Oakham Castle

4 - 24 January 2011

The exhibition had a well received four-week run at Oakham Castle in Rutland. Visitors to the exhibition in Oakham included the architect behind one of the featured buildings – Berry Hill Nursery. Karen Mellor's innovative pyramid-shaped school nursery in Mansfield won her a highly prestigious RIBA Award in 1978 - the first student ever to receive one.

'She remembers she was washing her hair in a sink in the university toilets when her professor came in to tell her she had won the award.

"My very first building hit the top - you can't do better than that. I often jokingly say it's been downhill ever since," said Karen, who has never achieved another Riba award, although she has won other awards.'

(Rutland Times, Thursday 13 Januray 2011)

It is hearing from people such as Karen that has helped make fifty50 such a major, important project in terms of gathering potentially lost stories.

www.rutland.gov.uk/castle|