News
A click away from Nottinghamshire treasure
The Executive Committee of the Nottinghamshire Local History Association, and Derek Walker in particular, have invested their time and the Association’s money in new technology to compile a searchable CD of all the back issues of The Nottinghamshire Historian and its predecessor, the Nottinghamshire Local History Council Newsletter, which was first published in February 1968. What you see on your screen are facsimile pages which have been copied and digitised so that you can search them using Adobe Acrobat Reader (downloaded free from www.adobe.com if it is not already installed on your computer).
It has been an imaginative and bold venture which makes seventy-eight back issues available for only £10.00 and is worth every penny. It will make life a lot easier for local (and family) historians in so many ways, from simply entering the name of a place or a person and seeing what the CD finds or undertaking a search on a specific topic so that you can find what has already been published or mentioned at some point during the thirty-nine year period 1968–2007. After that you simply work your way through all the entries found a click at a time.
Typing in ‘East Drayton’ and doing a random search brought up ‘Rural Observations: Extracts from the Diaries of an East Drayton Farmworker’ in Issue 27 (Summer 1981). The article is based on The Norfolks of East Drayton and includes extracts from diaries written by William Norfolk (1824–1899) between 1843 and 1851. There is an evocative account of a day-trip to Goose Fair on 4 October 1847. William and an unnamed friend walked to the nearby village of Darlton to catch a cart at 4.30am, which arrived in Newark at 7am. They then took a train to Nottingham, where they spent the day. He describes the day in some detail. Perhaps it was his first visit to Nottingham as the line had only opened the year before. Elsewhere he talks about how the coming of the railway reduced the price of coal from 12/- a ton to 9/- a ton, with some coal as cheap as 6/- a ton. There is a lovely picture of William with his wife Mary, standing rigid for the camera.
I suspect that buried within every article and page on this CD there is potential Nottinghamshire treasure for someone, whether they are conducting a systematic search or, like me, intending to spend a a few minutes exploring only to find they have spent half the day lost in the pages of the Newsletter and the Historian. Thank you Derek for having the vision and determination to create this resource and thank you to the Executive Committee for supporting you.
However, I can’t end without mentioning the names of the editors without whom there would be no CD for us to explore and enjoy: L Geary and W R Serjeant; Adrian Henstock; Barry Briggs; Chris Weir; Steph Mastoris; Malcolm Fox; Sheila Cooke; Susan Griffiths (Howard) and Grace Fyles. If I have missed anyone, then please accept my apologies now!
The Nottingham Local History Council Newsletters from 1968 to 1973 and The Nottinghamshire Historian from 1973 to 2007 CD, £9 from Autumn and Spring Meetings, £10 post paid from Derek Walker, Cratley, Back Lane, Eakring, Newark, Notts NG22 0DJ.
Robert Howard
