Place:Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England

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source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Nottingham is a city (and county town of Nottinghamshire) in the East Midlands of England. The centre of Nottingham lies on the River Leen and its southern boundary follows the course of the River Trent, which flows from Stoke to the Humber. According to the 2001 census, Nottingham has an estimated city population of 275,100 which increased to an estimated 278,700 in 2005, while the Nottingham Urban Area conurbation (which includes surrounding suburbs outside the city boundary, and neighbouring towns) has a population of 666,358 (2001 figures). Nottingham is a member of the English Core Cities Group.

The heart of Nottingham City Centre is the Old Market Square, where a major redevelopment was completed in March 2007. Most of the main shopping streets surround the square. The Council House, whose disproportionately tall dome can be seen for miles around, is at the top of the square. Inside of the Council House is the Exchange Arcade, a shopping centre. A bohemian quarter of the city known as Hockley has arisen in recent years; this is situated close to the attractively redeveloped Lace Market area.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

The first evidence of settlement dates from pre-Roman times, and it is clear that the Romans also lived in the area.

An early name for Nottingham was "Tigguo Cobauc" which means "a place of cavy dwellings." Founded by Anglo-Saxon invaders after 600 AD, parts of the settlement have included man-made caves, dug into soft sandstone. The Saxons were led by a chieftain named Snot. Snot brought together his people in an area where the historic Lace Market in the City can now be found. The place was called "Snotingaham" —literally, "the homestead of Snot's people" (Inga = the people of; Ham = homestead). As with most English place names, the word has since been modified, to "Nottingham", in this case being the fact the French at the time couldn't pronounce the -Snuh- part of Snottingham.

Nottingham was later captured by the Danes (Vikings) and in the 9th century became one of the five boroughs (fortified towns) of the Danelaw.

In the 11th century, Nottingham Castle was constructed on a sandstone outcrop by the River Trent. The Anglo-Saxon settlement on the hill now occupied by the Lace Market around St. Mary's Church developed into the English Borough of Nottingham and housed its Town Hall and Courts. A settlement also developed around the castle on the hill opposite and was the French borough supporting the Normans in the Castle. Eventually, the space between was built on as the town grew and the Market Square became the focus of Nottingham several centuries later.

The town became a county corporate in 1449, giving it effective self-government, in the words of the charter, "for eternity".

The legend of Robin Hood first arose in the Middle Ages. Robin Hood is said to have lived in Sherwood Forest, which extended from the north of Nottingham to the north side of Doncaster, Yorkshire. Although Robin Hood is generally associated with Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, some authors (eg Phillips & Keatman, 1995) argue that he came from Yorkshire. Hood's main adversary was the Sheriff of Nottingham. Today the office of Sheriff of Nottingham is a ceremonial position with no real jurisdiction. While the legends are almost certainly untrue, particularly in their details, they have had a major impact on Nottingham, with Robin Hood imagery a popular choice for local businesses and many modern tourist attractions exploiting the legend. The Robin Hood Statue in Nottingham is within walking distance from the Old Market Square.

Three pubs in Nottingham claim the title of England's Oldest Pub. The contenders for the crown are Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem near the castle, The Bell on the Old Market Square, and The Salutation on Maid Marian Way. Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem is supposedly named for its role as a meeting point for those going on the Crusades in the Middle Ages. However, its claim may be due partly to the questionable date of 1189 painted on the side of the inn. A recent television documentary tested the three claimants and found that, while each has its own evidence, none can claim exclusivity. The Trip, while the oldest building and oldest location, was for most of its early life a brewery and not a public house. The Salutation sits on the oldest recognised public house site, but the current building is comparatively recent. The Bell, although not in such an antiquated location, does boast the oldest public house building. There is also conflicting information available: dendrochronology from roof timbers in the Salutation give a date for the building of c.1420 with similar dates for the Bell. Ultimately, the roots of the multiple claims can be traced to various subtleties of definition in terms such as "public house" and "inn".

Nottingham was one of the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, and at that time consisted of the parishes of Nottingham St Mary, Nottingham St Nicholas and Nottingham St Peter. It was expanded in 1877 by adding the parishes of Basford, Brewhouse Yard, Bulwell, Radford, Sneinton, Standard Hill and parts of the parishes of West Bridgford, Carlton, Wilford (North Wilford). In 1889 Nottingham became a county borough under the Local Government Act 1888. Nottingham was extended in 1933 by adding Bilborough and Wollaton, parts of the parishes of Bestwood Park and Colwick, and a recently developed part of the Beeston urban district. A further boundary extension was granted in 1951 when Clifton and Wilford (south of the River Trent) were incorporated into the city.

In the 18th and 19th centuries much of Nottingham's prosperity was founded on the textile industry; in particular, Nottingham was an internationally important centre of lace manufacture. In common with the UK textile industry as a whole, Nottingham's textile sector fell into headlong decline in the decades following the second world war, as British manufacturers proved unable to compete on price or volume with output of factories in the Far East and South Asia. Very little textile manufacture now takes place in Nottingham, but the City's heyday in this sector endowed it with some fine industrial buildings in the Lace Market district. Many of these have been restored and put to new uses.

Caves of Nottingham

The Nottingham cave network was substantially expanded and became home to a large proportion of the poorer populace, particularly those involved in the tanning industry. The caves were gradually abandoned in the 19th and early part of the 20th century, but came into use again as air raid shelters during World War II. A section of the cave network under the Broadmarsh shopping centre is now open as a tourist attraction, and some parts are still used as pub cellars.

Another section of the caves, under the castle, is still in regular use as the indoor rifle range of Nottingham Rifle Club. In addition, Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem Inn, a pub that claims to be the oldest in Britain (see above), is partly built into the cave system below the castle. Although the pub's building only dates from the 16th or 17th century, the caves themselves may date to the 11th century and could have been the site of the brewhouse for the castle.

St. Anne's Well, or Robin Hood's Well

St. Anne's Well/Robin Hood's Well is a historic well linked to the legend of Robin Hood which is located around two miles north-east of Nottingham. Public knowledge of this well dates back to at least 1287. It was originally called the "Owswell", but by 1500 it was usually called, "Robin Hood's Well", due to a reputed brawl that occurred on the site involving Robin Hood and his men. By 1800, the water from the well was said to have healing powers:

The water is very old. It will kill a toad. It is used by those who are afflicted with rheumatic pains.

During the 1800s the area was the site of a rowdy public house (until numerous complaints forced its closure) before becoming a tea room. When part of a railway line was extended over the site in 1887, all of the buildings occupying the site were demolished. In 1987, the well was discovered in the car park of a public house in Wells Road. Action is now being undertaken by some in an attempt to restore this historically important site.

There is a drawing by local artist Thomas Cooper Moore (1827 - 1901) of St. Anne's Well and its associated buildings circa 1856.

Architectural and historical contexts

Nottingham is relatively unusual among big manufacturing cities in Britain in having a mediæval and pre-industrial past of equal importance to its more recent one. Unfortunately, this is not readily apparent from the city’s buildings. Nottingham Castle, founded by William the Conqueror, famed through the Middle Ages as one of the country’s finest strongholds, and where Charles I raised the Royal Standard in 1642 no longer exists, and has been replaced by a classical ducal palace. Of the mediæval castle only the (restored) gatehouse, and the ruined remains of some walls/foundations, survive. Further to the east, Old Market Square, focal point of the city, and reputedly the largest open square of any English city, is being redeveloped.

The city descends from north to south, and eventually to the River Trent, though the river itself is not a central feature. The western third of the city houses the castle and several new tall buildings along with some harmonious streets around the Playhouse mainly occupied by professional firms, and the unimposing Nottingham Cathedral (Roman Catholic). The central third leads down from the Nottingham Trent University building past the Theatre Royal to Old Market Square, which has the Council House to the east. This was built in the 1920s to display civic pride, ostentatiously utilising baroque columns and statues of two lions; the Exchange Arcade underneath, containing boutique shops, is a small but pleasant covered area. Portland Stone from the same quarry used for St Paul's Cathedral was used to construct the Council House and Exchange Arcade. Streets lead south to the Broad Marsh Shopping Centre, a bus terminus. The Canalside, further south of this - and adjacent to the railway station and several new but sympathetically designed modern offices - is an inviting redevelopment of 19th century industrial buildings into a cluster of bars and restaurants. The eastern third of the city contains the Victoria Shopping Centre and the Victoria centre flats (1972), at 75 m high the tallest building in the city. Interesting areas of this part of the city are Hockley Village (see below) and the Lace Market, where the old red-brick warehouses have been utilised for other purposes, creating an attractive aspect to this part of the city. The Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin is in this area; it and the adjacent Shire Hall are two of the more interesting buildings from the city’s pre-industrial past.

Probably the most interesting and attractive building (though not really within the city centre but within city limits) is Wollaton Hall, about 4 km to the west of the centre, just north of the University of Nottingham's University Park Campus.

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