PAULINE MARPLES
LOCAL & FAMILY HISTORIAN

My interest in researching our family history began around twenty three years ago and we made many new contacts and friends by being involved with the Derbyshire Family History Society.
My enthusiasm for researching family history developed into a part time teaching career with adult education specializing in Family History and Local History. Both these subjects compliment each other.

A few years ago, I decided to embark on the Advanced Certificate in Local History Course at Nottingham University. This was a three-year part time course and our first terms project was to study a parish or village. That was when I first decided it was time to have a close look at where we lived, the village of Forest Town, which developed because the Bolsover Colliery Company sank the Mansfield Colliery.

Since then, I have visited many libraries, record offices and museums. I have spoken to many people who still live in Forest Town, and made contact with descendants of families who have moved away, some as distant as Australia and Canada.

Thanks to many people who have loaned items, I now have a large collection of photographs and other documents, and Forest Town's History is being preserved.

The recording of present day changes is equally important and I have some unusual photographs of road works, supermarket developments, trees being felled, car parks being resurfaced, and views from the top of the pit tip (the pit tip is now being removed).

I decided to take my educational career a little further and study for a degree, well really it was an MA in Local and Regional History.
My Dissertation on 'Mansfield and The Impact of The Great War' encompassed not only Forest Town but also Clipstone Camp, a camp which brought many thousands of soldiers to this area.

(See details of our exhibitions)

MALCOLM MARPLES
LOCAL & FAMILY HISTORIAN

My interest in researching our family history began around twenty years ago and we made many new contacts and friends by being involved with the Derbyshire Family History Society.

On retiring in 1997 I did a three-year part time course for the Advanced Certificate in Local History Course at Nottingham University. My final year dissertation was
'The Post Office in Victorian Mansfield'

 

Extracts from 'The Post Office in Victorian Mansfield' also 'Trollope and the Post Office' (A Biography) were published in 'Cross Post' the Journal of the Friends of the Postal Heritage in 2002.

Nottinghamshire Living History Archive Millennium Award

After receiving this award in the Autumn of 2001, we both researched the Forest Town Miners Hostel, this was first built as a camp for Bevin Boys in 1944. It then housed epileptic evacuees from Lingfield, Surrey, then became a police training school, after which it was a hostel for displaced persons and refugees from many countries.
The Hostel closed in 1959.

This was a very rewarding project involving many people including interviewing and recording over 30 people.

On completion of the project in 2003, we produced a book and video price £4.50 each, plus postage.

For further information and availability

E-mail Pauline

 


'FOREST TOWN CRIER'
A Community Magazine about Forest Town past and present, was produced quarterly by Pauline & Malcolm Marples, as part of the Kingsway Community Project.

http://www.foresttowncrier.org.uk

 

NOW AVAILABLE
Pauline's book

Forest Town

'The Village That Grew Out Of Coal'

 


Have you or your family lived in Forest Town?
Did you or they work at Mansfield Colliery?
Were you or your family associated with Clipstone Camp

or the Forest Town Hostel?

Any snippet of information or photograph you have may add
to our local history.

E-mail Pauline


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