Legacy Makers Legacy Makers is a community history initiative by Bright Ideas Nottingham Bright Ideas Nottingham and the Legacy Makers volunteers. Legacy Makers started out as a one-year pilot project, ‘Slave Trade Legacies’, in 2014. We set out to challenge heritage sites to acknowledge their links to the transatlantic trade of African peoples. Along the way, we renamed the initiative when we agreed that our ancestors were not ‘slaves’. They were human beings, forcibly caught up in the inhuman trade of African peoples.
Over 100 volunteers from the Black community were involved in the activities in the first year. Part of this experimental work involved joining the University of Nottingham’s Global Cotton Connections Global Cotton Connections: East meets West in the Derbyshire Peak District | An AHRC Connected Communities project - a project led by historical geographer, Dr Sussane Seymour (Dr Susanne to us). Our own lead researcher is historian, Dr Helen Bates (Dr Helen), and together with the volunteers we ensure that this work acknowledges and amplifies the links between cotton workers which included enslaved Africans, white mill workers and indentured Indian labourers. Our work is not Black history. It is about global, shared histories.
25 volunteers lead on Legacy Makers’ work. Most have been involved in the work from the beginning. Other volunteers join us on aspects of the initiative according to their interests. Together we have influenced Newstead Abbey, the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site and the Canal and Rivers Trust Nottinghamshire to tell the stories of their links to the transatlantic slavery economy and how the wealth of Britain was created. Our film Blood Sugar is on permanent exhibition at Newstead Abbey. The Visitor Centre at DVMWHS has a mural depicting enslaved Africans, indentured Indian labourers and cotton workers from the industrial midlands. It fully acknowledges Legacy Makers role in co-creating this, as well as interpretation boards and audio materials. Nottingham Rivers and Canals are currently fundraising for a Legacy Makers interpretation board to be installed by the canal in the city centre.
Our work has included projects with other collaborators including Josh Osoro Pickering at Nottingham Castle to evaluate Black history exhibition artefacts. Some of the Legacy Makers were featured in their Nottingham’s In Your Face projection project where 100 Nottingham people’s images were projected onto the walls of the castle. Other institutions include Wilberforce Museum to trial and evaluate their handling collection, Boughton House to retrieve evaluate their Black history archives and, more recently, the Paul Mellon Centre where we presented our research on Colonel Thomas Wildman and introduced the work of the Legacy Makers "Blood Sugar": Screening & Panel Discussion
The volunteers help shape our work and lead on the challenging conversations we have with UK visitor sites. They are the key decision-makers and influencers in the directions the work takes us. Due to the passion and commitment, nine years after launching we persist with our endeavours and continue to work in meaningful partnership with others.
Legacy Makers is a hive of creativity and we have worked with creatives such as, Lisa Jackson (mon0lisa Productions), Cara Thompson, Kim Thompson, Michelle Hubbard, Dr Shawn Sobers and international artist Hetain Patel. Together we have co-created exhibitions, interpretation boards, films, Films | Legacy Makers, poetry and textile work, run community and public events, and developed our own zine (in collaboration with Nottingham Poetry Festival) and learning resources for schools. Legacy Makers. We even have our own gospel choir and co-created our own commissioned song, ‘Wishing Fields’, with musician, Freddie Kofi.
With the invaluable guidance of Dr Helen and Dr Sussane, Legacy Makers embarked on a lifelong adventure of research, learning about our ancestors and their rich histories. We have visited sites such as the Liverpool Slavery Museum, Porchester Castle and Bristol for a trail teaching us about that city’s links to the transatlantic trade. Researcher, Dr James Dawkins has also been part of our research family. Dr James previously worked with University College London’s Legacies of British Slave Ownership and with the University of Nottingham and Nottingham City Council on local connections to the transatlantic trade and we have been grateful that he continues to share his knowledge and understanding with us.
The volunteers’ have been recognised by Heritage Lottery, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the University of Nottingham and the Heritage Lottery for their outstanding contribution to heritage work in the East Midlands/UK. They were shortlisted for the AHRC’s Research in Film awards, won the university’s award for long term volunteering and shortlisted twice for their research impact awards. In the past Legacy Makers volunteers have been featured on BBC’s Songs of Praise BBC One - Songs of Praise, Newstead Abbey and ITV’s A Place in the Country. - A Place In The Country: Part 2 - Slave trade legacies Today, we are proud to be fully acknowledged as instigators of the Standing in this Place statue.
A group from the Legacy Makers Family decided to get involved in Standing in the Place at the outset. We were delighted by the idea of a statue which told of the links between cotton workers – an idea which came out of conversations between Dr Helen and sculptor, Rachel Carter. Rachel generously volunteered with us to research the names of millworkers during the COVID lockdowns. The mill workers of Darley Abbey biographies project. Dr Helen felt that a statue should also include an enslaved African woman. The Standing in this Place Statue is not the first major arts partnership we have been involved in. A statue of Legacy Maker, Veronica Barnes is Nottingham’s first statue of a Black woman after Dr Helen nominated her for Put Her Forward | Ancestors Voices Veronica became one of 25 women to have statues made of them in recognition that the UK has few statues women. Legacy Makers also inspired international artist, Hetain Patel to create ‘Cotton Labour’, an installation which has ordinary people standing in for their enslaved, indentured and cotton mill ancestors 'Cotton Labour' by Hetain Patel.
Legacy Makers has then, inspired the idea for and impetus of Standing in this Place – a trailblazing and necessary endeavour to honour the memory of our ancestors, their sacrifices and their contributions. Quite simply, the Standing in this Place statue would not be realised without the will and vision of the Legacy Makers.
Written by Lisa Robinson - Legacy Maker and Director of Bright Ideas Nottingham