Crich Tramway Village comes to Nottingham

Today, Groundwork Greater Nottingham launched their new ‘Tram Travellers’ project at Scotholme Primary School, with the help of Peter Hammond, local historian, and Crich Tramway Village, home of the National Tramway Museum

This is the first session of an 8 week programme which will help Scotholme school pupils to find out about the history of trams in Nottingham and the area around a modern tram stop near their school. Year 6 pupils will visit Crich Tramway Village as part of their studies, as well as using the modern tram network during their research with the support of Nottingham Express Transit. They will also be doing research and creating artwork, which will eventually contribute to a celebration booklet about trams and local heritage.

Crich Tramway Village have chosen the event to launch their brand new Resource Boxes. The boxes contain a wide variety of historical artefacts and other resources relating to different aspects of the history of trams. This includes resource boxes on horse, steam and electric trams and also modern trams. These boxes are available to loan to schools.

Jan Barratt from Crich said: “We are delighted to be working in partnership with Groundwork Greater Nottingham on this exciting project.  Time Travellers will enable the children involved to investigate and explore the history of the communities in which they live using the tram as their starting point.  The project has provided the Museum with a perfect and appropriate opportunity to launch our latest resource boxes which will form part of the children’s investigations.  On their visit to the museum the children will be able to use further images and artefacts from our collection to aid their research and compare and contrast vintage and modern trams.”

Sean Hall, Year 6 Teacher at Scotholme said, "The project is really exciting. Hopefully it will bring something that is on the childrens' doorstep to their attention. It's really important for our children to have the opportunity to investigate their local area and find out how it was in the past."

Tracey Lloyd, Tram Travellers Project Officer for Groundwork said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for local children and adults to find out more about the history of trams and how the local area has changed since trams first came to Nottingham. The project will continue until summer 2010, and as we have received funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, we are delighted that we will be able to offer a number of other schools the opportunity to participate.  We are looking for interested schools within walking distance of a tram stop, which have a class that would like to be involved. The wider community will also benefit as the children’s findings will go on display and they will be creating a celebration booklet.

Ray Harris Operations Manager for NET stated "We are delighted to be involved in this project, to build awareness and use of the tram and to work with the school children to trace the history of tram travel in our city"

If anyone has any memories, photos or memorabilia of Nottingham trams that they would like to share with the project, they should contact Tracey Lloyd at Groundwork Greater Nottingham on 0115 9787496.

Groundwork Greater Nottingham is a registered charitable trust and company limited by guarantee. It is part of the Groundwork federation of over fifty trusts located in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. We are committed to improving the quality of life for local people. We have been working in disadvantaged areas since we were established in 1991.
We consult with and work closely with local people to achieve sustainable improvements to local areas. We work in partnership with many other organisations to secure funding to support our work for local communities.
Contact: Tracey Lloyd, Project Officer for Tram Travellers, Groundwork Greater Nottingham, gn@groundwork.org.uk or by phone on 0115 9788212.

Crich Tramway Village is the home of the National Tramway Museum, which has been based at Crich since 1959.  We are a registered educational charity and independent Museum.  The Museum receives no government funding and relies on the support of our visitors, members and any external funding we can secure.   

The resource boxes are available now to loan out to schools.  For more information about the boxes or our education service please contact Jan Barratt, Education Manager at education@tramway.co.uk or by phone 01773 854328.

Peter Hammond  is a local historian and archaeologist who has a keen interest in the history of buses and trams. He is a free-lance educator and runs workshops in schools and museums.

Scotholme Primary School
Scotholme Primary will be the first school taking part in this project.
Scotholme Primary and Nursery School
Fisher Street, Hyson Green, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire NG7 6FJ
Telephone: 0115 9781968

The Heritage Lottery Fund
This project is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund