Nottinghamshire

Within the area of Sherwood Forest is a district known as the Dukeries, so called because several stately homes were built close to each other there. They included Welbeck Abbey, the seat of the dukes of Portland; Clumber House, the home of the dukes of Newcastle; Thoresby House, the seat of the earls Manvers; and Worksop Manor, which belonged to the dukes of Norfolk. In the same area was Rufford Abbey, a 12th-century Cistercian monastery, which later became the site of a 17th-century country house. Most of these properties have now been demolished, but Clumber Park belongs to the National Trust, and Rufford Abbey, set in Rufford Country Park, to Nottinghamshire County Council. There is a Japanese garden at the Pureland Relaxation and Meditation Centre in Newark.

The Anglican cathedral church of St Mary the Virgin is in Southwell, and is known as Southwell Minster. It was built mainly in the 12th and 13th centuries. The Roman Catholic cathedral church of St Barnabas is in Nottingham. Nottingham Castle now houses the city museum and art gallery. In the sandstone rock on which the castle stands, and in some other parts of the city, are caves, which were probably hollowed out in Saxon times. The Lace Centre celebrates the city’s most famous industry. “The Trip to Jerusalem” and “The Salutation” both claim to be England’s oldest inn, dating from the early 12th century. Nottingham Playhouse has a fine reputation as one of the country’s premier provincial theatres.

In Sherwood Forest is the Robin Hood Visitors’ Centre, which is within walking distance of “major oak”, the oak tree in which Robin Hood was reputed to live. In the city of Nottingham an exhibit called “Tales of Robin Hood” tells the imagined story of the life of the folk hero. Mr Straw’s House, in Worksop, owned by the National Trust, is an ordinary suburban house that has preserved the decorations and contents of the 1920s. At Newark-on-Trent are the remains of a 12th-century castle where King John died in 1216. Thomas Cranmer, the archbishop and martyr who inspired the Book of Common Prayer, was born in 1489 in Aslockton, a small village some 10 km (6 mi) east of Nottingham.

The Trent valley and the Vale of Belvoir are used for dairy farming, and for the production of cereals and sugar beet, which is refined at Newark. Stilton cheese, which can officially be made only in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, and Leicestershire, has been produced in the Vale of Belvoir for more than 300 years. The coalfields of Nottinghamshire are still worked although on a much smaller scale than in the past; even so, today they form one of the comparatively few significant coal-producing areas of Britain, with both opencast and deep-pit mining. Woollen and cotton goods, and ironwork are produced in the county, and limestone is quarried. For many centuries, and still today, the city of Nottingham has been renowned as a centre for lacemaking and the production of hosiery (a machine for knitting stockings was invented in the county in 1589). Nottingham is an important centre of Britain’s fashion industry. The city is home to the International Clothing Centre, a resource for the fashion industry. The city also produces bicycles (Raleigh Bikes, Britain’s biggest cycle company, was founded there in 1888), electronics, pharmaceuticals (Boots the Chemist was founded by Jesse Boot in 1877), and is important for telecommunications. The waters of the Trent are used for cooling purposes in a large number of electrical power stations on its banks.

Parts of Nottinghamshire were settled by Angles about the 5th century. After the Treaty of Wedmore in 878, Nottingham became the chief of the Five Boroughs of Danelaw (Nottingham, Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, and Stamford). The area now covered by the county was part of Mercia, but its borders were already well defined, and by the time of Canute II (c. 994-1035) it was recognized as a shire. After the Norman Conquest, William I built a castle at Nottingham, and appointed William Peverel as its Constable. Over the course of the next six centuries, the castle grew in size and importance, and, having been seized by Henry II, was an important possession of the Crown. During the Wars of the Roses, the county supported the Yorkist cause, and the castle was used as a garrison by Edward IV. Richard III later made his headquarters there before the Battle of Bosworth Field. In 1642, Charles I gathered his army at Nottingham, and raised his standard at the castle to start the English Civil War. Later in the Civil War, the castle was garrisoned by the Parliamentarians, although the majority of the noblemen in the county supported the king. During the Protectorate, Oliver Cromwell ordered the destruction of the castle, the condition of which had by this time deteriorated. A new castle was built on the site in 1674, although it was rebuilt as a manor house, rather than a castle. The city of Nottingham suffered heavily during World War II, over 50 tonnes of bombs being rained upon it.