﻿1053 



NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. 



NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. 



lOM 



I 



Among the principal buildings are the New Exchange, at the east 

 end of the market-place, a brick building erected early in the last 

 century, and repaired iu ISll. The lower part is appropriated to 

 sho[>s, behind which are the shambles ; the upper part contains a suite 

 of uoble rooms for the transaction of public business or for assemblies. 

 The County-Hall, rebuilt in 1770, is a commodious and handsome 

 building, with two convenient courts and apartments for the judges, 

 jury, Ac. The Town-Hall is a spacious edifice, of which the town-jail 

 forms the ground-floor. The House of Correction is built upon the 

 aits of a convent of Hoi!pita)lor8 of St. John of Jerusalem. There 

 are a new post-office ; a small theatre ; a grand-stand on the race- 

 course, which is to the north of the town ; extensive cavalry barracks 

 in the castle park ; and a building erected as a riding-house for the 

 yeomanry, and now used as a circus or for other public amusements. 



St. Mary's church, a comuiodious edifice, stands on high ground in 

 the central part of the town. It is a largo cruciform church, with a 

 fine tower at the intersection of the nave and transepts, rising two 

 stages above the roof of the church, crowned with battlements and 

 eight crocketed pinnacles. The number of places of worship in 

 Nottingham in 1851 was 37, of which 8 belonged to the Established 

 Church, 7 to Methodists, 7 to Baptists, S to Independents, 2 to Roman 

 Catholics, and one each to Quakers, Moravians, Swedenborgian.-!, 

 •Irviogites, Unitarians, Jews, and Mormons. The number of sittings 

 provided in nil was 1 1,434. The Roman Catholic chapel is a handsome 

 stone building in the tarly English style, erected in 1841 ; it has a 

 tower surmounted with a spire 164 feet high. The Free Grammar 

 school, founded in 1613, which has an income from endowment of 

 about 1000{. a year, had 93 scholars in 1831. There are several 

 National, British, and Infant schools; schools supported by Roman 

 Catholics and I'nitarians, a government school of design, a ]ilue-Co.it 

 school, a Charity school for boys, a school of industry for girls, several 

 libraries, a mechanics institute, a natural history society with a 

 museum, and a savings bank. Plumtree Hospital for poor and aged 

 widows, CoUins's Hospital for 24 aged widowers or widows, Lambley 

 UoapitiU for decayed bnrgniiei or their widows, with soveral other 

 hospitals or alms-houses, are among the charitable foundations of the 

 town. The general hospital on Stau<lard Hill, and the county lunatic 

 asylum, are spacious buildings. There are also a general dispensary, 

 the Midland Institution for the UliuJ, and public baths and wash- 

 houses. 



The principal manufactures carried on at Nottingham are those of 

 bobbin-net and lac*, and cotton and silk hosiery. There aro several mills 

 for spinning cotton- and woollen-yam, and for throwing silk, and much 

 cotton-yam is obtained from the mills of D^>rby8hire. The machines 

 for making bobbin-net and lace, which are very expensive, are let out 

 at a weekly rent to the workmen by capitalists, who invest a consider- 

 able sum in this kind of property. Steam-power has been extensively 

 introduced into this manufacture, and the number of factories has 

 been increased, both in the lace and the hosiery departments. There 

 are several dye-houses ; also white-lead works and an iron-foundry. 

 Wire-drawing, pin-making, and the manufacture of brass fenders are 

 carried on to some extent There are several breweries and malt- 

 houses. The market-days are Wednesday and Saturday for com, 

 cattle, and general provisions; the Saturday market is one of the 

 principal in the midland counties. There are several yearly fairs for 

 cattle, cheese, and cloth : at one of these fairs, distin^iiahed as ' goose 

 f.iir,' a considerable number of geese are sold. The trade of the town 

 ia much promoted by its proximity to the Trent, which is navigable, 

 and the comuiuaication thus afforded with the various canals c<:>nnccted 

 with that river. The Nottingham Canal passes close to the town, and 

 joins the Trent at Trent Bridge, a mile distant. The assizes and 

 quarter-sessions for the county are held here ; also quarter-sessions for 

 the borough, and a county court. 



NOTTINUHAMSHIUE, an inland county of England, is bounded 

 N.E. and E. by Lincolnshire, S. by Leicestershire, W. by Derbyshire, 

 N.W. and N. by Yorkshire. It lies between 62° 47' and 53" 30' 

 N. lat, 0° 40' and 1* 20' W. long. Its greatest length from the junc- 

 tion of the three counties of York, Lincoln, and Nottingham, to the 

 right bank of the Soar on the Leicestershire border, is 51 miles ; the 

 arersge breadth from east to west is about 20 miles. The area is 

 832^K)nare miles, or 526,078 statute acres. The population in 1841 

 was 249,010; in 1861 it was 270,427. 



Smjact and Geology. — The surface of the county is undulating, 

 except in the Vale of Trent and the Vole of Belvoir ; but there are no 

 very high hills. The northern boimdary rana through the marshes 

 that surround the Isle of Axholme. Beacon Hill rises to the east of 

 Newark ; and a ridge of upland skirts the immediate valley of the 

 Trent, at a little distance from the right bank of that river, from the 

 neighbourhood of Newark to Nottingham. The eastem side of this 

 ridge has a very gradual slope towards the Vale of Belvoir, which is 

 watered by the Deven and its tributary the Smite. 



Quite in the south part of the county, and inclosed by the Soar and 

 one of its feeders, the Trent, the Grantham Caual, the Smite, and a 

 small portion of the Leioeetershire border, are the Wolds, a region of 

 upland moors and pastures, furrowed by many picturesque and fertile 

 dales. To the south of the Fareham Brook lie the Leake Hills, the 

 highest part of the WoM.'. 



On the west side of the Trent the ground rises gradually towards 



the Idle ia the north-west and the Erewash iu the south-west. The 

 westeru slope of the hills which skirt the valley of the Idle, and indeed 

 of the hills generally iu this county, is steeper than the eastern. West 

 of the. Idle the ground rises again, but it is intersected by the valleys 

 through which the tributaries of the Idle flow. Near the head of the 

 Maun, one of these tributaries, are the high lauds of Sherwood Forest, 

 traditionally known as the principal haunt of Robin Hood. Sutton- 

 in-Ashfield Hill, near Mansfield, is about COO feet high. 



The strata which occupy the surface of this county succeed each 

 other in order from east to west. The eastern and southern districts 

 of the county, including the Wold Hills, and the eastem side of the 

 valleys of the Smite and the Deven, are chiefly occupied by the lias. 

 The Vale of Trent and the uplands to the west of it are for the most 

 part composed of new red-sandstone. In the northern part of the 

 county these formatious sink beneath the fens surrounding the Isle of 

 Axholme, iu which isle they emerge again. Among the beds of this 

 formation is a sandstone so soft as to be easily excavated, aud iu the 

 vicinity of Nottingham there are many caverns of artificial formation, 

 some of them of great antiquity. Gypsum occurs plentifully in this 

 formation, aud is quarried in several places. The newer magaesian or 

 conglomerate limestone underlies the red-sandstone ; but iu some 

 part:) these formations are separated by beds of quartzose gravel, 

 extending to the depth of from 600 to 900 feet, and often consolidated 

 into a soft pudding-stone, of which the Castle Hill at Nottingham is a 

 specimen. This gravel ia the prevailing stratum throughout Sherwood 

 Forest. 



The magnesian limestone occupies a tract varying from four to 

 seven miles wide in the Bouth-western part of the county, west of a line 

 drawn from Man.sfielJ to Nottingham. West of the magnesian lime- 

 stoue occurs the South Yorkshire coal-field, of which a small part 

 is in this county. There are numerous coal-pita in the county, which 

 yield abundance of coaL The seams of coal vary from one or two to 

 five or six feet in thickness. The quality of the coal is good, but 

 rather inferior to that of Nowcastia Blue limestone approaching to 

 marble in texture, a good bluish stone, and a reddish stone sufficiently 

 hard for building, and limestone for burning, are quarried in different 

 parts of the county. Coarse paving-stone is quaiTied at Liuby, a few 

 miles south of Mansfield. 



Hydrography, Communicalioni, 4<;.— The whole county belongs to 

 tho basin of the Trent [Trkxt and Humbek], which river first touches 

 the south-west border of the county at the junction of the Soar, flows 

 along the border about 3 miles to the junction of the Erewash, and 

 then entering the county flows through it 25 miles in a north-east 

 direction to the neighbourhood of Newark, below which it turns to 

 the north, and flowing first within aud then upon the border of the 

 county 25 miles farther, to below Gainsborough, finally quits the 

 county and flows through the marshes of the Isle of Axholme to the 

 Humber. It is a broad river, bordered by a belt of low lauds, and 

 navigable throughout the county for river craft, and up to Gains- 

 borough, on the Lincolnshire border, for sea-borne vessels of 200 tons. 

 The Maun rises near the village of Hardwiok, to the south of Mans- 

 field, and flows north-east 12 miles past Mausfield aud through 

 Clipstoue Park, to Ollerton, where it receives the Raiuworth, which 

 rises in Sherwood Forest. From Ollerton the Maun flows 4 miles 

 north by east, till it ia joined on the left bank by the Meden, then 

 flows northeast 4 miles to West Drayton, where it receives on the left 

 bank the Poulter, forming by the junction the river Idle. From West 

 Drayton the Idle flows northward iu a winding course of IS miles to 

 Bawtry, receiving on the left bank, just above that town, the Ryton, 

 and flows eastward 2 miles to the border of Lincolnshire, and 7 miles 

 more along the border, or just within it, iuto the Trent at West 

 Stockwith. The Idle is navigable from East Retford, 12 miles above 

 Bawtry. None of its tributaries are navigalle. 



The Soar has about 8 miles of its course, navigable throughout, on 

 the border of this county and Leicestershire. The Erewash rises iu 

 the county, very near the head of the Mauu, aud flows south-west to 

 the border, and south-south-east along the border of this county and 

 Derbyshire to its junction with the Trent. The Leue rises near the 

 grounds of Newstead Abbey, 5 miles south of Mansfield, and flows 

 southward into the Trent near Nottingham. The Dover Beck rises 

 in Sherwood Forest, not far from the source of the Rainworth, and 

 flows 10 miles south-east iuto tho Trent, to the east of Thurgarton. 

 The Deven rises in Leicestershire, and flows northward into the 

 Trent, through tho Vale of Belvoir. Of its whole course of more 

 than 20 miles, 8 or 9 miles belong to this county. Its tributary, the 

 Smite, 18 miles long, belongs chiefly to this county. The tongue of 

 land at the junction of the Deven and tho Trent is insulated by a 

 navigable channel communicatiug between those two rivers. 



By means of the Trent and tho canals and navigable rivers con- 

 nected with it, Nottinghamshire has water communication with almost 

 all the principal towns in England. The Grantham Canal crosses the 

 south of the county, and connects the Witham at Grantham, in Lincoln- 

 shire, with the Trent, near Nottingham. There is a branch from the 

 Grantham Canal to Bingham, in this county. From the eastern 

 border of the county, at a point nearly east of East Retford, the 

 Fosse Dyke Canal joins tho Trent again with the Witham, and so 

 with the city of Lincoln and the Wash. Tho Chesterfield Canal 

 croMes the north of the county, leaving the Trent near Stockfritb, 



