Coleorton Heritage Collections
Coleorton Heritage Group frequently get enquiries from people researching their family history or asking about a house or building that they or their parents remember. We always try to help. Sometimes we have information or photographs we can share; often enquirers send us copies of photos or other items. We are accumulating quite a library of photos, stories and memories which our members catalogue and use for their own research and to help others, and we also have a growing collection of artefacts, maps and documents.
We bring these out to display when we hold an exhibition like “Coleorton People” on Saturday 21st September at the Beaumont Centre, Peggs Green or the a href="village-history.html">Coleorton Past - a village history displays we did at Ashby Museum earlier this year.
Ashby Museum also have a large collection of Coleorton items donated or loaned over the years by residents. The museum has a climate controlled storage room which keeps items from getting damaged by damp or insects (weevils love old paper and fabrics!). There is limited space in the main museum display area downstairs but they are always willing to provide items for our exhibitions and events, including an extensive collection of Coleorton pottery and Sir George Beaumont’s red hunting jacket.
When the National Coal Board closed its regional office at Coleorton Hall in the 1990s a large number of documents relating to the Beaumont estate were retrieved by John Crocker, one of their archivists, and brought to Ashby Museum for safe-keeping and they now live in a huge array of box folders in the museum’s document vault. There are accounts of all kinds, payments to regular employees and casual labourers, receipts for timber cut on the estate, Coleorton Railway documents and more. John MacDonald of the Heritage Group spent many weeks trawling through these boxes and cataloguing the contents.
Ashby Museum is staffed entirely by volunteers who work hard creating displays, looking after items, doing research where needed and cataloguing everything. If you want to find something phone or email in advance of your visit and they will look up on their database. A searchable database of photos and some items is also available on the Ashby Museum website.
It would be wonderful to have our own museum in Coleorton for local people and visitors to learn about Coleorton history and heritage and to undertake research, using our library of documents and database.
We have a plan!
When the diocese formally close St John’s Chapel on the old Ashby Road by Viscount Beaumont’s School we hope to acquire the building to become a “Community Heritage Centre” where people can learn about Coleorton, do research and meet with others in a welcoming space. Coleorton has a shortage of places to meet and this will also provide somewhere local for coffee-mornings, clubs, band-practice, book clubs and so on.
In the meantime, join us at our "Sleuthing” get-togethers and other events.
Sandra Dillon
Member of Coleorton Heritage Group
August 2024