INDUSTRIES 



INTRODUCTION 



industrial history of the county 

 of Nottingham lacks neither variety 

 nor interest. We are presented 

 with a mediaeval record of spirited 

 traffic, both at home and abroad, 

 in that commodity of wool which built up the 

 fortunes of numerous merchant princes, Florentine 

 and Flemish as well as English, placing them in 

 intimate financial relations with the throne itself. 

 Passing over in this place the important hosiery 

 trade and various other industries to which fuller 

 allusion will be made in their separate sections, 

 we find the modern craft economy of the county 

 principally concerned on the one hand with the 

 production of machine-made lace at Nottingham, 

 the preponderance of female labour in the sphere 

 of its operations being its most arresting charac- 

 teristic ; l and on the other with the remarkable 

 development 2 of the coal-mining industry which 

 has taken place within the last decade, the output 

 of coal during the period in question having 

 almost doubled. The results of recent borings 

 and sinkings in the concealed coalfields of the 

 district point to still greater activity in this 

 department of local industry in the future. 



Among the natural resources of the county, 

 premier rank must be assigned to that waterway 

 of ' Princely Trent,' which, until the successive 

 advent of canals and railways, shared with the 

 somewhat uncertain means of communication 

 offered by the early roads of the district the only 

 possible solution of the pressing problem of 

 mediaeval transport. And in spite of changing 

 conditions and the rapid expansion of the railway 

 systems of the county, this ancient commercial 

 route through its very heart is still of some im- 

 portance and utility. Evidence was forthcoming 

 before a recent Royal Commission on Canals 

 and Waterways that the traffic by this route is 

 still ' considerable,' comprising corn, skins, 

 leather, tanning materials, glass-ware, manures, 

 pitch, paper and paper-boards, timber, oil-cake, 

 &c. ' With a waterway like the Trent put in 



1 According to the latest returns 14,000 women 

 are employed in this manufacture alone ; Pad. Rep. 

 Cost of Living, 1908, p. 350. 



1 See section on ' Coal.' 



The necessity for 

 the county in good 

 ever present to the 



proper form,' declared one witness on this occa- 

 sion, ' Nottingham would be much more impor- 

 tant than it is to-day.' 3 



keeping the roads of 

 repair was, naturally, 

 minds of those whose 

 chief livelihood, if not actual wealth, was 

 derived from a wool and cloth traffic. Early 

 benefactors of the highways were numerous. 

 In 1439 Richard Davy of Newark, mercer, left 

 405. to repair the way between his town and 

 Kelham. In 1443 John de Boston of Newark, 

 mercer, left 10 marks to the same road, also to 

 the causeway extending in the same direction. In 

 1466 Alexander Lowe bestowed I s. on the ' cawse ' 

 between Newark and Kelham. The repair of the 

 bridges was of no less importance, and we hear of 

 benefactions to ' Colebrigges,' ' Fennebrigge,' and 

 Muskham Bridge, in mediaeval wills. 4 In Tudor 

 times we learn that the highways in Notting- 

 hamshire were ' much cried out upon, especially 

 about Newark, seeing that at every small flood 

 no man could pass in a mile space, either on foot 

 or horseback, without marvellous great danger to 

 horse and man.' 6 Again the problem of street 

 traffic engaged early attention at Nottingham. 



1 Sir John Turney, Rep. Com. Canals, 1908, vol. ii, 

 461. There was formerly a great agricultural traffic 

 along the Trent to Newark. Private boats collected the 

 wheat from the farmers along the banks and brought 

 it to Newark to be milled. This trade has now, 

 however, almost entirely passed to Hull ; ibid. 246. 

 At some date unknown in mediaeval times, Richard 

 Biron was charged at Nottingham with impeding the 

 passage of ships and boats by drawing off the waters 

 of the Trent at Colwick to supply his mill-dam ; 

 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. i, App. 106. 



4 Brown, Hist. 'Newark, i, 172. 



5 Ibid. 343. The so-called Smeaton's Flood Road, 

 constructed by the famous engineer in 1770 at a cost 

 of .12,000, was the outcome of the serious incon- 

 venience caused to traffic on that section of the great 

 highway to the North by the frequent floods to which 

 it was subject. As many as ninety coaches, besides 

 stage-wagons and packhorses, passed at one time daily 

 along this route ; Tboroton Soc. Trans, vi, 56. Out of 

 twenty-two turnpike trusts averaging 20 miles each, 

 only two were reported to be in bad repair in 1 840 ; 

 Gaz. Engl. and Wales, 1840, p. 546. 



