Nottingham is a city, unitary authority, 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 had an estimated city population of 275,100 which increased to an estimated 278,700 in 2005. The Nottingham Urban Area conurbation (which includes surrounding suburbs outside the city boundary such as Arnold, Carlton, West Bridgford and neighbouring towns) has a population of 666,358 (2001 figures).[1] Nottingham is a member of the English Core Cities Group.
The heart of Nottingham City Centre is the Old Market Square, where a controversial[2] major redevelopment was completed in May 2007. Most of the main shopping streets surround the square. The Council House, whose 200ft [citation needed] tall dome can be seen for miles around, is at the top of the square. Inside the Council House is the Exchange Arcade, a shopping centre. A bohemian quarter of the city known as Hockley is situated to the east of the city, close to the Lace Market area.
Recently, Nottingham was voted the 4th worst city to live in. This was in the Location, Location, Location: Best and Worst cities in the UK annual TV Programme. Since this result, many people from Nottingham have reacted and have critised the TV series for concentrating on just the crime and not all other aspects of Nottingham.
History
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. The first evidence of settlement dates from pre-Roman times,[citation needed] and it is possible that the Romans also lived in the area.[citation needed]
In Anglo-Saxon times, around 600 AD, the site formed part of the Kingdom of Mercia, where it was known as "Tigguo Cobauc" meaning "a place of cave dwellings", until falling under the rule of a Saxon chieftain named Snot,[3] whereby it was dubbed "Snotingaham" literally, "the homestead of Snot's people" (Inga = the people of; Ham = homestead). Snot brought together his people in an area where the historic Lace Market in the City can now be found.
Nottingham was captured in 867 by Danish Vikings and later became one of the Five Burghs - or 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 developed into the English Borough of Nottingham and housed a 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 Old 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".[4] The Castle and Shire Hall were expressly excluded and technically remained as detached Parishes of Nottinghamshire.
During the Industrial Revolution, much of Nottingham's prosperity was founded on the textile industry; in particular, Nottingham was an internationally important centre of lace manufacture. However, the rapid and poorly planned growth left Nottingham with the reputation of having the worst slums in the British Empire outside India. Residents of these slums rioted in 1831, in protest against the Duke of Newcastle's opposition to the Reform Act 1832, setting fire his residence, Nottingham Castle.
In common with the UK textile industry as a whole, Nottingham's textile sector fell into headlong decline in the decades following the World War II, 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.
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. City status was awarded as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of Queen Victoria, being signified in a letter from the Prime Minister the Marquess of Salisbury to the Mayor, dated 18 June 1897. 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.[5]
Robin Hood
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. Whilst the accuracy of the legend is questionable, particularly the finer points, it has 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.
Caves of Nottingham
The Nottingham Caves have always formed an important part of the region, at first providing shelter and sanctuary, but growing to house thriving tanning works and in modern times becoming a tourist attraction. The caves are artificial, having been carved out of the soft sandstone rock by prospective dwellers, and have grown to become a complex network under the city. The city has more manmade caves than anywhere else in the country and this whole cave network has Scheduled Ancient Monument protection equal to that of Stonehenge, making Nottingham Caves a site of vast importance to the heritage of the United Kingdom. Part of the network can be viewed by the public at the City of Caves attraction which is accessed from the upper mall of the Broadmarsh Shopping Centre.
Before the industrial revolution, the cave network was substantially expanded and became home to a large proportion of the poorer populace, particularly those involved in the tanning industry. The majority of the caves were thought to have been used for storage by the 18th century and were still inhabited until around 1924 when the last family (the Shore family) moved out of the caves in Ilkeston road, they 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 the Nottingham Rifle Club. In addition, Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem Inn, a pub that claims to be the oldest in Britain, 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.
Nottingham Castle
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.
Architecture
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 Nottingham Playhouse, that are 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 Nottingham 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 Broadmarsh 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 ([Photos]) 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.
Further to the east lies Old Market Square, focal point of the city, and reputedly the largest open square of any English at 26,311 yd².[6] It was recently redeveloped, with work being completed in March 2007, and there are currently plans to erect a statue of the late Brian Clough, a legend in the city for his triumphs with football team Nottingham Forest. The statue's position has yet to be finalised, but it is likely to be on the left of the Council House, at the bottom of King Street and Queen Street, looking out over the Old Market Square.[citation needed] Wollaton Hall lies about 2.5 Miles to the west of the centre, just north of the University of Nottingham's University Park Campus.
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 Old 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". Prominent local architect Watson Fothergill is responsible for many of the city's fine 19th century Gothic Revival buildings.
Education
Despite a lot of investment, the closing of numerous schools and the opening of new city academies, Nottingham remains near the bottom of the league tables at both Primary and Secondary levels. At primary level, The City of Nottingham's local education authority was ranked second-worst overall in the country, at 149th out of 150 LEAs rated.[7] At secondary level, Nottingham came third from bottom nationally in terms of GCSE results attained.[8] The LEA has instituted a plan for wide-sweeping reform of education across the city, but in many cases have been met with opposition from parents who say the planned changes are not in the best interests of education. Stanstead School, in the Rise Park area, successfully managed to prevent its planned closure, with the Independent Schools' Adjudicator finally ruling against the LEA in February 2006.[9] The decision, the first of its kind in the country, adds more weight to the campaigns of the many other schools attempting to prevent closure or amalgamation.
Nottingham is home to two universities: the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University (formerly Trent Polytechnic). Together they are attended by over 40,000 full-time students. The University of Nottingham's teaching hospital, Queen's Medical Centre, is the largest hospital in the UK.
Other notable educational institutions include the further education college New College Nottingham, Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies, Nottingham High School, Bilborough College, Nottingham High School for Girls, Chilwell Comprehensive School, The Nottingham Bluecoat School and Technology College, South Nottingham College, The Midlands Academy of Dance and Drama and Djanogly City Academy and Greenwood Dale Technology College. Nottingham is home and headquarters of the National College for School Leadership.
The Nottingham School of Fashion is a fashion school respected around the country. The designer Paul Smith trained there.
Industry
Nottingham is home to the headquarters of many well known companies. One of the best known is Boots the Chemists, founded in the city by John Boot 1st Lord Trent in 1849 and substantially expanded by his son Jesse Boot (2nd Lord Trent).
Other large current employers include the credit reference agency Experian, the energy company Powergen, the tobacco company John Player & Sons betting company Gala Group, Siemens, Speedo, high street opticians Vision Express, games and publishing company Games Workshop the creator of the popular games Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and Warhammer 40,000 and the American Credit card company Capital One, whose European offices are situated by the side of Nottingham station. Nottingham is also the home of HM Revenue and Customs and the Driving Standards Agency.
Although Boots itself is no longer a research-based pharmaceutical company, a combination of former Boots researchers and university spin-off companies have spawned a thriving pharmaceutical/science/biotechnology sector. BioCity, the UK’s biggest bioscience innovation and incubation centre, sits in the heart of the city and houses around thirty science-based companies. Other notable companies in the sector include ClinPhone and Pharmaceutical Profiles. The city has recently been made one of the UK's six Science Cities.
Until recently bicycle manufacturing was a major industry, the city being the birthplace of Raleigh Cycles in 1886 and later joined by Sturmey-Archer, the creator of 3-speed hub gears. However, Raleigh's factory on Triumph Road, famous as the location for the filming of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, was demolished in Summer 2003 to make way for the University of Nottingham's expansion of Jubilee Campus.
Nottingham is also joint headquarters of Paul Smith, the high fashion house.
Creative Industries are a target growth sector for the city [1] with graphic design, interiors and textile design being a particular focus. already many small design companies are establishing a base in the city with Jupiter and the multi award winning Purple Circle being two of the higher profile consultancies.
Ceramics manufacturer Mason Cash was founded and continues to have operations in Nottingham.
The schools and aerial photographers, H Tempest Ltd were Nottingham based for many years, until relocating to St Ives (Cornwall) around 1960. A skeleton office remained for many years in the original building next to Mundella School.
Many of the UKs railway ticket machines and platform departure boards run software written by Atos Origin in their offices in Nottingham. Other major industries in the city include engineering, textiles, knitwear and electronics. An increasing number of software developers are located in Nottingham: Free Radical Design and Reuters are all based in the city.
Nottingham is progressively changing from an industrial city to one based largely in the service sector. Tourism—particularly from the United States and the Far East—is becoming an increasingly significant part of the local economy.
Copyright manuele Ferlito 2009-2010