Trent to Trenches is a City and County-wide programme of events taking place during 2014 to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War. It includes a major exhibition at Nottingham Castle from Saturday 26th July to Sunday 16th November 2014, together with a range of smaller exhibitions, events and research projects taking place throught the county.

Nottingham Castle Exhibition

Marking one hundred years since the outbreak of the Great War, this exhibition explores the experiences of the people of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, at home and in the trenches in Northern France, through powerful images, diaries, letters and artefacts. The exhibition will draw on a range of collections, including loans from national institutions. The themes will be broad ranging, covering the involvement of local people in all theatres of the global conflict, their involvement in all services and on the home front and examining the changes wrought on society by the conflict.

Further information about the project and how you could become involved can be found on the Trent to Trenches website.

The Heritage Awards are an to gather with colleagues and stakeholders, celebrate the work of Nottinghahshire’s heritage organisations and showcase best practice.  In previous years the awards have generated great publicity for all the participants and helped to raise the profile of heritage in Nottinghahshire.

Although the Heritage Forum has worked in partnership with Renaissance East Midlands to support the awards in previous years, 2014 will be our second occasion running them as an independent body.  We are grateful to Nottingham Trent University for providing sponsorship for the awards and a venue for the ceremony, and support from the Culture Syndicates with the administration of the awards.

The categories, eligibility and timetable are:

Categories:

• Best Event
• Best Exhibition
• Award for the Care & Development of Collections
• Award for Work with Children & Young People
• Inspiration Award for Best Special Project
• New for 2014 Special Contribution Award
• Heritage Site of the Year

Eligibility:

• All activity must have been undertaken between 1^st May 2012 and 30^th April 2014
• Entry is open to forum members, except for the Special Contribution  Award which is open to all individuals and organsiations involved with heritage activities in Nottinghamshire

Timetable:

• Closing Date for entries: Sunday 1^st June
• Short listing will take place during the week commencing June 9th. All entrants will be notified of the results of this stage by early in the week commencing June 16th.
• Judging visits, where relevant, are expected to be during the week commencing June 23rd.
• Winners will be announced at the ceremony on July 17th.

The awards ceremony will be on the evening of Thursday July 17th at the Nottingham Conference Centre, Nottingham Trent University, Burton Street.

The Framework Knitters Museum at Ruddington is raising funds for an exciting project which would enlarge and unify this unique heritage site. For the first time in a generation the nineteenth-century framework knitter’s cottages that currently divide the museum’s buildings into two separate sites are available for purchase. Acquiring these would transform the museum and dramatically improve what it can offer visitors and school groups.

The museum is appealing to its past and current supporters for help to raise the funds required to acquire Gunn Cottage before it is sold on the open market:

A Rare Opportunity

The Framework Knitters Museum is a fast-growing, forwards-looking, dynamic museum, and this success is due to the commitment and support from people like you. With your help we now have a once in a generation opportunity to make it even better. Expanding our site to include the neighbouring cottage block will enable us to unite our existing buildings into a single site and provide us with the space to finally do justice to Nottinghamshire’s rich textile heritage. Your support will enable us to offer you improved visitor facilities, create new exhibition spaces, enable us to host bigger events, develop a designated educational resource space and provide a fitting home for our unique textile collection. Greater space will enable us to become a community resource at the heart of Ruddington life and establish us as a key heritage destination for the entire region.

A Museum with a Mission

The museum has already made major improvements in the past two years. Visitor numbers are at their highest ever, and our events in 2012 and 2013, our most popular yet, generating record levels of funding. Our plans however require more funding than we can generate alone.

We remain committed to continuing to enhance the experience and opportunities that we can offer visitors, and have twice been awarded financial support from the prestigious Heritage Lottery Fund in recognition of this. With a variety of funders already committed to our current £100,000 improvement plans for 2013-14 we are already working hard to enhance the physical environment of our historic site, develop new displays and materials, introduce a brand new educational package, and unveil Britain’s only permanent Luddite exhibition.

However, without your help to extend our site we can only take these improvements so far and we are limited in how many people we can accommodate. The purchase of this neighbouring cottage block is our opportunity to gain the space that will guarantee future growth and expansion of our services.

This is why the museum has launched a fundraising campaign, and why it needs the help of supporters old and new. As the only museum dedicated to celebrating the history of Nottingham textiles, and learning from the story of its poor workers, we need your support.

You can make a donation online via the museum’s website