Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) is a celebrated figure in British history, yet her connections to Derbyshire are less widely understood. The Nightingale family’s wealth was rooted in the industrial economy of Derbyshire, particularly around Cromford and Lea Bridge. Their home at Lea Hurst served as an important retreat, where Florence returned after the Crimean War and later cared for her dying mother. The Arkwright Society, the charity with looks after Cromford Mills, part of the Derwent Valley World Heritage Site, and the Florence Nightingale Derbyshire Association wanted to explore new ways of celebrating the legacy of Florence Nightingale. In this post, Dr Kathleen McIlvenna and Dr Jo Ray reflect on activities supported by their RHS Scouloudi Public History Grant , 2025-26 for students to undertake research at Cromford Mills and develop a new exhibition. 

Dating from c.1431-c.1624, the Charterhouse Water Maps are four large manuscript rolls illustrating the water system built in 1430 to serve the monks of the London Charterhouse in Clerkenwell, when it was a Carthusian monastery just outside the city walls. Today, the Charterhouse is a living heritage site which keeps and displays the Water Maps in the original location for which they were intended. In this post, James Spellane and Dr Rachel Delman explain how they tested and identified new avenues for interpretation and public engagement with the Water Maps. In three workshops, James and Rachel brought together academic researchers, museum specialists and members of the Charterhouse community and local area to explore the Water Maps with reference to three themes: Landscape, Object and Community. The project was supported with the award of an RHS Scouloudi Public History Grant, 2025-26.

In this post, Iqbal Singh (The National Archives) and Eleanor Newbigin (SOAS, University of London) detail their recent one-day participatory workshop on colonial history for those working in higher education, the GLAM and creative sector and community-facing roles. The workshop explored audio-zine making as a tool for thinking about historical sources and the construction of history itself. The workshop took place in June 2026, thanks to support of an RHS Scouloudi Public History Grant. The audio-zine method invites participants to work collaboratively to build 2 to 3 minute tracks using layers of short recordings of actor-spoken text taken from official documents, alongside sound effects, ambient effects and music.