Nottingham, a Description

A Decription of the Town of Nottingham

Nottingham, the principal seat and emporium of the lace and hosiery manufactures, is an ancient, populous and well-built market and borough town, as well as being the capital of the shire and archdeaconry to which it gives its name, It is in the diocese of Lincoln, and in the midland circuit of England. It occupies a picturesque situation on a sandy rock, which rises in broken declivities, and in some places in precipitous, above the north bank of the little River Leen which, at a short distance to the south-east, falls into the River Trent, near the opposite locks of the Grantham and Nottingham canals, and a little below that magnificent and noble structure, the Trent bridge, which is connected to Nottingham by a flood road, raised at great expense above the intervening meadows, which are often subject to inundation. There is great reason to believe that anciently the River Trent covered all the vale, and that the tide flowed up to Nottingham, which certainly is one of the most ancient towns in England, but its origin is hid in the impenetrable gloom which is cast over the aborigines of Britain.

The town holds a central situation betwixt Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Portsmouth to the north and south, and betwixt Newcastle-under-Lyne and Boston to the west and east. It is in the south-western division of Nottinghamshire, at the junctions of the hundreds of Broxtow, Thurgarton and Rushcliffe, at a distance 125 miles north-west of London, 80 miles south of York, 20 miles south-west by west of Newark, 14 miles south of Mansfield, 15 miles north by east of Derby, 27 miles north of Leicester, and 39 miles south by east of Sheffield, and is at 53 degrees north latitude, and at 1 degree 13 minutes west longitude from the meridian of Greenwich.

The approaches to the town on all sides are particularly striking, and perhaps no town in the kingdom appears under such a variety of aspects. The traveller by the London Road, on descending Ruddington Hill, is delighted with a view of the fertile vale of the Trent, bounded on the north by the precipitate and lofty rock on which the town stands, having the castle on a lofty hill to the left, the long range of building gradually descended into the plain on the right, crowned by the noble tower of St Mary, and terminated on the east by the lofty hills of Sneinton and Mapperley. The recently formed semicircular terrace-road of the castle Park, now lined with elegant mansions and pleasure grounds, terminate the west view, with the foreground having luxuriant pastures, skirted by the Trent, the Canal, and the Railway Station, and by numerous wharfs, warehouses and manufactories. On the approach from the eastern side by the Newark Road, the mass of building os foreshortened, the tower of St Mary and the castle appearing nearly as one edifice, with the Trent and the flood bridges being seen to great advantage below, with the perpendicular rocks and caves of Sneinton. From the north, by the Mansfield Road, after rising the hill above the race ground, a view is presented as if by magic - a long and spacious road, lined with handsome and newly-built houses, descending to the town, beyond which, the Trent vale, and further in the distance, the extensive Vale of Belvoir, skirted by the Leicestershire hills, are seen. The western approach, by the Derby Road, is quite different from the others: on passing Wollaton park, the castle, with its commanding cliffs, is a near and prominent object. Extending from it, the handsome villas and pleasure grounds, which line the terrace walk of the Park, appear to have arisen on the site of the ancient ramparts of the town. On the opposite side of the Park are the Barracks, which appear to form a town of themselves. To the north-west lies the Forest, having the summit studded with a long row of windmills, with the race course and cricket ground below, and with the populous new villages which have arisen in the parishes of Radford and Basford in view.

The pasture and meadow lands, which nearly surround Nottingham, and was subject, by ancient grant, to the depasturage of the burgesses, and could not be built upon, prevented improvements being made within the liberties of the town, and caused several new villages in Radford, Basford, Lenton and Sneinton parishes to be built. However, some local Acts of Parliament were passed for the enclosure of several plots of the burgesses' land, and on June 30th 1845, the General Inclosure Act came into operation, which has made an opening for considerable improvements in the town, which will be noticed.

The town though irregular, is well built, and contains many good houses, public buildings, and well-stocked shops, with a commodious Market place that, in extent, beauty and convenience, has not its equal in the kingdom, and the busy sounds of industry from the noise of the stocking frame and lace machine, are heard through the town and adjacent villages. According to Deering Nottingham can claim, as a town of note, the age of 932 years; as a considerable borough, 792; as a mayor town, 549, being only a century less than the metropolis; as a parliamentary borough, during which it has constantly sent two representatives, 552; and as a county itself, 394 years, up to the year 1844. As population is the great criterion of prosperity, Nottingham, as a mercantile and manufacturing town, may boast a full share; and had it not been that the 1,300 acres of land surrounding the town could not be sold or leased for building purposes, it would have been much greater. During the last thirty years, almost every available vacant plot of land has been built upon, and the population has been nealy doubled. The spirit of commercial speculation has extended itself into the adjoining parishes. The population of Sneinton, which had 987 inhabitants in 1811, had risen to 7,079 in 1841, and in 1851, 8,440. Radford and Basford have trebled their population, and that of Lenton is about five times greater. Thus, within a circuit of four miles round the Market Place, we can number upwards of 100,000 souls, of whom 79,604 are in Nottingham, Radford and Sneinton parishes, the buildings of which are so closely connected by modern erections on the Southwell and Derby Roads, as to form but one town, thoug in separate jurisdictions. (Arnold, Basford. Beeston and Gedling, populous parishes, are all within four miles).

In the reign of Edward the Confessor, about 1040, Nottingham had only 192 men who, in the ravages of William the Conqueror, were reduced to 156, though the town then contained 217 houses. In 1377, when the poll tax was levied, there were in the town 1,227 lay persons of 14 years fo age and upwards, of whom fourpence per head was collected in support of that impost. Supposing one third of the population to consist of clergy, mendicants and children under 14 years of age, the population was then about 2,170. The registering of burials commenced at St Mary's in 1507, at St Peter's in 1572, and at St Nicholas' in 1562, and the total number of funerals annually at these churches was then only about 70, but there are no data whereby to estimate the population until 1739, when they were found to amount to 9,990. According to Lowe'sAgricultural Survey, made in 1779, there were 17,711 persons, 3,550 families and 3,191 houses in the town, and the number of funerals averaged upwards of 650 annually. In 1739, Sir Richard Sutton surveyed the town, and found it to contain 25,000 souls.

White's Directory of Nottinghamshire 1853.

[Last updated: Saturday 21st June 1997 - Clive Henly]