A belated ‘Well done’     

by Tina Hackett & Val Hunt

The Education Act of 1870 instituted a standardised school system based on local school boards. The government would pay the running costs as grants based on actual daily attendance records rather that the school roll. Various school boards quickly realised it was in their best interest to maintain attendance as high as possible and thus introduced various rewards for good attendance, punctuality and conduct. The awards were graded according to performance with picture cards, books or workboxes and medallions. Good attendance medals were first awarded to pupils in the early 1880s and there were various types; white metal, bronze, gilded bronze and silver.  Recently two gilded bronze medallions have been found in different parts of the village. They were both awarded to pupils by the Nottingham School Board. The reverse bears the legend “awarded to xxx for exemplary punctuality and attendance on every occasion on which the school has been open during an entire year”. The obverse shows a teacher marking an attendance register with a scholar, below Nottingham Castle with Goose Fair and St Mary’s Church on either side. Vaughtons of Birmingham, who were a very large company noted for their production of commemorative medals and medallions of all kinds, made both medallions.

The first medallion was issued to a “A.Hemingray” in 1890. The 1891 Census shows a family of that rather unusual surname living at 6 Milton Place, Independent Street in Radford, just a year after the medallion was issued. The family consisted of Charles Hemingray, head, 34 yrs, a moulder; Fanny his wife aged 33 yrs and their five children, Ada, a scholar aged 11yrs, Arthur aged 8yrs, Edward aged 6yrs, William aged 4yrs and Henry aged 1yr. It would seem highly likely that the Medallion was issued to Ada who would have been 10 at the time, rather than to Arthur who would only have been 7 years old, but this needs to be confirmed from the records. Ten years later the 1901 Census shows the family had moved slightly being resident at 12 Independent Street. Ada now 19 was a hosiery hand. ‘Ancestry’ then shows in October 1902 an Ada Hemingray of Nottingham as an immigrant, bound for Philadelphia aboard the Red Star Line SS Belgenland.  The manifest for the SS Belgenland shows that Ada travelled to the United States alone, where she was to meet her cousin on the quayside.

The second medallion was awarded to a “J.Sewell” in 1899. The 1901 Census reveals that a family by the name of Sewell were living at 6 Kings Court, King George Street, St Mary’s, Nottingham in that year. A Jane Sewell, widowed, was the head of the household and at the time of the Census had her grandchildren, Jennie aged 16 and her brother George aged 10, staying with her. At the end of the school year in 1899 Jennie would have been between 13 and 14 years old.

The Melton Road where both the medallions were found was agricultural land at the time that they were issued and for several years after and it is almost certain that the medallions were introduced into the soil by the practice of buying in Nottingham’s ‘night soil’ from either Widmerpool or Plumtree stations, where it was sold as a valuable fertiliser. Farmers were frequently heard to complain about the number of ‘foreign objects’; broken glass, china sherds and bits of metal that were found in the compost! It is interesting to see that the Education Authorities have recently proposed a new rewards scheme for good attendance, where pupils will gain free music downloads or vouchers for ten-pin bowling.

A ‘small black spot’ by Alan and Val Hunt

 A close examination of the Ordnance Survey (OS) historical map of Roman Britain will disclose a ‘small black spot’ on their map just to the west of the A606 that appears to be within our parish boundaries. ‘Small black spots’ according to the legend on the map signify “Other finds of Roman material”. An approach to the Ordnance Survey to find out what exactly had been found and where, revealed that the OS did not keep an inventory of what was marked on their map. All the information used was apparently assembled from English Heritage. An approach to this body revealed that the information was actually kept in the National Monuments Record. Eventually, we were told that the “spot”marked the casual find of some Roman pottery which had been written up in the East Midlands Archaeological Bulletin (EMAB) for 1960.

Tracking this journal down in the University of Nottingham, Department of Manuscripts and Special Collections, we were delighted to find  a brief description of the pottery. The location was stated to be a garden on the north side of Browns Lane almost opposite the site of the old water tower, however the grid reference given was in the large permanent pasture field of ridge and furrow. The pottery included  pieces of Roman grey ware and sherds of fine Samian ware. We then wrote to the University of Nottingham Department of Archaeology and to the Castle Museum in Nottingham to see if the pieces had been donated to their collections of Roman material. A reply from the University stated that they held no material from Stanton but that the Notts County Council Archaeologists might be able to help. The County Archaeologists were most helpful and after searching their Archaeological Data Service database they were able to confirm that the owner had retained the finds.

Seventeen years later in 1977 the owner, apparently deciding to emigrate, gave the “finds” to the Castle Museum in Nottingham who re-described the finds in the EMAB giving a new location and a new grid reference at the east end of Browns Lane. The owners address was given as 4 Browns Lane. According to the 2008 electoral roll a “4” Browns Lane no longer exists. Perhaps the address was 4 Radio Cottages, Stanton Close off Browns Lane ? A couple of mornings at the Nottingham Archives spent going through past electoral rolls for the parish showed that Browns Lane had been renumbered.

 We now know that the pot sherds were found in December 1955 about 2 feet below the surface of a lawn in the back garden of no 155 Browns Lane. The Samian ware was dated to between the 2^nd and 4^th century. The grey ware was identified as being made at the Throlam potteries in Yorkshire in the 4^th century and consisted of a shallow dish with a diameter of 210mm and a bowl of 180 mm diameter. It is interesting to note that nearly all the Throlam ware was made under contract for use by the army on the northern frontier of the Empire and it is quite unusual for this ware to be found this far south. So far the Museum has been unable to locate the Stanton specimens within their huge collection, although the search is on-going.