This is a guest blog by Claire Crompton, a Geography undergraduate student undertaking a placement with Manuscripts and Special Collections, with a response from Tony Simpson, former assistant to Ken Coates MEP.

Claire Crompton:

During my placement with the Manuscripts and Special Collections team, I worked on the local environmental files of Ken Coates. Coates was a left-wing politician and activist, and Member of European Parliament for Nottinghamshire North and Chesterfield. These files dated from the mid-1980s to the early 2000s, some of which were entirely unorganised, just a huge stack of papers including correspondence, newspaper articles, press releases and more. I found it especially interesting to see the transition from fax and handwritten letters, towards email correspondence from the late 1990s onwards. Coates was extremely busy, involved with management of local issues like hazardous waste, contaminated land, the declining coal industry, and water pollution. He also worked on wider European social, economic, and environmental campaigns, including the European Appeal for Full Employment, the international Jubilee 2000 campaign and the activities of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

Environmental damage

Press releases issued by Ken Coates about river pollution from minewaters, and his demands for the polluters to take responsibility.

When working through the files, the severity and sheer number of environmental issues in Coates’ constituency became clear. Affected areas included Staveley, Killamarsh, Whitwell, Wingerworth, Bolsover, Glapwell, Clay Cross, Worksop, Morton, and even more. These towns surround Chesterfield, extending north towards Sheffield and south towards Nottingham. Issues weren’t purely land-based either, with frequent mentions of the Doe Lea and Rother rivers. Coates was extremely passionate about organisations taking responsibility for pollution, and there were many press releases with mention of the ‘the polluter must pay’ principle. This was typically directed towards British Coal. During the 1990s, British Coal was in the process of being privatised, with the coal industry in steep decline. This led to lots of abandoned mines, and poorly managed industries associated with coalmining. Accompanying this decline was a growing public awareness of the harm in long-term environmental damage and risk to people’s health. Coates was in frequent contact with local environmental protest groups, rallying against the presence of dangerous industries in their area, such as the Killamarsh incinerator, or the Glapwell landfill site.

Coates was frequently involved in urging remedial management of sites that were contaminated with dioxins, which are highly toxic organic pollutants. A prime example of this was a 1993-1995 file on the National Rivers Authority (NRA), where Coates was corresponding with them over river and groundwater pollution in his constituency. At the time, the river Doe Lea in Derbyshire was the most contaminated river with dioxins in England. The source of the dioxins was effluent from Coalite, a company manufacturing petrochemicals. Additionally, British Coal and its successor, the Coal Authority, were criticised by Coates for their lack of environmental responsibility. He details how the Erewash and Trent rivers faced serious long-term risk from minewater pollution. This material also evidenced Coates’ position as an MEP, as he was in correspondence with the European Commission. Documents explained how UK legislation around abandoned mines didn’t align with European environmental law. There were many instances like this across the material I catalogued, where Coates leveraged his European ties to force the UK government to adhere to stronger environmental protections.

Newspaper and cassette: An example of the files I worked on. Many included environmental newspapers like this one, but the cassette was a much rarer find.

The Ken Coates collection remains a significant repository of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire’s environmental past. Coates’ strengths of community engagement and multinational collaboration is a striking reminder of the power in collective governance. Environmental politics today in the UK and beyond could really benefit from the level of commitment Coates showed to his constituents, and the wider European sphere. This blog has only provided a snapshot of the work Coates was part of. The files I worked on really displayed his persistence, with many of his campaigns becoming successful years after the first discussions. Plenty of other files also highlighted his passion for local government, and his dedication to not only improving environmental health, but socio-economic conditions too.

I am grateful to my supervisor Sarah Colborne for her advice and guidance, and for the welcoming nature of the rest of the Manuscripts and Special Collections team.

Tony Simpson:

The EU Rivers Directive was enacted in UK law. When the Doe Lea was contaminated with dioxins, the European Environmental Commissioner advised what sections of the Directive were relevant. Ken Coates would then ask the UK Government what it was doing to come into compliance. As Claire says, this often took years to have effect, but ultimately the Coalfield environment improved somewhat.

Accessing the collection

The Ken Coates Archive and special collection can be accessed in the Manuscripts and Special Collections reading room at the University of Nottingham’s King’s Meadow Campus. Work is continuing on cataloguing the files relating to Coates’ work as an MEP. Claire’s placement is one of a series of placements working on Ken Coates papers and reflects our current focus on making historic records relating to climate and the environment more discoverable. More information on Coates’ role in the University’s Adult Education Department can be found on the webpage for the ‘Knowledge is Power‘ exhibition.

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TC Hine is best remembered as the architect of many notable buildings in Nottingham and around the East Midlands, including the Shire Hall, which today houses the National Justice Museum. For all his achievements as an architect, this scrapbook shows that Hine was possibly even more prolific in another field: autograph hunting!

MS 575/1/1657-179 Autograph scrapbook, front page; 1452-1990

This volume, which is titled ‘Autograph Letters from Kings Nobles Statesmen Churchmen Scientists Authors Artists Architects and Other Notabilities AD 1640 1880’, brings together a diverse range of letters, photographs, printed materials, and drawings, totalling over 1000 items. It is arranged according to themes, such as authors, architects, artists, and royalty – an idiosyncratic mix which reflected Hine’s interests, personality, and architectural background.

MS 575/1/1657-179 Autograph scrapbook, page 30, featuring a letter from William Gladstone; 1452-1990

The scope is truly enormous: Hine’s statement at the beginning of the volume asserts that there are over 140 letters within that are addressed to him, but those are just the tip of the iceberg: this quintessentially Victorian cornucopia features many other autographs and complete letters (including facsimiles) from individuals who didn’t correspond with him directly – and some whose lives ended many years before his began.

MS 575/1/86-90 Autograph scrapbook, page 14, featuring letters by and an image of Napoleon Bonaparte; 1452-1990

In fact, while the majority of the material does come from the 19^th century, the earliest item dates to 1452. The geographic range of the subjects is equally expansive: while individuals and places relating to Nottingham and the East Midlands – such as the Dukes of Newcastle – are certainly well represented, Hine’s curiosity knew no bounds and his collection encompassed everyone from famous historical figures such as Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington to notable individuals of his own time, like William Gladstone and Charles Dickens.

MS 575/1/344-350 Autograph scrapbook, page 51, featuring image of the interior of Newstead Abbey ; 1452-1990

The letters were often accompanied by other material relating to that individual or theme, including relevant illustrations and manuscript notes, photographs, cuttings from printed works, and engravings of architectural features and buildings.

These layers of information were often not only conceptual, but physical. Related pieces of material were often pasted directly on top of one another, with Hine making frequent use of card tabs to hold items in place and further embellishing pages with hand-drawn titles and small sketches.

We know that Hine aspired for his labour of love to outlive him, writing on the contents page: ‘With the best wishes of the compiler this book is bequeathed by him as an heir loom to his direct lineal descendants.’ Now, thanks to the intervention of our conservation team, we hope that the many treasures of his eclectic compilation will remain available to be uncovered by future generations.

Detailed digital images of every item in Hine’s scrapbook are now available to view in our reading room. To book your space today, simply email mss-library@nottingham.ac.uk.

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A selection of material in the Footprints Theatre Trust archive (MS 1049), which is currently being catalogued.

Manuscripts and Special Collections was recently granted Archives Revealed funding from The National Archives to catalogue and make accessible the archives of two theatre companies who both made an impact on children and communities in the Nottingham region and beyond.

Nottingham Youth Theatre was established in 1988 and based at the College Street Arts Centre in Nottingham. They were dedicated – alongside the NYT Inclusive Company – to providing young people, including those with disabilities, with a creative platform to express themselves through the performing arts. Their archive was recently transferred to MSC, and includes tapes and DVDs of theatre performances, photographs, posters, and programmes relating to their productions and activities.

Footprints Theatre Trust were a Christian theatre company founded in 1978. After a few years of touring the country while effectively living out of a bus, they were invited to make a home base at St Nicholas Church, Nottingham. Their plays and sketches were performed in churches, festivals, schools, and prisons, covering topics of faith, community, sexuality, truancy, and civic responsibility. In later years they concentrated on classroom stories for Key Stages 1 and 2, supporting schools’ curriculum needs.

Cataloguing on the collections is expected to last until next summer, after which the archives will be used for research and teaching, community workshops, and as part of a dedicated theatre exhibition at Lakeside Arts.

For more information about the project please contact us at mss-library@nottingham.ac.uk.

This project is made possible through the Archives Revealed funding partnership, thanks to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Pilgrim Trust, the Wolfson Foundation and The National Archives.

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Paton House, a late-Victorian brick building featuring a large canopy over the opening, a conservatory adjoining the library and a Baroque interior, was designed in 1881 by Robert Evans and William Jolley, both of whom were Nottingham-based architects who had been trained by Thomas Chambers Hine.

The property, which went on to be built in 1884, was named West Hill House by its original owner, Samuel Herrick Sands JP. Like many of the early inhabitants of Highfields, Sands was a lace and hosiery manufacturer, but his industrial interests stretched across several industries, including banking, brick making, railways and even a telephone company! During this early period, cottage-style lodge on the Derby Road side of the house was likely inhabited by Sands’ coachman.

UFE/2/1/6/3 plans of Paton Congregational College, by O.D. Maguire; 20 May 1968

He occupied the property for just over ten years, selling it to Herbert Durant Snook in 1905. By the time Snook purchased West Hill House, which he renamed The Cedars, he was the director of Snook and Company, a clothing firm on Hounds Gate in Nottingham, but in a former life he had played football for Notts County! Snook didn’t make any major changes to the property over his 42 years of occupation, though, as carriages gave way to cars, the adjoining lodge became home to his chauffeurs. He passed away in 1947, and his widow put The Cedars up for sale the following year.

The University initially hoped to purchase the building, but was unable to secure the necessary funding, so it was sold instead to Paton Congregational College, a theological college which had been established in Nottingham in 1866. Until 1946, they had been based at Tollerton Hall, and when seeking new premises, they had prioritised proximity to the University College, hoping to deepen the relationship between the two institutions. At this point the house was bestowed with its third name, Paton House, to honour JB Paton, the congregationalist minister who founded the college.

Fy X 2/2/20 Booklet titled ‘Greetings from Paton Congregational College, Nottingham’; 1957

When the college moved to Manchester in 1968, the University finally fulfilled its long-held ambition of purchasing the property, which was converted into a new home for the Department of Architecture and Civil Planning (now called the Department of Architecture and Built Environment). It has remained in use for the same purpose ever since, and has even retained its former name, Paton House, in commemoration of the previous occupants’ long association with the University.

 If you’re interested in seeing the items featured in this blog for yourself, why not visit our reading room? To book your appointment, please contact us at mss-library@nottingham.ac.uk. 

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Not a fan of AI? People might describe you as a ‘Luddite’, a term which is widely used today to describe people who are resistant to new technologies, but which actually has its roots in the early 19^th century, as textile workers took action against mill owners who had acquired machines which threatened their status as skilled workers.

Ne C 4919/1, excerpt from the first page of a letter from Rev. John T. Becher to the Rt. Hon. Richard Ryder, Home Secretary; 12 Feb. 1812

Although the movement eventually spread across much of the Midlands and North of England, the spark had been ignited in Nottingham in 1811, and the city and its surrounding area continued to be hub of Luddite activity for much of the rest of the decade, fuelled by the concentration of textile workers in the region. The unusual name of the movement is derived from its legendary leader, Ned Ludd, a fictional weaver who had allegedly inaugurated the practice of smashing knitting machines in a fit of passion. Beyond the realm of fiction, it seems likely that the movement came about in response to economic hardship – fuelled by the strain imposed by the then-ongoing Napoleonic Wars – as argued in this letter by Nottinghamshire magistrate Reverend John T. Becher, who expressed some degree of sympathy with the rioting workers.

Excerpt from the first page of a statement made by James Towle on the morning of his execution, regarding his involvement in ‘the Loughborough Job’; 20 Nov. 1816

Perhaps the most famous local Luddite incident occurred at Loughborough on 28^th June 1816, when a group of men, led by one James Towle of Basford, broke into Heathcoat and Boden’s lace mill and holding the guards and workmen within hostage at gunpoint while they destroyed 55 knitting frames and then made off with some lace fabric. During the raid, one of the guards, John Asher, was shot and wounded.

Excerpt from the first page of a statement made by James Towle on the morning of his execution, listing the names of others involved in ‘the Loughborough Job’; 20 Nov. 1816

Despite the attack’s initial apparent success, Towle had been recognised, and was apprehended several days later. He was tried at the Leicester Assizes alongside an alleged accomplice, John Slater, in early August. The trial did establish that he had not shot Asher, but he was nonetheless convicted; Slater was acquitted, although Towle continued to insist he had been involved.

Illustration from ‘Life, trial, character and execution of Thos. Savage, Wm. Withers, Wm Towle, John Amos, John Crowder and Joshua Mitchel, for breaking machines, 1817’, No.40 from an album of broadsides relating to Nottinghamshire trials; 1759-1862. Over.X Not 1.H64 ALB.

Towle did appeal, but this attempt was unsuccessful, and he was publicly hanged at Leicester on 20 November 1816. A further six members of the gang were hanged the following year, and two others transported for life; all but Withers had been listed by Towle by name in the confession he gave on the morning of his execution. In fairness to Towle, his was hardly the evidence that cinched the case. As detailed in a broadsheet published on 17^th April 1817 – the day of the second execution – two of the party who had participated in the attack (John Blackburn and William Burton) turned informant on the others, presumably in exchange for their own immunity.

Ne C 4929 Excerpt from the final page of a letter from Henry, 4th Duke of Newcastle under Lyne, Clumber, Nottinghamshire, to Lord Sidmouth [Home Secretary]; 27 Feb. 1817

If you’re interested in finding out more, why not come and view the original documents mentioned in this blog in the Manuscripts and Special Collections reading room? Simply email  mss-library@nottingham.ac.uk and we would be happy to book you in.

To learn more about the Luddites, why not check out our learning resource about Working Class Unrest?

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This is a guest blog by Jamie Wright, a second year Archaeology student undertaking a paid placement with Manuscripts and Special Collections at the University of Nottingham in the summer of 2025. 

As a part of the Faculty of Arts, Summer Research Placement Project, I got to spend four weeks working in the Manuscripts and Special Collections looking at documents of climate, environment, weather, meteorology, and health and disease. Over the course of the placement, I handled photographs, pamphlets, charts and diagrams, letters, hand-written and typed notes, books, articles, newspapers, and many more different types of documents.

Photograph of floodwater from the River Trent, May 1932. RE/DOP/H42/112

When looking into local examples of weather and the environment, I was finding a lot of information on floods and droughts; given our close proximity to the River Trent. The main periods that were being mentioned in many different collections were from 1932, 1945, 1947, and 1959. In earlier years, there is more to mention of long periods of frost in 1891 and 1895, where information on monthly meteorology can be found from Colonel Henry Mellish’s documents. 

Lowe’s observatory at Beeston, 1968. Met/Lo/1/1

Repeated names of local meteorologists were often coming up in research and collections – mainly, my research led me to look at many documents from Harold Reeve Potter (1925-2000), Edward Joseph Lowe (1825-190), and Colonel Henry Mellish (1856-1927). 

Lowe was a founder of the Royal Meteorological Society and worked with his father at their observatory at Highfield House. He wrote books on meteorology from a second observatory he founded at Broadgate House– named ‘Lawson observatory’ – and the special collections holds some of his work. These include ‘The climate of Nottingham during the year 1852; together with descriptions of the atmospheric phenomena which occurred in that year, as recorded in Highfield House observatory, near Nottingham’, that is a chronological collection of climate data from each day of 1852. And ‘The coming drought, or, The cycle of the seasons, with a chronological history of all the droughts and frosts as yet found recorded from A.D. 134 to the present time’, published in the 1880s that sort to better understand the climate of Earth and how droughts and frosts can be predicted.

H.R. Potter can be found in the collections as a prevalent figure for compiling reports on ‘The Great Flood’ in 1932 and the drought in 1959 in Nottingham and Derby, as well as many other extreme weather phenomena. Potter was a hydrologist with a particular interest in the history of rivers, his research into the River Trent’s hydrological and meteorological data helped to understand flooding patterns and potential methods of prevention in the 20th century. 

Page showing flooding in Long Eaton and Beeston, from ‘Souvenir of the Great Flood, May 1932: The greatest deluge for 40 years’. HRP/F/1/3/3

Henry Mellish lived in the Hodsock Priory estate, in which he inherited in 1864, and had a large interest in Meteorology. Collections of his ‘Monthly Meteorological Records’ from 1875-1926 are hand-written books of the climate of each month, and multiple of his published works on the weather and meteorological registers from Hodsock Priory can also be found in the special collections, such as ‘A meteorological register, kept at Mansfield Woodhouse, in Nottinghamshire: from the commencement of the year 1785, to the end of the year 1794’ and ‘Rainfall of Nottinghamshire, 1861-90’. 

Research on the relationship between climate and health has been performed extensively, and we have an understanding of how certain environmental factors may negatively affect a person’s health. Examples of this research can be found in the collections, especially around cholera in England. Publications from William Farr (1852) on the ‘Report on the mortality of cholera in England’, looked at how colder temperatures often connected to higher rates of death from cholera in London. Correlations were also found between the poor living conditions of lower call workers, and how air and water pollution could cause disease outbreaks. The pandemic of cholera in 1849 prompted many sanitary reforms for workers in London, in an attempt to improve living and working conditions and decrease mortality. 

Pollution and the climate crisis have also introduced political discussions on the environment into my research at MSC. These include pamphlets from the Labour Party and Communist Party in Ken Coates’ records. Coates was a politician, writer, and member of the European Parliament for the East Midlands who had strong interests in the environment. In some of his published articles in the collection, Coates encourages that people should be able to speak out about the issues around climate, and societies should be encouraged to listen to this feedback and correct its methods before damage is irreversible. He ends that “In sum, industrial, social and political democracy is the precondition for the preservation of the environment”. He has written about themes such as how modern technologies provide a great negative impact on the environment, but also on the health of workers in long hours, bad conditions, and the pollution of their air and water. As well as how the environment is spoken about and treated in capitalism, Marxism, and socialism. 

Connie Ford sailing her boat, c.1960s-1970s

Alongside this, political pamphlets can be found in the collections of Connie Ford, local veterinarian, poet, and political activist. Alongside some of her creative writing that would often feature motifs of nature, Ford also attended many political talks on the subject, of which she took her own handwritten notes and collected printed documents. 

I applied for this placement in order to gain some experience in what it would be like to work as a researcher and due to my interest in the environment and climate crisis. I was, however, somewhat unfamiliar with meteorology as a study, and was surprised to find just how many documents there were of previous dedicated researchers, who would document levels of rain, snow, sunshine, and other weather patterns for years. I most enjoyed being able view old photographs and read old newspapers from different extreme weathers; I find that it can help bring the past alive and connect more recent Trent floods with how they were experienced almost 100 years ago. It was also engaging to read around the political aspects of the climate crisis, looking at different viewpoints and reflecting on how modern lifestyles impact our planet. I am thankful for everyone at MSC for being so supportive and welcoming, and I greatly enjoyed all my time as a part of the Summer Research Placement Project. 

Further research

The idea for the placement was prompted by carbon literacy training organised by the National Archives. The sources Jamie mentions can be explored via the Manuscripts Online Catalogue and in the Manuscripts Reading Room and are summarised in a research guide. These sources include a collection of meteorological records collected by, amongst others, J.H. Lowe, Colonel Henry Mellish, and the University’s Geography Department. Further information about weather archives can be accessed via the online exhibition Weather Extremes, curated by Professor Georgina Endfield and Dr Lucy Veale of the School of Geography and the Tempest Database of extreme weather events in the UK, compiled from all of the data collected through archival, library and oral history research for the Weather Extremes research project. 

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Did you know that Manuscripts and Special Collections holds a collection of over 3500 printed works relating to the French Revolution? While there are a range of dates covered by the material, pamphlets from the revolutionary period itself are particularly well represented.

FRC DC137.17 Engraving showing the execution of Marie Antoinette from ‘Procès criminel de Marie-Antoinette de Lorraine, archiduchesse d’Autriche…’ ; 1793.

These publications can give us valuable insights into the unfolding of the revolution: from its intellectual origins to major events such as the storming of the Bastille and the overthrow of the monarchy. Here at MSC, we are fortunate enough to hold many editions of long-running titles such as the ‘Journal de Paris’, France’s first daily newspaper, which successfully weathered the storm and would survive well into the 19^th century. Perhaps buoyed by its relatively light-hearted editorial tone, the ‘Journal’ bears witness to the entire revolutionary period, reflecting the rapidly shifting ideological currents of the era, until – like the nation at large – it eventually came under the influence of Napoleon in the early 19^th century.

Edition of Journal de Paris, detailing the trial and execution of Louis XVI; January 22 1793. FRC DC140.J66

But not all pamphlets were so hardy. As the revolutionary wave fragmented into various factions, publications sprang up to defend one cause or to denigrate another; like the parties they represented, they were variously suppressed, changed names to evade censure; or found their lives cut short by the downfall of their progenitors. The radical newspaper ‘L’Ami du Peuple’ is just one example of these more transient pamphlets held at MSC. It had been produced, under a variety of different titles, by the politician and theorist Jean-Paul Marat since September 1789 as a forum in which to criticise those whom he characterised as ‘enemies of the people’, but suddenly ceased publication on 14 July 1793, the day after Marat was assassinated by a member of an opposing political faction, the Girondins, while in the bathtub.

Cover of ‘Bulletin du Tribunal Criminel Revolutionnaire’; detailing the trial of Murat; 24 April 1793. DA140.B87/17

An even more dramatic reversal of fortunes is evident in the fate of ‘Le Vieux Cordelier’, the journal of revolutionary activist Camille Desmoulins, a friend and former classmate of Maximilien Robespierre. Although Desmoulins has initially supported Robespierre and his allies in their bid for power and had founded his journal with the intention of attacking their detractors, he became disenchanted with the repressive violence being perpetrated by the regime and instead began using his publication to voice this discontent. His publisher soon became wary of reprisal and initially delayed the printing of the sixth edition; perhaps his fears were justified, as only two weeks after its eventual distribution, Desmoulins had been arrested on suspicion of being a counter-revolutionary. We do hold a seventh and final edition of ‘Le Vieux Cordelier’, written just before his arrest, though this would never be published in Desmoulins’ lifetime, as he was executed shortly afterwards.

Portrait of Camille Desmoulins, frontispiece of collected edition of ‘Le vieux cordelier: journal politique’, by Camille Desmoulins; 1825. FRC DC185.0727.D4

While dramatic, these were hardly isolated incidents: many newspapers (and their writers) were swept aside with the frequent changing of the political tide. Robespierre himself, whose own publication, ‘Le Défenseur de la Constitution’, is also held at MSC, would also meet his fate at the guillotine less than four months after Desmoulins: an event which was, unsurprisingly, dissected in considerable detail by the contemporary press.

Frontispiece showing the head of Robespierre, from ‘Vie secrette, politique et curieuse de M. J. Maximilien Robespierre…; 1793. FRC DC146.R6 .D8

If you’re interested in viewing items from the French Revolution Collection for yourself, why not visit the Manuscripts and Special Collections reading room? To book your appointment, please contact us at mss-library@nottingham.ac.uk.

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Meet Charlotte Sutton, nineteenth-century nature enthusiast, though the intricate pages of her scrapbook…

Although scrapbooking has its origins in the commonplace books of the fifteenth century, in the nineteenth century, several factors combined to bring about an explosion in the popularity of this delightfully eclectic hobby. The Industrial Revolution led to the widespread availability of cheap paper; this, along with increasing rates of literacy, led to the growth of print culture, which provided a steady stream of articles, illustrations, calling cards, postcards and other ephemera, which could form the basis of a scrapbook. But paper mementoes weren’t the only items commonly collected in the Victorian era: pressed flowers and seaweeds were widely arranged and preserved between the pages of books. These intricate displays were part collage and part citizen science, giving the wider public – and women in particular – a respectable way to participate in the increasing popular field of natural history. In some instances, they could even perform a similar function to a diary, with samples collected as souvenirs of trips or to mark important dates in a person’s life.

A page from MS 1067, Scrapbook of annotated sketches, pressed flowers and feathers compiled by Charlotte Sutton (née Nelthorpe, 1817-1872) of Bilsthorpe; 1864-1865

One such scrapbook held at Manuscripts and Special Collections is the compendium compiled by Charlotte Sutton (née Nelthorpe, 1817-1872)  from 1864-1865. Charlotte was the sister of the 8^th (and final) Baronet Nelthorpe, and after his death in 1865, his estate – including Scawby Hall, the family seat – passed to her husband, the Reverend Robert Sutton. Though, therefore, this scrapbook documents her life on the precipice of a transformative moment, its focus is considerably more every day, consisting of keepsakes from day trips and from her many children.

A page from MS 1067, Scrapbook of annotated sketches, pressed flowers and feathers compiled by Charlotte Sutton (née Nelthorpe, 1817-1872) of Bilsthorpe; 1864-1865

The volume begins with a bang on New Year’s Day 1864, with a range of festive mementoes including a resplendent New Year’s card and some plant cuttings taken from walks taken by Charlotte on both Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. She also liked to collect cuttings as holiday souvenirs, and these include a range of flowers and plants collected on a holiday to Whitby in August 1865. She even collected flowers from Whitby cemetery which – although it was not yet the haunting setting for some of the most compelling passages in Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ – was already a popular tourist attraction, thanks to its romantic cliffside location, overshadowed by the skeleton of the nearby abbey. Her cuttings are accompanied on the page by an intricate sketch of a tea service by her daughter Mabel, made on the same trip, and perhaps representing an outing that had been taken by the family. If the number of tea shops which line the streets of Whitby today are any indication, not much has changed!

A page from MS 1067, Scrapbook of annotated sketches, pressed flowers and feathers compiled by Charlotte Sutton (née Nelthorpe, 1817-1872) of Bilsthorpe; 1864-1865

Charlotte often interspersed her natural collection with keepsakes from her children, and occasionally these two interests intersected: for instance, in March 1864, she pasted in three sketches of small shore-dwelling animals gifted to her for her birthday by her three youngest children. The clear tenderness she felt towards them contradicts the commonly held image of Victorian parents as cold disciplinarians who maintained a distance from their offspring, whose survival, after all, was hardly guaranteed. She also maintained a correspondence with her eldest son, Robert Nassau, dedicating half a page to a sketch of the ‘Ruins of Sardis’, which the fourteen-year-old had sent to her from boarding school, suggesting a warmth between the two, in spite of the distance between them, and what we might today conceptualise as the typically teenage desire for independence.

A page from MS 1067, Scrapbook of annotated sketches, pressed flowers and feathers compiled by Charlotte Sutton (née Nelthorpe, 1817-1872) of Bilsthorpe; 1864-1865

Beyond flowers and family mementos, Charlotte also collected some slightly more unusual items. In particular, she seems to have had an interest in birds and pasted feathers from what she considered to be the most interesting specimens into her scrapbook. A small bright orange tuft came, apparently, from ‘Mrs Lumley’s Parrot’, on 19^th August 1864. Who exactly Mrs. Lumley was, not to mention her parrot, is unfortunately unknown.

A page from MS 1067, Scrapbook of annotated sketches, pressed flowers and feathers compiled by Charlotte Sutton (née Nelthorpe, 1817-1872) of Bilsthorpe; 1864-1865

However, there is much less mystery surrounding an equally exotic enclosure: a trio of Emu feathers which are labelled as coming from the Entrance Hall at Normanby Hall on 16^th September 1864. Presumably, this was collected from a taxidermy emu or from a natural history display of some kind. It seems that the owners of that property, the Sheffields, were unconcerned by Charlotte’s penchant for trophy-hunting, as her scrapbook indicates that the Suttons were regular guests at Normanby. While both these specimens are quite striking, the most outlandish of her avian acquisitions was undoubtedly the intact claw of a small bird, pasted and preserved on a page as though it were simply another of the dried leaves which lie beside it.

A page from MS 1067, Scrapbook of annotated sketches, pressed flowers and feathers compiled by Charlotte Sutton (née Nelthorpe, 1817-1872) of Bilsthorpe; 1864-1865

If you’re interested in viewing Charlotte Sutton’s scrapbook for yourself, why not visit the Manuscripts and Special Collections reading room? To book your appointment, please contact us at mss-library@nottingham.ac.uk.

A page from MS 1067, Scrapbook of annotated sketches, pressed flowers and feathers compiled by Charlotte Sutton (née Nelthorpe, 1817-1872) of Bilsthorpe; 1864-1865

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Ask anyone to name a river they associate with Nottingham, and they will likely say the Trent. Our latest exhibition at Lakeside Arts puts the lesser-known River Leen at the centre of the story and examines its role in shaping modern Nottingham.

Co-curated by Dr David Beckingham and Dr Rachel Dishington of the School of Geography, in collaboration with Manuscripts and Special Collections, the exhibition features archive materials that show the challenges created by industrial activity and population growth. As Dr Beckingham explains: “The Leen is much more than a potential risk to be hidden behind concrete and steel. By telling the story of the Leen as Nottingham’s river, flowing through its history and connecting many of its communities, we hope to shape conversations around its future.” 

Children playing in the River Leen at its junction with Daybrook, 1961. RE/DOP/H5/22

Visitors to the gallery are able to trace the Leen from its source in the Robin Hood Hills above Newstead Abbey to the River Trent at the Meadows, showing how it has connected places and communities. At the centre of the exhibition is the story of the River Leen Improvement Scheme, a 1960s initiative to protect Nottingham from flooding. It diverted the river and fixed the channel behind steel pilings and flood walls.

The River Leen flowing into the new channel downstream of Triumph Road, Nottingham, July 1967, as part of the River Leen Improvement Scheme.

The Environment Agency is responsible for maintaining these flood assets today. As part of that work, the Trentside team specially commissioned a low-level drone flight along the Leen, fitted with a thermal imaging camera, with the results displayed in the exhibition. The Environment Agency is working with the City and County Councils to review options for potential new approaches for the Leen, simultaneously more resilient to threats from climate change and more accessible and beneficial to the communities that live along it.  

Staff packing boxes at Gerard Brothers Soap Works, which was situated close to the Leen at Basford, c.1950s-1960s

The launch event for this free exhibition is at the Weston Gallery on Thursday 9 October 2025 from 5pm to 7pm. The exhibition runs until Sunday 15 March 2026 and series of talks and tours will be taking place, tickets for which can be booked through Lakeside Box Office. For further information see the Manuscripts and Special Collections exhibition webpage. 

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Following on from our previous blog, which explored the arduous process of midwifery training in the mid-20th century through the letters of Dinah Holt, nurse and midwife extraordinaire, as she undertook her examinations in 1948 and 1949, today we’re stepping even further back in time to Dinah’s first term of nursing training in 1944…

MS 1047/1/1/2 Notebook of lecture notes on Nursing from Preliminary Training School, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, front cover; Apr. 1944-Nov. 1945

In April 1944, Dinah Holt had just begun her first year of preliminary nursing training at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. We can gain quite a lot of insight into this particular moment in her life through the fortunate survival of her lecture notes from this course, which form part of the Dinah Holt archive held at Manuscripts and Special Collections. As her notes show, nearly the process of becoming a nurse nearly 80 years ago was rather different than it is today.

MS 1047/1/1/2 Notebook of lecture notes on Nursing from Preliminary Training School, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, pages 1-2; Apr. 1944-Nov. 1945

We can tell from her neat, detailed notes that subjects covered at this early stage of the course included routine tasks such as the cleaning of bedding, the care of the ward, the admission of patients, the washing of patients, the prevention of bed sores, taking temperatures and pulses, sterilisation and the administration of drugs, but also tasks which seem – at least to my (admittedly uninformed) eye – rather more advanced and specific. These included dealing with fractures and haemorrhages, use of a catheter, preparing patients for operations, and even the appropriate treatment in the case of poisoning by a variety of different agents!  

MS 1047/1/3 D.M.J. Holt’s Experience Chart, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital; 18 Apr. 1944

We can see from her experience chart, which also forms part of the collection, that Dinah was required to get hands-on experience of many of the procedures she learned about, just as student nurses do today. Unfortunately – or perhaps fortunately, depending on your perspective – she was not required to but her poisoning skills to the test. 

MS 1047/1/1/2 Insert from notebook of lecture notes on Nursing from Preliminary Training School, Queen Elizabeth Hospital; Apr. 1944-Nov. 1945

 However, the most notable difference between her notes and those of today’s nursing students is that hers appear to have been checked over and marked in red pen by one of her instructors, in a manner which today would befit the work of a schoolchild. This perhaps explains her excessive neatness. Her teacher seems more concerned with her spelling than with her comprehension of the material, and on several occasions the notebook even features spelling exercises she has apparently been set after making an error! It seems on the surface that Dinah was a highly conscientious student who strove to achieve perfection. However, we can tell from her additional notes, which were found folded inside her notebook, that she also had a more relaxed, whimsical side: it seems that where her work was able to escape the beady eye of her tutor, she preferred to embellish it with intricate- and not strictly relevant– doodles.  

If you are interested in coming to see any items from Dinah’s archives for yourself – or indeed any items from our other collections – please email us at  mss-library@nottingham.ac.uk and we would be happy to book you in. 

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