Month: February 2021

The Bendigo Story (Guided Walk)

We are pleased to announce the launch of our Guided Walk, starting on April 17th.

The Bendigo Story is a guided walk that celebrates the life and times of William ‘Bendigo’ Thompson, Nottingham’s legendary Prize-Fighter and All England Champion.

The guided tour will be led by a trustee of the Bendigo Memorial Fund, who will take you to a number of significant and historic locations, where, you will learn not just about his life, but also what Nottingham was like during his time.

The tour lasts approximately two hours and is along pavements and involves no steps. It is a walking tour that is suitable for wheelchair access

Total walking time is an hour (talking time 2 hrs) and we have chosen a route that will include some interesting features and buildings too. The walk will finish up at St Mary’s Church in the Lace Market, where you will receive a complimentary copy of the Heritage Book and the opportunity to seek refreshment at a local pub

The Bendigo Story is registered with Visit Britain, the corporate website of the UK Tourism Industry. We have the Industry Standard mark meaning we follow government and industry COVID-19 guidelines. A Risk Assessment is in place and a process to maintain cleanliness and aid social distancing.

Whilst The Bendigo Story is an outdoor activity, we assess all of the locations and premises that may be visited. This might be in relation to the measures they have in place for social distancing and sanitising.

Our booking system is to encourage pre-booked so that we know the numbers involved will be manageable

Booking is via this link

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-bendigo-story-tickets-127381011033

A Year to Forget

2020 was a year to forget wasn’t it?

As we all tried to cope with the COVID19 pandemic, all non-essential activity was put on hold. This included our events and fundraising ideas. Let’s hope that 2021 is a year to remember.

Now that things seem to be improving, we are pleased to announce that in the near future, we will be launching The Bendigo Story. A guided heritage walk in Bendigo’s old ‘stomping ground’ of Nottingham’s city centre.

We are excited about this as it will allow us to meet visitors to Nottingham, and show them around. The timing of it will also coincide with the long awaited re-opening of Nottingham Castle as a major tourist attraction.

The 68 years of Bendigo’s life were during the most turbulent period in Nottingham’s history. On his 20th birthday, Nottingham Castle was destroyed by fire (1831) and it remained a ruin until two years before his death. Nottingham Castle became a museum in 1978, having been purchased by the Nottingham Corporation in 1875.

Was Bendigo one of the first visitors? We don’t know, but the sight of the burnt out ducal palace on Castle Rock would have been a permanent reminder to Bendigo of the political unrest in Nottingham.

The Bendigo Story is a guided walk that celebrates the life and times of William ‘Bendigo’ Thompson, Nottingham’s legendary Prize-Fighter and All England Champion. It will take you to a number of locations where you will learn not just about his life, but also what Nottingham was like during his time.

Image from nottinghamcastle.org.uk

Without giving everything away, the walk will last about two hours and we have decided it will finish up at St Mary’s Church in the Lace Market. At the end of the walk, each guest will receive a complimentary copy of our heritage booklet ‘10 Bells For Bendigo’.

Watch this space for more details.

Many thanks for your continued support, in particular those of you that follow our social media pages. We are all learning as we go along.

We will end with a recent image sent to us via our Twitter account @bendigonotts.

Emile Degand pays his respects to Bendigo

It is an image from a book that shows a Belgian flyweight boxer visiting Bendigo’s grave. His name was Emile Degand and he was in Nottingham for a bout with George ‘Tish’ Marsden. It gives the year as 1953. We have checked this and for some reason the date is wrong (by almost 20 years).

George Marsden fought 372 times between 1927 and 1946. He beat Emile Degand on 5th March 1934. We also noticed that Marsden’s birth (1911) and death (1980) were exactly 100 years on from Bendigo. Some coincidence eh?

Thanks for reading and maybe we will see you on the guided walk soon.