This section is from the book "Chambers's Concise Gazetteer Of The World", by David Patrick. Also available from Amazon: Chambers's Concise Gazetteer Of The World.
Nottingham, capital of Nottinghamshire, a parliamentary (three members) and municipal city (1897), county borough, and suffragan see under Lincoln, 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 by the spanning of the Trent - which is here 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 Parliamentary wars, and itself much damaged by tire 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, 5 1/2 acres in extent, having at its eastern end the exchange, with a richly-decorated facade (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 ; chartered in 1903), with 1700 students, and a library, natural history museum, etc. Other edifices are a hospital (1781, with additions 1829-79); a Roman Catholic cathedral (1844) ; 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. 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 carried on. There is a great Michaelmas goose-fair. Pop. (1801) 28,801; (1831) 50,220 ; (1881) 186,575 ; (1901) 239,753. Charles I. raised his standard (1642) at Nottingham ; and it was the scene of riots (1795-1816), partly owing to a bread famine and partly to the Luddites. See works by Dickinson (1816), Wylie (1853-65), Hine (1876), Stevenson (1890), and the Records of the Borough (5 vols. 1882-1900). Nottinghamshire, or Notts, an inland county of England, bounded by Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, and Derbyshire. Its greatest length is 50 miles ; average breadth, 20 miles; and area, 824 sq. m., or 527,752 acres. Pop. (1801) 140,350 ; (1831) 225,400 ; (1881) 391,815 ; (1901) 514,537. Apart from the valley of the Trent, which is very flat, the general aspect of the county is undulating and well wooded, the highest ground - 600 feet above the sea-level - being in the west, in the vicinity of Sherwood Forest (q.v.). In the south are the Wolds, consisting of upland moors and pasture-lands broken up by many fertile hollows, whilst the northern boundary for upwards of 15 miles is skirted by the Car, a tract of low-lying land, formerly a swampy bog, but since 1796 drained and brought into cultivation. The Trent, with its tributaries, the Erewash, Soar, and Idle, is the principal river. As regards productiveness the county is not above mediocrity, except in the Vale of Belvoir to the east of Nottingham. The principal mineral products are coal, gypsum, iron ore, and limestone. The manufactures are noticed under the chief towns - viz. Nottingham, Newark, Mansfield, Retford, and Worksop. Lying wholly in the diocese of Southwell, Notts is divided into six wapentakes, nine poor-law unions, and 273 parishes, and returns seven M.P.s, one for each of its four divisions (Bassetlaw, Newark, Mansfield, and Rushcliffe), and three for Nottingham (its capital and assize town). Of its natives the best known are Archbishops Cranmer, Secker, Sterne, and Manners-Sutton; Garnet (the Jesuit); Denzil, Lord Holies; General Ireton; Colonel Hutchinson; Lady Mary Wortley Montagu; Bishop Warburton; Dodsley, Kippis, and Wakefield (the authors); Admiral Earl Howe ; Sandby and Bonington (the artists); Dr Erasmus Darwin ; Edmund Cartwright; Kirke White and Bailey (the poets); Lord Byron; 'speaker' Denison; and 'General' Booth. See works by Thoroton (3 vols. 1797), Bailey (4 vols. 1852-55), Briscoe (1881), White (1885), C. Brown (1891), and W. Stevenson (1893).
 
Continue to: