About
People at Player's is a website dedicated to recording the history of John Player & Sons and the memories of people who worked there.
The project is the product of a collaboration between Nottingham City Museums and Galleries and the University of Nottingham, which has been ongoing since 2009. In that time, the two organisations have been developing the John Player Advertising Archive – a resource of around 20,000 objects mainly relating the promotion and advertising of Player's products.
As well as showcasing some of the archive's objects, the People at Player's website explores the stories of people who worked at the company. For many years in the twentieth century, John Player & Sons was one of the largest employers in Nottingham and the company has had a significant impact upon the city.
John Player & Son's expansion led it to setting up a factory in the Lenton area of the city in the early 1970s. Dubbed Horizon, the factory (now ran by Imperial Tobacco) is to close in May 2016. The move brings to an end the long history of tobacco manufacture in Nottingham.
The website looks to preserve an important part of Nottingham's working and industrial history, bringing to life the story of the Horizon factory and the company which ran it.
Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
This website is designed to capture the often positive memories of working lives at Player’s. But we cannot overlook the fact that tobacco products are associated with health risks and that the dangers of smoking are part of the history of tobacco manufacture. We support the health promotion work done by the stopping smoking organization New Leaf and we encourage anyone who wants support with stopping smoking to contact them via http://www.newleafstopsmoking.co.uk/.