May/June 2013
(Move to the next section for a general introduction to the site.)

The screens have changed recently due to a blip on the computer which is used to author the website. Work is underway (but it's taking somewhat longer than hoped!) to totally redesign the layout of the site - none of the contents will be removed.

While we wait for the webmaster to have time to sort this (!), we have also now created a Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/HeanorLocalHistory), on which we hope to put snippets of information, and, just as importantly, where readers can leave comments and queries - please visit us and Like us.

Our final meeting of the 2012/13 season is on Tuesday 14 May, when Roy Plumb will tell us about the history of nearby Greasley. Everybody is welcome to any of our meetings - you don't need to be a member to attend. Just come along to the Wilmot Street Community Centre ready for a 7.30pm start (so get there for around 7.15pm). Our full programme for the year can be seen at Programme 2012/13. We hope that there is something for everyone.

In the autumn, the Society was awarded a Derbyshire County Council Excellence in the Community Award. Chairman Robert Mee, and Vice-Chairman Brian Key, attended the awards ceremony at the Devonshire Dome, Buxton, on 15 October, to collect the award.

Who Do You Think You Are? - The BBC magazine which accompanies the television series has done a full page article on the Society last September - we're really pleased to have been chosen for this.

The Heritage Corner at the Heanor Antique Centre is open for visitors, another way in which the Society ensures that our local history is not forgotten. The Heritage Corner is open whenever the Antiques Centre is open (daily, 10.30am - 4.30pm). We are grateful to Jane Richards for allowing us this display. For more information about the Heritage Corner, follow the link. And for details of the Heanor Antiques Centre, go to their website.

Our Publications Group is working on a number of different projects at present, with timescales which vary from a few months to several years. We know that not all of them will come to fruition, but we are equally willing to listen to anyone who has a project of their own and who is looking for someone to publish it. (As long as it is to do with the history of Heanor!!!!)

In the eight years that this site has been on the world wide web, over 200,000 visits have been made, with over half a million page-views. Not bad for a site covering a small market town in Derbyshire! A  number of emails are received each month - some are dealt with very quickly, others need a bit of time to think about! But please get in touch if there is anything that you feel you can add.

Welcome

... to the pages of the
Heanor and District Local History Society.

Heanor (in case you are just browsing and don't actually know) is a market town in Derbyshire, England, very close to the border with Nottinghamshire.  Not a major tourist area, but we are here to celebrate our history and heritage, which is as strong as anyone's!

We hope you will find our site both interesting and informative. This site is under constant change - most pages stay the same, but almost every month there are new additions, and eventually some items will also disappear.

Please keep coming back to see what changes we have made. If you've not visited for a while, have a look at the What's New page, where we keep a running log of changes made to the site.

The British Library included this website in a national archive of "selected key UK websites - ensuring that invaluable scholarly, cultural and scientific resources remain available for future generations." Out of the hundreds of thousands of UK websites out there, only a tiny proportion are - only 10 are concerned with local history - so we are rather honoured at being asked!

In September 2006, research was published into the "most English" places in the country, based primarily on the analysis of names in the most recent census, which split the country's population into 200 ethnic groups. Heanor was declared the second-most English town in the country, after nearby Ripley, with almost 90% of the population being English in origin. Third came Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, and Boston in Lincolnshire came fourth. Whatever your views on what this means, at least it got the town's name mentioned!

Modern day map showing Heanor, Langley Mill, Loscoe and Shipley. The Society's interests extend well beyond this immediate area, and covers all the old Heanor Urban District Council area, plus a bit more!