When my Grandpa was a little boy all his parents’ wanted for him was a safe place for him to grow up and get his education. They were living in Russia and as Jews they had been horribly racially abused and persecuted pogroms. Germany between WW1 and WW2 was being run by a liberal government called Weimar and my Great-Grandparents decided that they would live a better life in this artistic and prosperous country. After Hitler came to power, through manipulating this democracy of Weimar, he stirred up anger against the harsh terms imposed on Germany at the end of WW1...

This blog has been written by Sue Dickson, one of the museum's volunteers.  In the 20th century, thousands of men, women and children died at the hands of Hitler's henchmen for maintaining their neutrality in political and nationalistic issues. These were subjected to either hard labour, torture, medical experiments, death by firing squads or the gas chambers. The triangle was the symbol of identification used within the Nazi concentration camps e.g. Yellow star for Jews, red for political prisoners, purple for Jehovah’s Witnesses, pink for homosexual men and black for the mentally ill or mentally disabled. For this blog I will...

Here at Erewash Museum we thought it important to mark International Women’s Day (IWD) even though it came at an extremely busy time for us as we are preparing for Old Stables at Dalby House launch. Planning began a few months ago at a staff meeting and we came up with a few ideas and the project evolved and will continue evolving into 2017. As Dalby House was a former residence we asked some of our volunteers to help research the important women associated with the building Erewash Museum occupies. We soon found out that although we have extensive files relating...

Changing times at Dalby House… From the time it was built until the end of the Second World War, Dalby House had been a private house where women were wives, mothers, daughters or servants of the influential men of the house. Censuses from the time do not list women’s occupations, only those of the men, unless those women are servants. But, as society changed, so did the position and influence of women. The status and use of Dalby House would change forever, as would the influence of women on the property and its uses. In 1946, Dalby House was up for...

A Victorian Maid at Dalby House Throughout its history as a private family residence, Dalby House would have been looked after by a team of servants. Dalby House was quite a small house compared to some of the stately homes in the country but would still have employed domestic servants such as housemaids, a cook, stable boys, grooms, gardeners etc. Until the twentieth century, domestic service was one of the most common occupations for working women. Girls often became maids as young as ten years old. Usually, they would start as a Scullery Maid, doing the worst jobs in the house...