After being closed for over two years, due to Coronavirus restrictions and the death of the museum keeper, the Calverton Folk Museum reopened at the end of April 2023.
Owned by the Calverton Preservation and History Society and situated on Main Street, Calverton next to the Baptist Church the Museum is housed in a 4-roomed, Grade II listed, 18th. Century cottage.
The museum was opened in 1974 and has a variety of displays depicting local history and heritage. There is also a kitchen and bedroom from about 100 years ago and a variety of objects relating to local coalmining, farming and education.
PHOTOS: Courtesy of Calverton Preservation & History Society
The principal display is devoted to William Lee who lived in Calverton over 400 years ago and invented the Hand Knitting Frame in 1589 during the reign of Elizabeth I.
This was the start of a world-wide hosiery industry in which today’s computer-controlled machines still make use of Lee’s technology.
The Museum is open on the last Sunday afternoon of each month during the summer from 2:00 pm to 4:00pm. For admission, visitors are asked to pay if or what they can.
For more details on the museum please ring 0115 9654843 or email pressoc@ntlworld.com.
Good that this is open again and it’s a shame that more is done regarding promoting the areas long and importing links to the Hosiery trade including the old Alun and Soley factory just off Brookfield Road and Clairborne House on High Street in Arnold that is a rare example of an 18th Century Framework Knitter’s House.
Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever and I appreciate that not everything can be saved, but there’s a rich, hidden and very much undervalued opportunity in our Borough to promote investments in old skills revival, create jobs and encourage visits to area as tourists?