Standing In This Place: A Sculpture & Heritage Project
Created by sculptor Rachel Carter & the Legacy Makers. Commissioned by The National Justice Museum.
Created by sculptor Rachel Carter & the Legacy Makers. Commissioned by The National Justice Museum.
This ambitious new sculpture gives representation to the under-represented, giving a voice and recognition to the contributions of thousands of unnamed women who were the driving forces behind the East Midlands cotton textile industry during Industrialisation.
The statue’s inclusion in a public park places Nottingham at the forefront of historic female recognition; and makes Nottingham a regional, national and global leader in acknowledging the significant contributions women have made to the British economy and society through their legacies as enslaved African workers in the Americas and Caribbean, and as indentured factory workers in Industrial Britain.
Watch our short video below of the Public Celebration which took place on 9th February 2025.
The Foundations for Standing In This Place
During 2020 Bright Ideas Nottingham and the Legacy Makers invited local people to take part in a HLF funded community history project, exploring what life was like for the residents of Darley Abbey and surrounding areas in the nineteenth century, and the village’s links to slavery.
Gathering the feedback and support of the Legacy Makers, Rachel was successful in securing project funding from Arts Council England and Heritage Lottery to deliver the three year long collaborative project from 2022-25. The project delivered two major exhibitions and engaged hundreds of women in a variety of creative activities, including dance; braiding, poetry and stitching. Their website and podcast series help to share the successes of this arts and heritage community project.
Rachel volunteered to help the project research the burial slabs of cotton mill workers found in the church yard of Darley Abbey. Having found her own ancestors, four children, working in the Darley Abbey Mill, she wished to gain a greater understanding of her ancestors’ lives, in particular the role of women and girls in the cotton mills.
Read our full HLF Impact Report
Take a look at our impact report above to show how funding from Heritage Lottery helped us deliver our first major exhibition Standing In This Place: Global Cotton Connections at the Museum of Making, which shed light on some of the amazing participatory work behind this co-created arts and heritage project.
The National Justice Museum - Why we are the custodians of this sculpture?
This proposed sculpture will address gaps in the museum’s collections. There is a lack of representation of women and even less of women of colour in our collections. The sculpture amplifies the connections between the cotton industry and the transatlantic slave trade in a city renowned for its lace industry.
As a museum that represents justice in all spheres of life this will be the first piece of public art that the museum has acquired and at a time when there has been divisive reaction to public sculpture associated with the history of the transatlantic slave trade. As an organisation that has a collection and heritage site that is consumed with challenging narratives it is essential that such a powerful and evocative piece of work is displayed in a public space to raise awareness and draw in discussions on the history of enslavement, both historical and contemporary.
As the custodian of this significant sculpture we will amplify the contributions of women to local and global economies by drawing attention to the textile industry and its global cotton connections. The sculpture will provide an opportunity to learn from the past and have open conversations.
The Creative Team at the National Justice Museum will run a programme of free activities around the themes of the sculpture amplifying the multi-faceted themes of the sculpture stimulating engagement.
The preservation and maintenance of the sculpture will be jointly managed by Nottingham City Council and the National Justice Museum.
FAQ’s
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The Legacy Makers are a Nottingham-based community research collective, led by Caribbean Elders, who research and campaign to uncover the city’s historical links to transatlantic enslavement. Their work centres on uncovering the stories of enslaved Africans whose labour was essential for the success of Nottingham’s cotton and lace industry, while also highlighting the voices of Black communities in Nottingham today.
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The title 'Standing In This Place' has its origins in my quest to find female ancestors. My family is deeply rooted in the Midlands and I found my working-class ancestors mainly working in the textile and coal industries.
When trying to find places and connections to my female ancestors, I often discover that no trace remains. When looking at illiterate female ancestors, it’s hard to find any information about who they were other than; they were born, they were married, they had children and they died.
Newspapers in the National Archives have been very useful to help me understand the lives of some of these women. For example, one such story I discovered about a female lacemaker was that aged 19 she was arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct at Weekday Cross, Nottingham. When I visit the Lace Market area of Nottingham, in particularly weekday cross, I can stand in the place where my female ancestors once stood.
Being able to stand where my ancestors once stood, was the idea behind the sculptures title. When I began working with the black-led community group Legacy Makers, I discovered the difficulties they face when tracing ancestors of African origins. The ability to discover information about their ancestors, their roots, the places they once stood becomes much more difficult.
When thinking about the sculpture that we are creating and it's intended placement in the Broad Marsh new public park, it feels a very fitting location as census data for the 18th & 19th centuries show many female textile workers living in the Broad Marsh and Narrow Marsh areas, you can clearly see many workers, immigrants and paupers all living side-by-side in close conditions.
The two women featured in the sculpture are our connection to our ancestors, we tread in their footsteps, we stand in this place.
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Sculptor Rachel Carter works from The Garden Studio on the Derbyshire / Nottinghamshire border, creating large scale sculpture for the garden and smaller intimate sculptures for the home using the lost wax technique to create bronze works.
“Throughout my professional practice, since graduating with a BA Hons in Applied Arts, I have found myself driven by process and material in sculpture. For the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower sailing in 2020 I was commissioned to create a new series of work for the Pilgrim Roots districts. The ‘Pilgrim Woman’ sculptures combined my hand woven work alongside community weaving which was cast in bronze, a plus life size pilgrim stands in the Danum Gallery, Doncaster, a smaller version on the the banks of the River Trent in Gainsborough and the third Pilgrim Sculpture is in Boston, Lincolnshire.”
“Many of my commissions are underpinned by my love of history and ancestry, and I feel honoured to be able to represent our shared and complex histories within sculpture. Looking at my own ancestry often provides inspiration for new work as I add to the long legacy of weavers, knotters and makers that stretch back over 350 years of the Midlands industrial past.”
Find out more by visiting the artists website
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“We are a multi-award-winning Independent Museum, growing in national stature, winning the ‘Museums Change Lives’ award in 2021 for our innovative workshops in an envelope project. We are an Arts Council England NPO (National Portfolio Organisation) developing diverse collaborations and partnerships to make our museum more representative of our communities. We are a leader in public legal learning & education programmes delivering in centres across England.
Our museum is based in Nottingham’s former Shire Hall and County Gaol, a Grade II* listed building featuring a Victorian criminal and civil courtroom, an Edwardian police station and exhibitions exploring the fascinating history of justice, we house historically significant collections of over 40,000 objects that cover the history of the British Criminal Justice System.
We work inclusively and collaboratively with communities, supporting the creation of a fairer and equitable society, empathetically enabling people of all ages to extend their understanding of the law and justice system, so they are inspired by their rights and responsibilities to play an active role in society.
We’ve established a reputation nationally and regionally for our person-centred creative approach and have a credible reputation as an arms open organisation, connecting communities through creative activity and providing services for diverse and not yet engaged groups. We take our museum out to people, engaging with new community partners to co-produce exhibitions and become more accessible to a wider range of people.
Our Vision is - For everyone to have equity and justice through engagement, inspiration, learning and unforgettable experiences.”