News

Chair's report

Although we are well into the calendar year, the Thoroton year really commences with the AGM at the end of April. It was good to see a strong turnout at Aslockton, where the business of the meeting was followed by an update from Pete Smith about the pictures of Newstead Abbey which had come to light since the publication of the book completed by Rosalys Coope and himself some years earlier. This is a reminder that, however definitive we aim to be as historians, there is always more to find out and discover, as new approaches and new sources of information come to light.

Some weeks earlier, I was pleased to be at Norwell, to help the Norwell Parish Heritage Group (NPHG) launch the tenth (and final) booklet in their fantastic series on the village and its local community. The NPHG has, over the past 20 years, unearthed a vast array of new material on all aspects of the historic environment of NorwelL Encompassing consideration of people, places, buildings and landscape, and assisted with Heritage Lottery Funding and its own fund-raising activities, the achievements of the group are a reminder of how much can be achieved, under benevolent and encouraging leadership, to produce local historical scholarship of enduring value. The booklet is reviewed elsewhere in the Newsletter and, in common with the other nine booklets in the series, is highly recommended.

As we go into the new Thoroton year, it is worth looking ahead to forthcoming publications in the Record Series, by Graham Crisp, Trevor Foulds and Steph Mastoris. We are delighted to have Hayley Cotterill as our incoming General Editor after Adrian Henstock’s retirement from the role. Do contact Hayley if you have ideas for the series and thoughts about ensuring its long­term sustainability. We also welcome a new Archaeology editor for Transactions, Emily Gillott.

In the autumn, thanks to Mark Dorrington, our Research Awards co-ordinator, we will be commemorating the success of the Geoffrey Bond and Thoroton Society Research Award, at its 10th anniversary. Please do remember to promote the Award, and also the new Rosalys Coope Essay Prize, which are important mechanisms for encouraging and recognising new historical and archaeological research relating to Nottinghamshire. As I observed at the AGM, the Society is a collective endeavour. Council is elected to administer and manage it on behalf of the membership, but we all have a responsibility to advocate its values and ensure its prosperity. Attracting new members is vital in this process. We cannot expect schools or undergraduates, alone, to supply new members to offset the decrease which has occurred (in common with many other organisations) in recent years. I would like to encourage anyone with ideas for attracting new members, or networks through which they can promote membership of the Society, to get in contact, whether with me directly, or with our incoming membership Secretary, Paul Baker. We also have a newly created post, looking after Media Relations and Publicity, which Hannah Nicholson has kindly agreed to take on. If you have ideas for how we can advertise our achievements — and promote ourselves — more widely, then please get in touch. We are always pleased to receive constructive comments about our efforts on your behalf.

Richard Gaunt, Chair of Council

Tenth Anniversary of the Geoffrey Bond and Thoroton Society Research Awards

The 2015 summer edition of the Thoroton Society Newsletter announced the institution of the Geoffrey Bond Research Award:

‘Geoffrey Bond, a life member of the Thoroton Society has kindly provided funds to underwrite research into the history and archaeology of the county of Nottinghamshire (the remit of the Thoroton Society). Awards totalling £1000 are available annually.’

As reported to the Society’s Council by the Standing Committee, this was for an initial period of five years but was later extended. The winter edition of the 'Newsletter then announced that five applications had been received and that two awards (each of £500) were made to Hannah Nicholson for work on the development of political thought and ideas (in Nottinghamshire), and to Matt Beresford for work by a volunteer group on Kelham in the Civil Wars. 2025 therefore marks the tenth anniversary of the Awards and so it seems an appropriate time to provide an overview and celebrate their success.

As a result of the quality and number of applicants in 2015, as notified to the Society’s Council, the spring 2016 edition of the Newsletter announced that it had been decided to increase the grant with the society providing £1000 of matched funding, making a total of £2000 available annually. A previous proposal discussed at the Society’s Standing Committee on 8th January 2016 had suggested that there should be two Awards with one restricted solely to the Society’s members. However, it was decided that there should be a single fund with double the amount open to all applicants. The Awards have remained at this level ever since. Grants can be used to support research into any topic relating to the history or archaeology of the County and may include the acquisition of research resources, including books, photography, photocopying, and travel expenses and have also been used for archaeological training and investigations.

In the period 2015-2024 there were thirty applications, and seventeen successful Awards made to thirteen different individuals or groups (excluding three Awards which for various reasons were subsequently returned). Although it is not always possible to neatly define which projects are archaeological and which historical, there has been a reasonable balance between the two disciplines with slightly more having an archaeological theme. Initially projects were required to be completed within a year, but this has now been extended to two years. On completion, a short article on the research is required to be submitted to the Newsletter and in due course, it is hoped that a fuller submission will be made to Transactions or the online Heritage Gateway. Six articles based on Award funded research have so far been published in Transactions, but hopefully more are in the pipeline. Recipients may also be invited to contribute to the annual lecture programme. To celebrate the first ten years of the Awards an event will be held in place of the usual Saturday afternoon lecture on 11th October 2025 with talks from three of the successful award applicants.

Grateful thanks are due firstly to Geoffrey Bond who has generously funded the Awards since their inception, to Barbara Cast who acted as the first Administrator in her role as Honorary Secretary, and to the other members of the Awards panel Professor John Beckett, Dr Richard Gaunt, Adrian Henstock and, more recently, Dr Richard Jones and Dr Chris King.
The terms and conditions of the Award can be found on the Society’s website. The Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire > the Geoffrey Bond and Thoroton Society Research Awards. A list of successful Award winners is also published there and regularly updated, along with details on where to locate published research outcomes.

Geoffrey Bond and Thoroton Society Research Awards 2024 and 2025

The Society is most grateful for Mr Geoffrey Bond’s continuing support in generously assisting the funding of this Award which is matched with an equal amount from the Society’s own funds. In 2024 there were two applications for an Award both of which were granted:

The deadline for the next Award round is 1 September 2025, and applications and enquiries should be sent to

markdorrington52@gmail.com

The terms and conditions of the Award can be found on the Society’s website. There is a requirement for those receiving grants to provide articles on the outcomes of their research for the Newsletter, and subject to the editorial processes these may develop into papers for the Transactions.

Mark Dorrington Research Awards Administrator