NOTTINGHAM AND ITS REGION 37 



those at Toton. Further away, the floor of the vale is occupied by farm- 

 land, about one half of which is arable, largely for market garden produce 

 destined for the city dwellers or to be despatched by rail. Towards 

 Thurgarton, near the limit of our region, cultivation decreases and is 

 replaced by pasture until in the vicinity of Newark the latter preponder- 

 ates to such an extent that the Trent may be said to flow in a typical 

 grass vale as was the case before it entered the Nottingham region. 



The remaining district to be considered is the southward continuation 

 of the Keuper plateau across the Trent. This extends for an average 

 distance of six miles from the river as far as the Rhaetic escarpment 

 which marks off our region in the physical sense from the Vale of Belvoir 

 and from the South Notts, and Leicestershire Wolds. Here again the 

 boundary is arbitrarily drawn, for owing to the insignificance of this 

 scarp, lines of communication carry the influence of Nottingham to a 

 greater distance. Thus the villages of Upper and Nether Broughton, the 

 latter actually in Leicestershire, are brought into close touch with 

 Nottingham by the well-graded road to Melton Mowbray, though they 

 are situated nearer to the latter. Similarly the easy routes chosen by both 

 road and railway to Grantham bring the large village and market centre 

 of Bottesford to within the economic orbit of the city. The Grantham 

 Canal, now totally disused, winds circuitously towards the two villages 

 known as the Cropwells in order to negotiate the scarp with a minimum 

 number of locks. 



The ancient Fosse Way enters our region from the south and, entirely 

 without reference to Nottingham, strikes across the country with un- 

 deviating straightness to Newark, where it meets the Great North Road 

 as the latter crosses the Trent. The Fosse is to-day a good motor road 

 and now carries a large volume of traffic, particularly since the opening 

 of the modern bridge at Gunthorpe in 1929 provided an alternative route 

 to the north, whilst at the same time avoiding Nottingham. Shortly be- 

 yond the junction of the Gunthorpe road the Fosse reaches territory 

 which looks definitely towards Newark and which, therefore, cannot be 

 considered as being tributary to Nottingham. 



This section of the Keuper plateau like its counterpart on the other 

 side of the Trent, is chiefly agricultural country over which are scattered 

 numerous villages and farmsteads, some of these places, e.g., RadcUffe, 

 Edwalton, Ruddington and Plumtree. have recently developed as outlying 

 residential centres of a typically suburban character. Ruddington also 

 possesses hosiery factories. Bingham, still a large village, was formerly 

 a market centre for a wide area, and with the Grantham road passing 

 through it, was once a flourishing township. Other places of note are 

 Gotham, the home of the legendary ' wise men ', Thrumpton and Cropwell 

 Bishop which have gypsum mines and plaster works, for the locality 

 yields considerable quantities of this mineral from the upper layers of 

 the Keuper Marl. The largest workings, however, are near Newark. 

 At ToUerton, about five miles from the heart of the city, in the midst of 

 relatively open country, is the Nottingham airport. 



From this sketch of the city and its surroundings it will be seen that 

 the keynote of both environmental conditions and human activity is 



