Nottingham

Nottingham, a town of England, the capital of Nottinghamshire, and a parliamentary, municipal, and county borough (the first returning three members), is seated on the Trent, 126 miles NNW. of London, 15 E. of Derby, and 38 S. by E. of Sheffield. Formerly surrounded by ancient walls (910-1265), of which all traces have now disappeared, the town covers an area of about 16 sq. m., and its appearance of late years has been much improved by the widening of its streets; by the erection of a new town-hall, University College, and other public buildings; by the opening and laying out of an arboretum of 17 acres, of a public park and recreation grounds of over 150 acres, and of a tract of open land, called 'Bulwell Forest' (135 acres); as also the spanning of the Trent—which is here about 200 yards wide—with a broad granite and iron bridge in the place of a former narrow structure of seventeen arches. Crowning a precipitous rock, which rises 133 feet above the river, stands the castle, built (1674-83) on the site of an ancient Norman fortress, dismantled during the Par- liamentary wars, and itself much damaged by fire during the Reform Bill riots of 1831. It was restored in 1878, and transformed into an art museum. Near to it are the county hall (1770); St Mary's Church (restored 1867-85), a cruciform building in the Perpendicular style, 216 feet in length; and a spacious market-place, 5½ acres in extent, having at its eastern end the exchange, with a richly-decorated façade (rebuilt 1814). In another group not far off are the guildhall and other municipal offices (1888), in the French Renaissance style of architecture; two theatres (1865-84); and University College (1879-81), mainly a science school, but accommodating in its wings a free library and natural history museum. Other edifices worthy of mention comprise a hospital (1781, with additions 1829-79); a Roman Catholic cathedral (1844), cruciform and Early English; and the high school, founded as a grammar or free school in 1513, moved into new buildings in 1867, and since 1882 controlled under a new scheme; it has a large income from endowment, and annually offers for competition eight exhibitions of an aggregate value of £435, besides numerous scholarships. On the outskirts of the town race-meetings were held annually in March and October for a hundred years until 1890; the Trent Bridge cricket-ground is the scene of the county's home matches; whilst mention must not be omitted of the annual goose fair held at Michaelmas. Of the various manufactures carried on in the town the most important are those of lace and hosiery; baskets, bicycles, cigars, and needles are also made, whilst several iron-foundries are in operation, and malting and brewing are extensively carried on. One of the most successful sewage farms in the country has been laid out 5 miles from the town, the whole of whose sewage is here dealt with. Pop. (1801) 28,801; (1831) 50,220; (1881) 186,575; (1891) 213,984. In the history of Nottingham (which was one of the Five Boroughs) the principal incidents have been its occupation by the Danes, and their withdrawal on the conclusion of a treaty for peace (868); its destruction by fire (1140 and 1153); the granting of its first charter (1155); the convening here of three parliaments (1330-37); the appointment of its first suffragan bishop (1534); the raising by Charles I. of his standard at the commencement of the Parliamentary war (1642); and riots (1795-1816), partly on account of a bread famine and partly owing to the Luddites (q.v.). See local works by Dickinson (1816), Wylie (1853-65), Hine (1876), and W. H. Stevenson (4 vols. 1890), besides those cited under the county.