. NOTTINGHAM AND ITS REGION 33 



The manufacture and preparation of chemicals in Nottingham is related 

 in some measure to the demands of the textiles, especially the dyeing and 

 bleaching sections, and other local industries as well as to the abundance 

 of pure water. Like Burton and Newark, also on the Trent, supplies of 

 gypsiferous water have favoured Nottingham as a brewing centre, where 

 also caves and cellars hewn from the local sandstone have proved advan- 

 tageous. 



The leather trade dates from the ancient practice of oak-tanning for 

 which the trees of Sherwood Forest were exploited. To-day, however, 

 as in the case of the large factory at Trent Bridge, the industry is mainly 

 concerned with light and fancy leather-ware made from sheep- and goat- 

 skins. Similarly the furniture trade was originally dependent upon the 

 Forest timber and, despite the general use of imported timber by present- 

 day firms, Nottingham still possesses the largest English oak furniture 

 factory. Printing and lithography are also important trades. Brick- 

 making and earthenware, particularly the manufacture of flowerpots, of 

 which there is an extensive overseas export, result from the working of 

 the red marls of both the Permian and Keuper Series. Numerous food 

 products, including beet sugar, add to the diversity of Nottingham's 

 industries. 



Special mention should be made of the phenomenal development of 

 three famous concerns. No other establishments have made such pro- 

 gress nor enjoyed such prosperity in recent years and in each case their 

 factory is now the largest of its kind in the world. These are Player's 

 tobacco and cigarette-making factory. Boot's new factory at Beeston for 

 drugs and pharmaceutical products, and the Raleigh cycle works. They 

 employ approximately 7,200, 6,600 and 3,800 workers respectively. The 

 huge size of these units and the universal fame of their products convey 

 a more spectacular impression of industrial Nottingham to-day than 

 many of the older activities. 



The Surrounding Region 



Beyond the limits of the city the Nottingham Region includes a number 

 of districts or sub-regions which may be termed in the economic and 

 cultural sense, tributary districts. As these are grouped closely around 

 the city they inevitably feel its influence, yet, because they differ markedly 

 from one another in character, they contribute to the diversity of interests 

 exemplified by the city and, above all, heighten the individuality of the 

 region as a whole. It was one of these districts which gave rise to the 

 frame-knitters of the seventeenth century, who, in turn, laid the found- 

 ations of the hosiery industry in Nottingham. Near the same area is 

 Southwell Minster to which the city looks for diocesan care. From an- 

 other of these districts comes the mineral gypsum, now chiefly worked for 

 cement and plaster, but which in the form of alabaster once brought fame 

 to the Nottingham carvers who excelled in fashioning statuary and small 

 ornaments. 



Of the five tributary districts the first lies to the north-east of the city 

 and forms a portion of the low Keuper plateau being drained by the 

 Dover Beck and the still smaller Cocker Beck. This is a picturesque 



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