Hidden Heritage: museum collections, local communities and place-making in Nottingham

There are hundreds of man-made sandstone caves beneath the city of Nottingham, reflecting the development of the city’s geopolitical importance, industries, and changing populations over centuries. The City of Caves project, led by Principal Investigator (PI) Dr Chris King and assisted by researchers, including Knowledge Exchange Fellow Dr Charlotte May, is an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project looking at the archaeology and heritage of Nottingham’s medieval and later caves, as part of new urban regeneration and place-making initiatives in the city.
This paper explores how the project team collects and utilises data and artefacts from the caves, particularly the University of Nottingham Museum’s collection of excavated cave material, and works with local groups who studied and explored the caves in the late twentieth century to bring stories of subterranean histories to new audiences and to develop the role of the caves in Nottingham’s urban identity.
Dr Chris King is Associate Professor in the School of Humanities at the University of Nottingham, specialising in late medieval and historical archaeology with a particular interest in urban archaeology. He is PI for the AHRC-funded City of Caves project.Dr Charlotte May is a Knowledge Exchange Fellow on the AHRC-funded City of Caves project. Her background is in eighteenth and nineteenth century literature, with a focus on manuscripts, correspondence, and non-canonical figures. She is also a Trustee of Keswick Museum which holds a range of archaeological collections.