THE GROWTH OF MODERN NOTTINGHAM 9 



knowledge participated, had momentous consequences, and is a very 

 interesting example of how corporate decisions are made. 



In 1845 the Act was passed, and it was something new in the way of 

 enclosure acts. It was so hedged about with restrictions and safeguards 

 that on the land thus brought in, slums were impossible. Houses had to 

 be of a certain size; they had to have a back door as well as a front; 

 even a garden was insisted upon. More than this, land was to be set 

 apart for recreation; the Forest, the Arboretum, Queen's Walk, Cor- 

 poration Oaks. It must be admitted that the provisions of the Act were 

 not proof against the ingenuity of speculative builders, but they witness 

 to the birth of a social conscience rare for those days, an outcome no 

 doubt, of the foregoing struggle in which scientific knowledge, armed with 

 an active public spirit, had played a conspicuous part. Nottingham now 

 entered upon the course of municipal development, which has culminated, 

 after many years of painfully slow progress, in a notable burst of energy 

 in our own time, and placed the city in the front rank of progressive 

 English municipalities. 



i. THE MUNICIPAL LIFE OF NOTTINGHAM 



BY 



J. E. RICHARDS, Town Clerk. 



Nottingham does not depend for present fame upon past history, but 

 one cannot overlook the City's story, for it was in ages past that the 

 foundations of much that is important to-day were laid. It has a past of 

 which any town should be proud. So far as dated history goes it cannot 

 point to anything earlier than 868 A.D. but before that, long even before 

 the Romans came to Britain, there was probably a settlement on the spot 

 where Nottingham has subsequently grown up. 



It is not necessary in this article to deal fully with the history of Notting- 

 ham, in itself a fascinating study, but it is interesting to recall the following 

 events which have had a direct bearing on the municipal life of the city : 

 Nottingham's first Charter was granted by Henry II in 1155, 

 Henry VI granted a Charter in 1448 constituting the town a County 



of itself. 

 The town was created a City by a Charter granted by the late 



Queen Victoria in the year 1897, and 



King George V in the year 1928 raised the office of Mayor to the 



dignity of Lord Mayor. 



From the middle of the 18th century a change took place in England 



and especially in the Midlands and the North. This change has been 



called the Industrial Revolution and its result was to turn what had been 



an agricultural community into an industrial one. Nottingham became 



a great industrial town and the coming of canals and railvvays gave it the 



