dedicated to knitting for peace with blankets being produced to send around the world. People from all ages came to the event, those that were experienced or those who just wanted to learn;they also helped to make the event possible. The people that came along also came to have fun and chat with each other but they also wanted to help support the cause. By 1pm 23 knitters had...

Awsworth Primary School – Bennerley Viaduct Workshop On Friday 24th June Pine Class from Awsworth Primary School visited Erewash Museum to continue their projectwork on Bennerley Viaduct. They took part in a fact finding quiz, had a chance to look at the fantastic ‘Rediscovering Bennerley Viaduct:The Iron Giant of the Erewash Valley’ exhibition and got creative with matchsticks and paint. Look at some of the brilliant prints they produced inspired by the wrought iron lattice work of the viaduct. If you want to know more about Bennerley Viaduct and Sustrans plans for its future the ‘Rediscovering BennerleyViaduct:The Iron Giant 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 workat the end of January last year I felt I would like to do something which wascompletely different to my working life and also hoped it would enable me tomeet new people. I haven’t been disappointed. A warm welcome is guaranteed fromthe moment you walk through the door; the museum is such a friendly place and Ihave also met some lovely people amongst the other volunteers too. I mostly do general admin work when I’m there which utilises my word processingskills, 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...

We are happy to be supporting National Volunteer's Week which runs until 12th June.  This third blog post focuses on how volunteering can contribute toward career development in our sector. Pursuing a career in museums and heritage can be a daunting task, it can be difficult to find out where to start, what qualifications you need, what different types of work you can do, and how much experience will be required for different job roles.  It's also an extremely rewarding career choice in an ever changing sector and one that attracts people who are inherently passionate about what they do. Whilst the...

Here at the museum we are busy celebrating National Volunteer's Week by promoting the good work that our volunteers do, raising the profile of volunteering, and saying thank you to the amazing volunteers we have. This second blog post focuses on our brand new Tea Room team led by The Friends of the Museum who are now running our new refreshment area in the Old Stable Block.  Everyone working in here is a volunteer and all profits are being fed back into future museum projects and events.  The new Tea Room has been developed as part of our Heritage Lottery Fund relaunch which...

  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...