WORK Records
Exploring historic working lives across the East Midlands
The Hands, Kim Noce
John Smedley Limited, Lea Bridge
John Smedley Archive
Robbos, Kate Anderson
Robinson and Sons, Chesterfield
Derbyshire Record Office
Club Corby, Saul Pankhurst
Stewarts & Lloyds, Corby
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 working lives at knitwear factory John Smedley, packaging company Robinson and Sons in Chesterfield, and steel tube manufacturer Stewarts & Lloyds Ltd in Corby. Artists Kate Anderson, Kim Noce, and Saul Pankhurst made short animated films inspired by this research.
The WORK Records films will premiere online in the autumn.
The WORK Records films were first shown, along with Christopher Bevan 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 Derbyshire-based curator, educator and writer, Camilla Brown. And we had special 'site' events in Lea Bridge, Chesterfield and Corby.
Between now and then, we'll be adding lots to explore. There's a page for each of the WORK Records "sites", and on the EXPLORE page we'll be adding lots more, including writing – from WORK Records Historian Stefan Ramsden, and some of our volunteers, interviews with former workers, and a WORK Records timeline that will place the histories of the three firms and their workers in context. Click on the boxes below...
Watch extracts from Christopher Bevan's film Making WORK Records here.
Follow WORK Records on Instagram.
