Before the 1960s there was little formal collecting of industrial historical material. Some collecting took place at the Castle Museum and, rather surprisingly, at the Natural History Museum in Wollaton Hall, but it was sporadic and was certainly not recognised as a discipline in its own right. The only exception to this was the lace machinery included in the Castle Museum collections from the outset, much of which was on display at the Castle from its earliest days, to reflect the importance of Nottingham’s contribution to the lace industry. From 1964 a separate industrial collection was established with a fairly broad remit, although largely concentrating on the local textile, coal mining and light metal (bicycles, motorcycles, etc.) trades. In 1966 the stable block at Wollaton Park became the home for this collection, though it did not open to the public until 1971. The 17th century Baskerville coaches – among the oldest surviving examples of their type – long a feature of the Castle Museum, were removed to Wollaton as part of the transport collection.

The museum’s lace machinery collection contains some of the earliest and most important machinery of its type in the country, most of it being built in the Nottingham area. Much of the lace machinery collection was acquired from prominent lace and lace machinery manufacturers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In more recent times the Raleigh cycle company has given a collection of children’s bicycles from the 1970s, Boots have given items relating to their pharmaceutical operations and the Plessey Co. (latterly Siemens) at Beeston donated a significant collection of telephones and other telecommunications material which has been built upon to create a very strong collection of post-war material. In the 1970s a steam-powered beam engine was removed from Basford to the museum and rebuilt on site. The opportunity was taken at the same time to expand the collection of steam and internal combustion engines.

Some of the collections have been acquired through transfer from other departments of the City Council, most notably the agricultural machinery collection from Stoke Bardolph sewage farm which includes two Fowler ploughing engines, significant in their own right as the last pair of this type produced by John Fowler and Co. Material relating to the bus and tramway services operated by Nottingham City Transport when under council control have also been acquired in this way.

All the industrial collections–as distinct from the technology collections–have been acquired to portray the importance of Nottingham as a city built upon industry and to reflect the wide diversity of those industries. The museum worked initially with the Nottingham Society of Model and Experimental Engineers to acquire model engines and since 1967 the Nottingham Arkwright Society have operated the working engines on the museum’s behalf. Parts of the collection have also contributed to civic pride with the Celer car and Baskerville travelling chariot taking part in numerous ceremonial occasions.

Highlights:

• 17th century Baskerville coaches
• Plessey telecommunications
• Celer Car
• Raleigh bicycles
• Local lace making and hosiery machinery

Locally made cars and motorcycles, including several made by George Brough of Nottingham