NOTTINGHAM By W. P. W. Phillimore

The first historical reference to Nottingham which we possess is but a little more than a thousand years ago, and though it is likely enough that there were at a very much earlier date some few dwellings along the southern slopes of the hills upon which the city stands, or cave dwellings hewn out of the soft sandstone rock, it is unlikely that it had become of any importance before the Saxon period, to which it is obvious that its name, anciently Snotingaham, belongs. It is apparently tribal in its origin, indicating the home or dwelling of the descendants of Snod; possibly the early form of our modern surname of Snow. There are but few other places in England whose names may have a similar origin. In Kent we find Snode Bridge and Snodland, in Dorset is Nottington, and in Hampshire, a few miles west of Andover, is an obscure hamlet called Snottington. Snenton, now an integral part of Nottingham, is said to have the same derivation, and the local historians identify it with the Notintone of Domesday. Medieval writers have ascribed a much greater antiquity to Nottingham, and have given it the strange name of Tiguocobauc, said to mean a place of caves. The tradition of King Ebranc and of the slaughter of the Britons here points to a belief in medieval days in the great antiquity of the town. But beyond the existence of cave dwellings, which after all may be quite modern in origin, and the discovery of a few bronze implements, we have no tangible evidence of any higher antiquity, and the physical characteristics of the site further militate against the claim. With the forest coming near the town on the north, and the alluvial marsh lands on the south, the site must in early times have been very inaccessible, a fact which doubtless attracted those who first selected the Castle rock as a military stronghold. The Castle and St. Mary’s and Snenton churches form the ends of a double horseshoe. Between them lies the town facing the south, with the rock dwellings of Snenton Hermitage at one end, and those under the Castle rock, known in later times as the Papist Holes, at the other end. Until destroyed by the Great Northern Railway extensions in recent years, the rock dwellings at the foot of the rock at Snenton, on which stands St. Stephen’s Church, were an interesting characteristic of the village.

The Danish invasion of Mercia brought Nottingham into prominence. It became one of the five principal towns of the Danelagh—Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, and Stamford, being the other four—and though the Danish dominion was not of long duration, it left a very permanent mark on the town. The gateways in the town walls were known as “Bars,” instead of “Gates” as in the south of England, and the last of these, Chapel Bar, pulled down in the eighteenth century, still survives in name, forming a familiar part of the great western outlet of the town. The other trace of the Danish occupation is the almost universal use of “Gate” instead of “Street.” Two hundred years ago the only streets were Stoney Street and Pepper Street, the other principal thoroughfares being known as Gates or Rows, while the lesser ones were called Lanes. Wheeler Gate, Goose Gate, Peter Gate, Mary Gate, Long Row, Smithy Row, and Friar Lane are familiar to all Nottingham people, and within the last half century we still had Sheep Lane and Chandlers’ Lane. These last have given place to Market Street and Victoria Street, just as in the previous century Sadler Gate, the continuation of Bridlesmith Gate, very inappropriately became High Street, and Cow Lane and Girdlesmith Gate were renamed Clumber Street and Pelham Street.

Although there was right in the centre of the town one of the largest market-places in the kingdom, the ways out in every direction were remarkably narrow, and even within recent years two carts could not pass one another in Pelham Street, the principal eastern exit. The widening of Cow Lane, now Clumber Street, in the eighteenth century, followed by the demolition of Chapel Bar, improving the ways out on the north and west, were the earliest attempts at town improvement. The latter half of the nineteenth century saw the construction of Albert Street and the widening of Lister Gate on the south, the conversion of Chandlers’ Lane into Victoria Street, and the change in Sheep Lane by widening it so as to form Market Street. King Street and the widening of Wheeler Gate are the most recent of the street improvements in the centre of the town.

As a military post in early times, Nottingham was of considerable importance. The great rock, upon which stood the Castle, with its natural means of defence, was obviously well suited for a military stronghold. The Castle, built or rebuilt by William the Conqueror, was guarded by William Peverel, and somewhat more than a hundred years later it became the stronghold of John, when Earl of Mortein, in his rebellion against his brother, King Richard I, by whom it was besieged in 1194. It was at Nottingham Castle, in 1330, that Edward III struck the blow which ended the usurpation of Isabella and Mortimer, through the help of Eland, the Governor, who revealed to him the existence of the secret passage down into the valley of the Leen, which ever since has borne the name of Mortimer’s Hole, now so familiar to Nottingham people. Throughout his reign Edward III was often at Nottingham Castle, and held some of his Parliaments here. It continued to be a royal fortress and residence, but after the Wars of the Roses was allowed to fall into decay. From the description which Leland the antiquary gives of it in the reign of Henry VIII, the buildings must have been of great extent and importance, but no illustrations of it have been preserved, and there now only remains the entrance gateway of this famous fortress as an indication of its former greatness. A plan of it is given in the local histories, upon which the late Mr. T. C. Hine based an imaginative picture of it. In the reign of James I it was granted to the Earl of Rutland, and so became private property. It was then so ruinous that that King, on his visit to Nottingham, could find no suitable lodging in it, and was obliged to stay in the town itself. Only once again was Nottingham Castle concerned with military matters, and that was in 1642, when King Charles I here raised his standard against the Parliament. The next year it fell into the possession of the Parliament, and was held by the famous Colonel Hutchinson, who defended it against royalist attacks. Of the siege we have the well-known narrative related by Mrs. Hutchinson in the Life of her husband, which she wrote. After the Civil War the Castle was dismantled, and its military history ended. It was afterwards bought by the Duke of Newcastle, who demolished the remains, and in 1674 commenced the erection of the present stately building, which was completed by his son in 1679, but was occupied as a residence by the Newcastle family for hardly a hundred years, being afterwards let to tenants. At the time of the Reform Riots in 1832, it was burnt down by the mob, and remained a blackened ruin until, in 1878, it was acquired on a long lease by the Corporation of Nottingham, and converted into an art museum.

One remarkable feature continued in Nottingham right into the eighteenth century, and that was the division of the town into the English and French boroughs. The English part of the town was that surrounding the mother church of St. Mary; the French, or the new town, comprised the districts now forming the parishes of St. Peter and St. Nicholas. For the two divisions of the borough, between which the market-place was divided, it was customary to elect separate juries. Indeed, the custom of electing two sheriffs and two coroners, which prevailed until the Municipal Reform Act of 1835, has been thought to have a similar origin.

In the middle ages Nottingham was a place of military rather than of ecclesiastical importance. Town and county until the nineteenth century owed allegiance to the far-off cathedral of St. Peter at York. The Grey Friars and the White Friars, as well as the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, had houses here, but of these establishments all traces save street names have long since disappeared. And of the great priory at Lenton, founded by Peverel, there are left only the fragments of two Norman pillars to indicate the strength and majesty of that building. Until the last century there were but three parish churches in the town. St. Peter’s structurally is the most ancient, for parts of it appear to date from the twelfth century, and it may be regarded in some respects as more interesting than the more important church of St. Mary’s. St. Nicholas, the smallest of the three ancient churches, demolished for military reasons in 1647, was rebuilt some thirty years later, and is notable as being one of the comparatively few examples there are of late seventeenth century church work built in the pointed style. But the glory of Nottingham is the great church of St. Mary built in the middle of the ancient English borough, its tower rivalling in prominence the castle at the other end of the town. From an architectural point of view this splendid cruciform church has the advantage that, with the exception of the chancel, which was built at a somewhat later date, the whole of it belongs to the best period of the Perpendicular style. Its present internal characteristic, lightness, was noted by the antiquary John Leland, in Henry VIII’s time, who described it as having “so many fair windows that no artificer could imagine to set more.”

In the early nineteenth century began the building of additional churches necessitated by the growth of the town, and of these the first was St. James on Standard Hill, which in its name commemorates an ancient chapel that had long before disappeared. Of the many new churches which have been built in the past century, or of the efforts of the various nonconformist bodies who similarly have sought to supply the religious requirements of the town, it is impossible here to do more than allude.

The great increase of Nottingham during the past hundred years has been due to the trade of the place, but this is no mere modern development. In the middle ages the “little smith of Nottingham who doth the work that no man can,” was as famous as his successors at the present day upon whose skill depend the great staple trades of lace and hosiery. Smithy Row, Bridlesmith Gate, Girdlesmith Gate, Bellar Gate, and Bellfounders’ Yard point out to us where the ancient craftsmen in metal carried on their industries. Many other trades have been carried on from time to time, and one of these, dyeing, left us a picturesque reminder in the fields of saffron which, in springtime and in autumn, were, until the great extension of building on the southern side of the town, so conspicuous a feature of the Nottingham Meadows.

Until the middle of the nineteenth century the growth and prosperity of the town was greatly restricted by the commonable lands surrounding it which could not be built upon; but in 1845, under an Inclosure Act, the commonable rights were extinguished, thus permitting the needful extension of the town. So long ago as 1787 the need of inclosure was realised, but steadily and persistently opposed by the Corporation, whose past action largely contributed to the creation of insanitary areas, which in recent years have in some measure been swept away at a vast expense, partly by railway extensions without cost to the town, partly under improvement schemes at the expense of the ratepayer.

The population of Nottingham, less than 25,000 at the end of the eighteenth century, has increased at least tenfold in the past hundred years. An ancient borough by prescription, now a titular city, it has a series of charters from the time of Henry II, and for more than 600 years has had a mayor and the right of returning members to Parliament. It is also a county in itself, though through the supposed exigencies of the case the site of the Shire Hall in the middle of the town belongs to the county. The Corporation is a very wealthy body, possessed of large estates producing more than £30,000 a year, besides the revenue which it draws from the profits of its commercial undertakings, such as the trams, the gasworks, and the waterworks, not to mention the contributions of the ratepayers, whose burdens, despite the Corporation estates, are not less than those of other towns. In 1877 the area of the borough was extended by the inclusion of the neighbouring parishes of Snenton, Lenton, Radford, Basford, and Bulwell, and in 1897 it was by royal charter created a city.

Some reference may properly be made to the individual activity of Nottingham citizens. The religious work of the town is mainly dependent upon voluntary contributions, and in medical matters the various hospitals of the town form a striking testimony to this principle; while voluntary education is well represented by the High School and the Blue Coat School. Even the University College owes its origin to the anonymous gift of £10,000, and it is a matter of common knowledge that the great religious and social organisation known as the Salvation Army, which is based wholly upon volunteer work, was founded by a native of Nottingham. The literary activity of the town has not been small. In the middle of the eighteenth century, Dr. Standfast, the rector of Clifton, founded the professional library known by his name, which is merged in Bromley House Library, established in 1816. But even in much humbler ranks of life the value of books was recognised. Few perhaps realise what the working classes of Nottingham did before rate-supported libraries were started. Seventy years ago there were at least six operatives’ libraries supported by the weekly pence of working men, and the remarkable point about them—surprising perhaps to modern philanthropists—is, that they were situated at obscure taverns in some of the poorest parts of the town. That at the Rancliffe Arms, founded in 1835, had 2200 volumes; another at the Seven Stars owned about 1800 volumes, and the one at the Alderman Wood possessed 2150 volumes, while the Oddfellows’ Library had 2300. There was another at the People’s Hall, and in 1836 was founded the Mechanics’ Institution, which, with its library, lectures, and classes, has done such valuable work for the intellectual advancement of the town, and is a centre of great literary activity. Even the rate-supported Public Library was based upon the old Artisans’ Library, which was founded as long ago as 1824.

At Nottingham is one of the ancient crossing places of the river Trent, the history of which dates back about a thousand years, for the building of a bridge here has been ascribed to Edward the Elder. The large expanse of alluvial land between the town and the present bed of the Trent necessitated in fact more than one bridge, as is hinted at in the colloquial plural form, not perhaps yet obsolete, of the Trent bridges, instead of merely Trent bridge. Passing the meadows from the foot of St. Mary’s rock, a series of bridges carried the London road to the narrow stone bridge of eighteen or twenty arches, which, forty years ago, was superseded by the present bridge of stone and iron.

Medieval records have much to tell us of the building of the Trent bridge. Then, as now, the maintenance of the bridge was provided for without calling upon the townsmen for enforced contributions in the shape of rates. Seven hundred years ago the care and maintenance of the bridge was undertaken by the Hospital of St. John, in Nottingham, and in 1231 we have the record of “indulgences” of thirteen days given to those aiding in the building of the bridge of Hoybel at Nottingham—doubtless the structure known in later times as the Hethbeth bridge, a name of which the origin has not been satisfactorily determined.

Bridges, then, were largely maintained with ecclesiastical support by voluntary gifts, as is shown by various episcopal records granting “indulgences” for their benefit. A chapel was commonly associated with a bridge, and the Trent bridge, with the chapel of St. Mary at the north end, was no exception to the rule. In 1303 John le Paumer of Nottingham, and Alice his wife, settled property in Nottingham amounting to the substantial annual value of £6, 13s. 5d. for the endowment of two chaplains for a daily service in the chapel of St. Mary at Hethbeth bridge, “for the souls of them, their ancestors, and all Christians who assign their goods or part of them for the maintenance of the bridge.” John le Paumer died within the next few years, but his widow, Alice le Paumer, continued the good work, and in 1311 she obtained a grant of pontage, or the right of levying tolls on wares brought over the bridge, in order to provide the necessary funds, and provision was made for auditing the proceeds and the expenditure which she incurred. For fifteen or sixteen years the work seems to have continued under her care, for there exists in the Patent Rolls record of various grants to this lady in connection with the bridges. In 1314 occurs the specific statement that she was then building the bridge of Hethbeth, and four years later that the right to take pontage is extended for a further period of four years to provide also for the repair of any bridge to be built between Hethbeth bridge and the land towards “Gameleston,” now Gamston. This second bridge seems to have been built within the space of two years, for in July 1321 it was still spoken of as “to be built,” and in November 1323 it is stated to be “newly built.” In 1324 Alice le Paumer received a further grant of pontage for three years for the repair of Hethbeth bridge and “the bridge of the new breach by the said bridge.”

It is not altogether easy to determine what these two bridges were. Between our modern Trent bridge and the land towards Gamston there could not have been any bridge, and the situation of the two bridges must be sought for somewhere in the London road between the town and West Bridgford. The Hethbeth bridge has been assumed to be, and probably correctly, the southern part of that series of arches which carry the roadway over the meadows to the south of the Leen. From the alluvial conformation of the land it is not unlikely that the Trent may have altered its course, or that it may have become divided here. If so the old stone bridge demolished some forty years ago would be that built by Alice le Paumer about 1321–1323, and described as the bridge of the “new breach,” an expression perhaps indicative of some new course then made by the Trent.

The ancient stone bridge, which the older inhabitants of the city well remember, stood a little to the west of the present iron structure. One or two of the arches at the southern end have been left standing, and they indicate its width, or perhaps one might rather say its narrowness, in medieval times, though at some later period the bridge was widened, but not sufficiently to permit of a footpath on either side, and the only refuge from the traffic available for pedestrians was to be found in the angular recesses which surmounted the buttresses. Most of the arches of the bridge were pointed and narrow, dating probably from the time of Alice le Paumer, but those at the northern end had been rebuilt in the seventeenth century in a wider and rounded style. It was a picturesque and interesting structure, and as far as traffic was concerned at the time of its demolition, amply sufficed for the needs of the district. Only on market days was the foot passenger troubled by the traffic across the bridge—a great contrast to the present time, when the bridge has to serve the requirements of the populous suburb which has taken the place of the little country village of West Bridgford. It was in 1870 that the present Trent bridge was opened to traffic, and shortly after the ancient structure, which for so many centuries had served the needs of the men of Nottingham, was removed, all save the arches, which serve as the entrance to the riverside walk to Wilford. Those who are curious about relics of the past may like to know that some of the stonework of the old Trent bridge was utilised in building a new aisle to Plumtree Church.

The Trent bridge is richly endowed, and out of the revenues of the bridge estate were provided the funds needed to build the present structure, without recourse to the ratepayer. These endowments are of ancient standing, and in an extension of this system of voluntary endowment followed by our ancestors may yet be found the way to relieve the ratepayer of the ever-increasing burden of local taxation.

Half a century ago there were in the county but two bridges across the Trent—at Nottingham and Newark. Now we have in addition those at Wilford and Gunthorpe, besides the two railway bridges at Nottingham. As against this must be set the recent discontinuance of the ancient ferry which from Roman times or even earlier had existed at Littleborough.

This sketch of the history and character of a great city is imperfect, as such attempts must be when limited to the space of a few pages. Perhaps it will suffice to show that Nottingham is no mean city, but one of which the inhabitants are rightly proud. Those who have settled there by choice, and those who are natives of the town, alike pride themselves upon it with good reason.