II. 



GREATER NOTTINGHAM 



i. NOTTINGHAM AND ITS REGION 



BY 



K. C. EDWARDS, MA. 



In modern times the city of Nottingham has been chiefly renowned as 

 the home and headquarters of the lace industry, and aUhough a growing 

 multitude of other industries is now to be found, it is still primarily a 

 centre of textile manufacturing. Owing to its position near the banks 

 of the Trent, Nottingham has long controlled one of the great river- 

 crossings of England, whilst its present-day communications make it a 

 route centre of vital commercial importance. At its door lies part of the 

 richest coalfield in the country. Several collieries are actually situated 

 within the municipal boundary and the proximity of coal has inevitably 

 played a leading part in local industrial development. To-day the city 

 and its suburbs contain more than 325,000 inhabitants (the city popu- 

 lation alone at the census of 1931 being 268,801) so that, after Birming- 

 ham, Nottingham ranks with Stoke-on-Trent (276,639) and Leicester 

 (240,000) among the largest cities of the Midlands. 



There are at least three different ways, in the regional sense, of regard- 

 ing Nottingham as a centre of importance. In the first place, since it 

 has always been of greater size than its two neighbours, Leicester and 

 Derby, it has some claim to be considered the capital of the East Midlands. 

 It is difficult, however, to define the limits of the East Midlands for in the 

 absence of clearly marked natural boundaries the extent of this region 

 varies for different purposes. The East Midland Educational Union, for 

 instance, serves the counties of Nottingham, Derby, Leicester, Rutland, 

 Northampton, the Soke of Peterborough and the Kesteven and Lindsey 

 divisions of Lincolnshire, whereas the territory falling under the juris- 

 diction of the East Midlands Traffic Commissioners includes the counties 

 of Nottingham, Lincoln (except parts of Holland), Leicester, Rutland, 

 Northampton, Oxford and parts of Derby, Bedford and Buckingham. 

 Again, the East Midlands division of the Criminal Investigation Depart- 

 ment with its new forensic laboratory at Nottingham controls operations 

 over the immediately surrounding counties, together with Huntingdon- 

 shire and Norfolk. For all these and many other organisations Notting- 

 ham serves as the natural headquarters and enjoys a long tradition as 

 an unchallenged centre. Consequently, there is a certain public con- 

 sciousness of the identity of the surrounding region. Certainly the people 



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