MELBOURNE HISTORICAL RESEARCH GROUP

The Group was formed in Spring 2000 to record and research the trades, institutions and social background of Melbourne, South Derbyshire, England. Although Melbourne is a well-preserved and attractive village, with a magnificent Norman church, the social structure has changed dramatically. Old industries have faded and ways of life are quickly changing. Each year, one particular aspect of Melbourne's history is investigated and a travelling exhibition of the findings presented. Documents, photographs and artefacts are being used to gradually create a permanent resource in the Library at the Leisure Centre, which may be used for educational work.

EXHIBITIONS, EVENTS & USEFUL INFORMATION
OUR ANNUAL EXHIBITION

This year's annual exhibition will be held on 8 & 9 June in the Main Hall and Lounge of Melbourne Assembly Rooms, High Street.
Last year's very popular SHOPS AND SHOPPING IN MELBOURNE exhibition will this year be expanded to include TRADES AND PROFESSIONS, including: Blacksmiths, Surgeons, Wheelwrights, Framework Knitters, Shoemakers, Nixon Knowles Timberyard, Quarries, Brickyards such as Woodhouses, Moira Street, Kings Newton, The Common, Wilson Rise - Bartons, John Harpur-Crewe (THC) and IHC.

OTHER ANNUAL EVENTS IN WHICH WE PARTICIPATE

• MELBOURNE FETE & CARNIVAL which, in 2013, will be held on 13 July.
• HERITAGE OPEN DAYS and MELBOURNE FESTIVAL ART & ARCHITECTURE TRAIL in September
• MELBOURNE SHOPPING EVENT, which is in November or December.
  

NEWS

• MELBOURNE PARISH COUNCIL RECORDS dating back to 1894 have now been boxed and indexed. Viewing can be arranged by emailing Jacqui Storer, Clerk to Melbourne Parish Council, or by telephoning 07854 063620.

OUR OWN RECENT ANNUAL 2-DAY EXHIBITIONS

• The 2012 Annual Exhibition - SHOPS AND SHOPPING IN MELBOURNE took place on Saturday and Sunday 16 and 17 June at the Melbourne Assembly Rooms (previously 'Bill Shone Leisure Centre') and was very well received. See our Chairman's notes on the Exhibition.
• EDUCATION IN MELBOURNE was the subject of our Annual Exhibition 14 & 15 May, 2011.
  The 200th anniversary of the National Schools Society being in 2011, we took a look at Eduction in Melbourne from its earliest mentions in the 16th century up to the closure of the Secondary School in 1977. 'Modern day' nostalgia included the Cabbage & Custard Lady and Miss Mars Bar.
  
• "MELBOURNE FOR SALE" - was held July 3 and 4, 2010. This exhibition featured the 1811 sale by Earl Moira of Donington Hall and the sale of part of the Melbourne Estate in 1919. Apart from these landmark sales, there were also particulars of smaller sales from the 17th century onwards.
  

IDEAL GIFTS

• A book by Philip Heath and the MHRG: "Condemned! A History of the Melbourne Clearance Areas", containing approximately 61,000 words, pictures, maps in colour and interview quotations, was launched over the weekend of 26 & 27 July 2008 and is now available at £23.50 (buyer collect or delivery within Melbourne, Derbyshire, England) or £27 including postage and packing to other destinations in the UK. Please contact the Treasurer for details.
  
  
• Roy Dunnicliffe of the MHRG has arranged production of a CD of 1882 Ordnance Survey 25-inch First Edition Maps of Melbourne in the County of Derbyshire. The maps were drawn to a scale of 1 to 2500 or 25.344 inches to the mile. The CD is accessed via Adobe Acrobat reader. The area covered includes: Ingleby, Stanton by Bridge, Weston upon Trent, Kings Mills, Melbourne, Kings Newton, Wilson, Calke, Breedon on the Hill and part of Ticknall. For more details of the CD, priced at £12 each plus post and packaging where applicable, please contact the Treasurer or it is available in Sharpe's Pottery Museum shop.
  
  
• Melbourne W I Scrapbook 1965 is available on CD at £5, plus postage and packing if appropriate.
  
  
• For your information
  An electronic version of Heritage News is now available.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

• The Bicentenary of Travel Pioneer, Thomas Cook: November 22nd, 2008 marked 200 years since Travel Pioneer Thomas Cook was born in a humble cottage on Quick Close, Melbourne. His birthplace was pulled down for a redevelopment scheme in 1967, but the handsome memorial cottages of 1890-91 built by Cook still survive on High Street. The Baptist Chapel still stands, where Cook practised his preaching skills, and parts of Melbourne still look much as Cook would have known them.
  Cook left Melbourne in 1828, but he always felt great affection for his native town and hoped to retire there in 1874, when Melbourne Hall became available for rent. Cook's application for the tenancy was refused, partly because of fears that he would turn the grounds into a vulgar showplace, littered with discarded sandwich papers, broken bottles and empty fuzee boxes. Cook instead spent his retirement in Leicester, where he named his house "Thorncroft" - a deliberate play on the name Quick Close where he was born. He died in 1892.
  To mark the bicentenary, the Melbourne Historical Research Group arranged two special events on Cook's birthday:
  - At 2pm, Chairman Philip Heath hosted a guided walk exploring Melbourne in the time of Thomas Cook, beginning at Cook's birthplace memorial on Quick Close (grid ref: SK384253).
  - At 7.30pm, Vice Chairman Richard Heath presented an illustrated talk on "The Life and Times of Thomas Cook" in the Baptist Chapel, Chapel Street (grid ref: SK386255 ).
• Thomas Cook birthplace site - A bronze plaque on a granite stone plinth for the site on Quick Close, Melbourne, Derbyshire, DE73 8GH was unveiled by Kate Adie OBE on 08 September 2007. A small marquee housed a display about Thomas Cook and the Melbourne that formed his character.
  A self-guided trail "In the Footsteps of Thomas Cook", ended at the Mission Hall on High Street (a few minutes away at DE73 8GJ), where there was a display of memorabilia.
  Kate Adie also gave a talk on her life and times at Melbourne Parish Church.
  The event was part of the Civic Trust's 2007 Heritage Open Days.
  
• Melbourne Festival 2007,8,9, 10, 11 - Each year, MHRG has organised display boards for the September Art and Architecture trail weekends: 'Houses and History' in 2007 along with displays in the Tithe Barn and in 2008 & 9 in the Stone House basement where Robert Bakewell worked in the forge; 'Pub and Pulpit' in 2008/9; "Posters and Particulars" were displayed around Melbourne in 2010 eg 'For Sale', 'Wanted', 'The Empire Cinema'. The Old Graveyard in Castle Square contained lots of information and explanations. On the 2011 trail, we presented a display in the board room of the Leisure Centre, which is not normally open to the public, on Education in Melbourne.
  
• Films, made by the late Hugh F Andrews, spanning 40 years from the late 1930s to the late 1970s, have been converted to DVD, with the aid of a grant from Awards for All. Hundreds of people were able to view these over the weekend of 26 & 27 July 2008, which also saw the successful launch of a new publication "Condemned! A History of the Melbourne Clearance Areas" - see above. The films were also shown during the 2008 Melbourne Festival trail weekend, in the Baptist Schoolrooms and, newly edited to one hour, on a 42" plasma screen at the Melbourne Christmas Shopping Event 2008. In 2009 they were shown at the Annual Exhibition and Fete & Carnival.
• "A New Look at Melbourne Pool" - In 2006, the Research Group compiled a self-guided trail of display boards lining the popular route around Melbourne Pool, explaining the history of this important Georgian and Victorian designed landscape. The event was accompanied by efforts (inconclusive, unfortunately) to locate the remains of a lost Georgian garden temple that once stood in the fringe of woodland on the south side of the pool.
• "Tales from the Crypt" - In 2003, the Research Group presented an open weekend in the Old Churchyard, Castle Street, for National Archaeology Days, preceded by the clearance of a great deal of undergrowth, ivy and debris. A full catalogue of the memorial inscriptions was on show, with a childrens' quiz, and the event was accompanied by geophysical surveys to find the site of Melbourne's lost church of St. Michael, destroyed at the Reformation. The results supported the idea that it stood inside the old churchyard, but excavation to test the geophysics has not been undertaken as yet.
• "The Ice House" - In 2003, the Research Group excavated the main entrance to the Icehouse at Melbourne Hall, which had long been filled in with rubble and soil. Once the steps had been cleared, interpretative material was prepared, temporary lighting was set up, and the structure was opened to an enthusiastic public for Heritage Open Days.
• "Frameworkknitting stages a comeback" - In 2001, the Group arranged for an 18th century knitting frame to be installed and operated in a contemporary knitting workshop at Blanch Croft, for the Heritage Open Days weekend. The machine was generously loaned by the Ruddington Framework Knitters Museum near Nottingham.
• "Heritage Open Days" - The Ice House and the Knitting Frame projects, described above, were just two of the activities organised by the Group for Heritage Open Days. Other presentations co-ordinated or prepared by the Group, either for the Open Days event or the Melbourne Festival (established in 2005) have included:
  • The Melbourne Tithe Barn;
  • Melbourne Parish Church;
  • Melbourne Baptist Church;
  • The Melbourne Athenaeum;
  • Nonconformity in Melbourne, including Melbourne United Reformed Church and Melbourne Methodist Church;
  • Melbourne Mill, including rescue and sticking together of several broken kiln tiles stamped with the maker's name (W. Hopkin, Newton Soney" (sic) ) and made in 1834;
  • The Thomas Cook Memorial Cottages;
  • The basement forge of ironsmith, Robert Bakewell;
  • Exhibitions presented for Melbourne Fete and Carnival, Melbourne "Late Night" in December and the Group's own annual exhibition.
• Interviews of local residents.
• Building up of reference material in Melbourne Library.
• Publication of watercolours by Melbourne-born artist William Dexter (1817-1860), in the form of greetings cards.
• Publication of Melbourne W I Scrapbook 1965. It is available on CD at £5, plus postage and packing if appropriate.
• Occasional group visits to Record Offices, Local history collections, or out-of-door activities from digging (eg at Repton Park prior to Heritage Open Days) to dowsing.