News

New project brings historic Nottingham lace industry archives online

By Callum Wright

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A library collection documenting Nottingham’s rich history in the lace industry will be available to view online.

The collection at Nottingham Central Library’s Local Studies department, includes books, maps, artefacts, documents and photographs displaying Nottingham’s rise as one of the world’s leading lace manufacturers.

Thanks to LibraryOn, a non-profit programme helping libraries bring extensive archives onto the internet, the collection can now be viewed online for the first time.

Mary Dansie, Central Library manager, says the project will make the collection more accessible than ever.

“Having the material online is one of the really exciting things we worked on with LibraryOn,” she said.

“It took our collection on Nottingham lace and gave us an excellent platform to curate that content into something that can be accessed by anybody anywhere.”

The collaboration has allowed Local Studies to include a wide variety of content in the collection, from hand written notes from workers at a lace factory to audio files featuring first hand accounts of those who worked in the city’s Lace Market area.

Dansie added: “Whether you’re interested in the timeline or the audio file, they (LibraryOn) have helped us showcase these materials and elevate them in such a lovely way that is also accessible.”

Lace has a long history in Nottingham dating back to the industrial revolution, and some of the personal stories from the area have been gathered to try and paint a picture of how people would live when the city had a thriving textile culture.

“Something that we are growing in our content is making sure we have those stories and narratives captured, lace is just one element of that,” said Dansie.

“This content can be revisited in 30 or 50 years time, we can keep going back and future generations can access the stories from people who have lived in Nottingham for years and years.”

With the Lace Market now looking vastly different with restaurants, bars and clubs in the modern day, the collection has allowed viewers to compare old maps of the area to how it looks now.

Lisa Hopwood, Library Information Advisor, said: “You can chart a lot on these maps, you can see the development of industries in the city centre and how houses were built and knocked down.

“They’re very interesting for family history as well; if anybody has got any lace relatives that worked in the industry they’re very good for tracking them down.”

A free talk will be held on Saturday, October 5 in the library further covering the artefacts and workers of the lace industry. Places can be booked online at the library website.