A free Heritage Skills Fair will take place at the Four Seasons Shopping Centre in Mansfield on Saturday 4 July, from 9am to 5.30pm. The event will showcase rare historic crafts including bow making, pottery, leatherwork, furniture-making and historic wallpaper restoration.
What to see and do
Visitors will watch master craftspeople demonstrate traditional skills. Demonstrations will include furniture-making using a foot-powered pole lathe, leatherwork, and pottery. Specialists will explain how old-style construction materials were made and discuss traditional building trades used in the East Midlands.
A dedicated children's area will allow those aged three and above to try hands-on traditional crafts. Activities include loom and card weaving, creating Viking trading beads and other folk crafts.
The fair will also host a marketplace selling unique handmade products that support the preservation of endangered heritage skills.
Why this event matters
Cllr Stuart Richardson, Portfolio Holder for Regeneration and Growth, said some of these trades "have survived for centuries but are becoming rarer to find" and that the fair would help preserve skills that "built the East Midlands."
The Heritage Skills Fair is part of the Mansfield Townscape Heritage Project, a £1.3m initiative backed by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. The project has funded architectural improvements to town centre properties since 2018 and supports community initiatives to encourage public interest in Mansfield's history.