Archive
This is an archive featuring materials we produced over the years and reports on past events.
103 Foresters
Our current research project, is looking into the cases of the 103 soldiers serving in the local regiment who were sentenced to death or sentenced on mutiny charges during the First World War.
We have undertaken a lot of research since early 2014 and over the next weeks and months we will publish a number of shorter as well as more extensive pamphlets, looking into the 103 cases.
For more information, please see the 103 Foresters page.
Remembering the 1968 Revolts
1968 was famously a year of revolt: The Tet Offensive rocked Vietnam. Riots erupted across the US following the assassination of Martin Luther King Junior. Workers and students joined forces in France. Mass protests were held at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Anti-war activists in London stormed Grosvenor Square. Unarmed crowds resisted Soviet tanks on the streets of Prague.
Reformers and radicals also took to the streets in Mexico, Berlin, Warsaw, Rio de Janeiro, Derry and many other places, whilst all over the world people experimented with new ideas of living and organising.
Here in Nottingham there were no burning barricades on the Market Square that summer. But struggles were fought locally, as they had been by previous generations (Luddites, Chartists, Suffragettes, Miners, etc.). Nottingham people organised against the Vietnam War and the threat of nuclear devastation. Closer to home late 1960s Britain was both thoroughly sexist and blatantly racist. Local campaigners fought for women’s rights and equal pay, resisting xenophobia and confronting the everyday discrimination experienced by so many people.
Half a century later a few persons got together to think about how we could commemorate the 1968 Revolts in a local context. On Sunday 3rd June, we welcomed people at Broadway Cinema for a screening of Lindsay Anderson’s if…., followed by visitors browsing our exhibition of fantastic source materials (pamphlets, newssheets, posters, correspondence, etc.), documenting the 1968 Revolts in Paris, Berlin, Prague (etc.), and of course events here in Nottingham. Those local events and their wider context were covered in more detail during a panel session and a lively – though to everyone’s surprise almost completely non-sectarian – discussion, with people sharing memories of some of the struggles fought in Nottingham in 1968.
We came away very happy from the event, which was an example of how oral history and documental sources can complement each other. It was an excellent day. People gathered, reminisced and laughed together, discussing struggles fought in decades past and those still needing to be fought in the here and now.
For audio recordings of the talks see Valentine Yarnspinner’s YouTube channel, to read about these …Voices from Nottingham, and to access primary sources etc., please also see the free digital version of our pamphlet published after the event.
1831 Reform Riots
In October 1831 Nottingham Castle was burned down in what became known as the Reform Riots. Though these events are often referred to, little is known about who the rioters were and what may have motivated them.
For a detailed description and analysis of events, please see our new book Nottingham Rising… (paperback £6 or free digital download), a revised paperback edition of our two pamphlets regarding the 1766 Cheese Riots and 1831 Reform Riots.
See also the materials, the handout and links to Indymedia reports for our infamous guided walk ‘To the Castle!’ retracing the Reform Riots.
If you missed the walk and would like to take your own tour ‘To the Castle’, please contact us, or you can always do the audiotour in your own time, either by downloading the handout and MP3 files or using the fancy smartphone app.
See also the Broadsheet sold after the executions which followed the riots and Staveley & Wood’s map of Nottingham on the eve of the Reform Riots.
See also the materials we produced for the Youth Heritage Conference a few years ago.
Nottingham’s Great Cheese Riot of 1766
In 1766 a Food Riot broke out during Goose Fair. Large cheeses were rolled down Wheeler Gate and Peck Lane, bowling over the mayor.
For a detailed description and analysis of events, please see our new book Nottingham Rising… (paperback £6 or free digital download), a revised paperback edition of our two pamphlets regarding the 1766 Cheese Riots and 1831 Reform Riots.
See also the materials produced for the Youth Heritage conference.
Luddism
Please see our Youtube channel for a recording of an excellent talk by Dr. Matthew Roberts, held at the Sparrows’ Nest (Nottingham) on the 22nd September 2012, entitled ‘Rethinking Luddism in Nottinghamshire’.
Poaching in Nottinghamshire
Please see our Youtube channel for a recording of an excellent talk by Rosemary Muge, held at the Sparrows’ Nest (Nottingham) on the 17th February 2013, entitled ‘A few words on Poaching’.
Spanish Civil War
After Notts County Council made every effort to rewrite history by desecrating the Spanish Civil War memorial several events were organised by a number of groups, including Notts TUC and Nottingham AF.
The TUC organised a well attended rededication event, the AF an event at The Sparrows’ Nest and we a screening of Land and Freedom.
See also our leaflet, published in cooperation with The Sparrows’ Nest collective, and these documents which were provided by the TUC: a letter by Eric Whalley, who died in Spain and documents regarding Nottingham Co-Op’s assistance to the anti-fascists in Spain.
The fight against the Poll Tax
2010 began with a commemoration of the successful fight against the Poll Tax. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the storming of a council meeting and the custard-pieing of councillors, people were invited to an evening of reunion, reminiscence and discussion (see also this
Indymedia report).
See this extensive collection of newspaper cuttings, leaflets, pamphlets etc. about the local fight against the Poll Tax.
We also published this glossy brochure to remember the pied meeting:
Miscellanious
See this Indymedia feature on Nottingham and Slavery – A Hidden History (March 2007).
In 2009 there was the 150th anniversary of the inauguration of Feargus O’Connor’s statue in the Arboretum (August 2009). See also this article debating the event referring to a number of newspaper reports.
For May Day 2011 we looked how local mainstream papers reported on four May Days in the 20th century.
A long time ago, we published a couple of newsletters:
People's Histreh 
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