40 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF NOTTINGHAM AND DISTRICT 



effect of pulling the centre of economic gravity to itself. It brought in 

 its wake iron working and engineering; it dominated the development of 

 transportation and drew the textile factories and workshops to employ 

 the daughters of miners. The Erewash and Leen, parallel streams 

 practically converging on Nottingham, are in mining valleys — two strings 

 of collieries with a ' knot ' at the end, in the borough of Nottingham 

 itself. There is no iron smelting in Greater Nottingham to-day, but 

 close by, at Stanton, near Ilkeston, and Butterley, near Alfreton. it 

 continues with vigour. 



Nottingham's industrial activities are not, traditionally, associated only 

 with textiles and coal. Long before the modern phase of industriaUsm 

 developed the area was famed for its handiwork. Pottery, alabaster 

 work, wrought iron work, watches and clocks and leather were amongst 

 its products, and the Castle Museum shows a fair number of representa- 

 tives of some of those trades of early years. And this traditional variety 

 is her pride to-day. It is a common habit to associate with the name of 

 a town one or two ' characteristic ' industrial products or activities. It 

 is a facile way of imparting 'economic geography ' to children and it 

 appeals to those who like to describe the results of the ' Industrial 

 Revolution ' in bold, simple phrases such as mass production, locahzation 

 of industries, etc. Such a practice describes the actual situation well 

 enough in some cases but in others it goes wide of the mark. The common 

 association of Nottingham with lace is a case in point where considerably 

 less than the truth is conveyed. Nottingham is, in fact, a town of great 

 variety of industries and always has been, though the proportions occu- 

 pied in the various industries have changed from time to time. For a 

 space, lace was very prominent, but for the greater part of her history, 

 and at the present time in particular, Nottingham was and is much more 

 than a lace town. 



The diagram opposite presents to the eye very clearly the wide distri- 

 bution of industries in Greater Nottingham by showing its fairly close 

 conformity to the distribution of industries in England and Wales (Census 

 classification 1931). On the left side of the vertical line the graph shows 

 the percentages of working populations (males and females) of Notting- 

 ham engaged in the twenty-two industries; on the right side is the 'standard 

 distribution ' for England and Wales. Nottingham has certain departures 

 from the national pattern of industries but the ' distortion ' is not great. 

 Mining, textiles, food, drink, and tobacco, wood and paper industries 

 are in excess, and agriculture, metals, commerce (and finance) and 

 personal services are deficient. But all groups are represented in 

 significant proportions (except fishing!). Some of this variety is the 

 normal result of being the central town of the area, but to a greater 

 extent it is the result of her fitting in with the national economic scheme; 

 her varied industries have national and international markets. 



The variety of Greater Nottingham's industries shows itself in every 

 way, in raw material produced and used, in type of manufactured com- 

 modity, in stage of production (primary, secondary etc,. . . final or 

 consumers' goods), in type of organization of manufacturing and market- 

 ing. She extracts agricultural produce (including sugar beet), coal, clay. 



