WORK Records

"You find people in an archive..."
(Karen Millhouse, Archivist, Derbyshire Record Office)

"I think people in this country were never given the credit for being workers."
(Barbara Rawclifee, WORK Records volunteer at Corby Heritage)

WORK Records is an innovative collaboration between contemporary art and heritage, exploring historic working lives at three family firms in the East Midlands, through the collections at the John Smedley Archive, Corby Heritage Centre and Derbyshire Record Office.

Three investigative teams of heritage curators, historians, artists and volunteers researched the histories of working lives at knitwear factory John Smedley in Lea Bridge, packaging company Robinson and Sons in Chesterfield, and former steelworks Stewarts & Lloyds in Corby. Artists Kate Anderson, Kim Noce and Saul Pankhurst have made short animated films inspired by this research.

Below you'll find links to pages with more background on the companies and the archives.

WATCH WORK RECORDS
You can watch Christopher Bevan's Making WORK Records documentary now. The WORK Records films will be online from 23 November.

READING ROOM
Posts by Project Historian Dr Stefan Ramsden that place the WORK Records companies in a historical context, and WORK Records volunteers write about their experiences and discoveries.

You can also find extracts from interviews with former workers.

TIMELINE
The WORK Records TIMELINE places the East Midlands working lives in a wider context. Alongside key moments in the histories of John Smedley, Robinson and Sons, Stewarts & Lloyds, it notes wider industrial, political, national and world events, as well as cultural landmarks. Links will take you to other websites for further exploration.

SCREENING ROOM
In the SCREENING ROOM you will find WORK Records related archive films: footage of the Robinsons  Centenary workers’ day trip to London; British Steel archive films featured in Club Corby; demonstrations of fibre colour blending by John Mumby, former Head Colourist at John Smedley; and some films from the British Council Film Archive about steel, textiles, and trade unions.

PLAYLIST
Our work themed playlist on YouTube.

Follow WORK Records on Instagram.

The Hands, Kim Noce
John Smedley Limited
John Smedley Archive

Robbos, Kate Anderson
Robinson and Sons
Derbyshire Record Office

Club Corby, Saul Pankhurst
Stewarts & Lloyds
Corby Heritage Centre

The WORK Records films premiered, along with Chris Bevan's film about the project, at a special event at Derby Museum & Art Gallery on 12 September 2026 with artists Kate Anderson and Saul Pankhurst, composer Hutch Demouilpied and Jane Middleton-Smith, John Smedley Archivist, in conversation with curator, educator and writer Camilla Brown. We had special 'site' events at the John Smedley factory Lea Bridge, St Thomas Centre in Brampton, Chesterfield and Corby Social & Ex Servicemen's Club. The films were also shown on 10 October at the Women Who Make Festival at Masson Mills, near Cromford, as part of Derbyshire Makes.

Find out more about the WORK Records PARTNERS.