Welcome to our brand new style village website funded by The Heritage Lottery Fund. This site updates the original jacksdale.org.uk first launched in 2001.
The site is hosted and maintained by JACHs – Jacksdale Area Culture & Heritage. We are a non-profit making heritage group who organise heritage display days and have been collecting photographs, newspaper articles and documents relating to the history of Jacksdale and Westwood, Notts since 2001. Some of our holdings are on display on this website, but our collection is extensive so please contact us as we may have further information available. Due to our close proximity with Derbyshire we also hold some information relating to Codnor Park and Ironville, Riddings and Somercotes.
Heritage Display June 2010
Our main objective is to preserve our village history and make it accessible to all. If you have any information relating to this area or surrounding villages which you can share we would be delighted to hear from you. We are interested in all subjects from all eras – from sports to schools and industry to fashion, snippets and snapshots large or small.
You are welcome to use the information on this site for educational or non-profit purposes such as family history research and we are sometimes able to provide better quality images on request. However, we ask that you treat the information on this site with the respect it deserves, much of which has been donated by other site users who feel that history should be seen and enjoyed and not hidden away in the attic.
One of our main ambitions has always been to forge links with other local heritage groups and over the years we have been very pleased to have been invited to attend numerous other neighbouring heritage days.
Membership is free and new members are always welcome. No experience is necessary. Please contact us for more information.
- Heritage day at Alfreton Oct 2011
JACHs have also written several publications. You can find out more in the ‘Support Us’ part of this site.
Notable achievements to date include:-
2001 – Launch of our first edition website jacksdale.org.uk. We were one of the first villages in the UK to research the men named on their village war memorial. Our experiences enabled us to go on to help other groups with similar ambitions.
2002 – Publication of a book ‘A Village Remembers - A Nottinghamshire village remembers the sacrifices made during the First and Second World Wars.’ A book dedicated to the servicemen named on the Jacksdale Memorial who gave their lives in these two conflicts. Five hundred copies sold locally and a leather bound version of the book is on display in St. Mary’s Church, Westwood.
The Book of Remembrance in Westwood, St. Mary's
2002 to 2004 – Several local heritage display days, often with guest speakers, attended by hundreds. Much of our work thereafter involved building up the website and continuing to preserve and collect information if it came available.
Oct 2008 – JACH’s host a successful heritage day to raise local awareness and start fundraising to bring back the lost soldier statue to the Jacksdale Memorial.
June 2009 – Jacksdale Heritage helped organise ‘Soldier Day’ to celebrate the return of the soldier statue to our village memorial. The statue had been missing for fifty years, so its return was a remarkable achievement for the whole village and a day we will always remember and feel very proud to have been involved with. The unveiling was attended by 4,000 spectators.
- Soldier Day 2009
Dec 2009 – Inspired by the return of our soldier, Jacksdale Heritage, previously a sub-group of BADJER, decide to form a dedicated heritage group so we could concentrate primarily on the heritage of the area. We took inspiration for our name and logo from our village soldier statue who is nicknamed ‘Jack’
Apr 2010 – Publication of two short history booklets:- ‘Shops and Traders of the Past’ and ‘Early Days’. We also joined forces with the Codnor Castle Heritage Trust to organise a ‘Heritage Gathering’ with a medieval theme attended by a representative from the Derby Museum displaying some of ‘The Time Team’ finds at Codnor Castle.
May 2010 JACH’s invited to attend the South Normanton and Pinxton Heritage Event.
June 2010 – JACH’s brought the ‘Northern Forties’ WW2 re-enactment group to the village ‘Soldier Day’ 1st anniversary celebrations and organised a 1940s nostalgia dance.
The Northern Forties
September 2010 – JACH’s invited to the Pye Hill Colliery Reunion to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the closure of the village’s Pye Hill Pit.
Dec 2010 – JACHs are granted HLF funding to research and write a book entitled ‘Jacksdale & Westwood 1914 to 2014 – Their Tomorrow for our Today’ due to be published in 2014. Our research for this project includes gathering sound files recording villagers’ memories, collating a large collection of newspaper clippings and transcribing church records. If you have any relevant information or wish to be involved please contact us. New volunteers are always welcome and no experience is needed.
March 2011- JACHs invited to attend the Ironville Christchurch Heritage Day.
Ironville Heritage Day
May 2011 – Extensive project and publication of a booklet in conjunction with Jacksdale Primary School pupils researching the 1911 Census and life in the villages of Westwood and Jacksdale one hundred years on.
June 2011 – Part of our HLF grant enabled us to unveil two large canvasses depicting the original unveiling of our war memorial in 1921 and a similar scene when our new soldier was unveiled in 2009. These ‘now and then’ canvasses are an excellent visual way to compare how much the village backdrop has changed in the interim period.
Unveiling of the Memorial Canvasses, Jacksdale Miner's Welfare
October 2011 – JACHs worked in partnership with the Alfreton & District Museum Trust to organise ‘Back to the Past – A Heritage of Heritage Days’ where fifty heritage groups from both Notts & Derbys joined us in the exhibition arena.
November 2011 – JACHs host a sound recording and editing training day run by the East Midlands Oral History Association.
Heritage Day at Somercotes March 2012
March 2012 - Supporting attendance at Somercotes pilot Heritage Day to help the Somercotes Parish Clerk gather information for his forthcoming publication about the history of the area.
April 2012 – JACHs receive a Best of Ashfield Award to recognise their work in the community.
Best of Ashfield Award 2012
There are many other events we have organised which should not go without mention, such as local heritage walks and talks and several genealogy workshops.
If you would like to get involved with JACHs please see the Support Us or Contact Us sections of this site. No experience necessary and a warm welcome assured.