Powerflush nearby to Nottingham
Nottingham is a city in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England, as well as a unitary authority area. It is located 128 miles (206 kilometres) north of London, 44 miles (71 kilometres) south of Sheffield, and 45 miles (72 kilometres) northeast of Birmingham. Nottingham is associated with the legend of Robin Hood, as well as the lace, bicycle, and tobacco industries. Nottingham is also the county town of Nottinghamshire, and the city was granted its charter as part of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 1897. Nottingham is a popular tourist destination, with the city receiving the second-highest number of overnight visitors in the Midlands and the highest number in the East Midlands in 2018.
Nottingham’s population was estimated to be 330,000 in 2020. The population of the larger conurbation, which includes many of the city’s suburbs, is 768,638 people. It is the most populous city in the East Midlands and the second-most populous city in the Midlands. It has the largest Functional Urban Area in the East Midlands, with a population of 919,484. The Nottingham/Derby metropolitan area has a population of 1,610,000 people. Nottingham’s metropolitan economy is the seventh-largest in the United Kingdom, with a GDP of $50.9 billion (2014). Aside from Birmingham, it is the only city in the Midlands to be ranked by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network as a sufficiency-level world city.
Nottingham is a major sporting city that was named the “Home of English Sport” in October 2015. The National Ice Centre, Holme Pierrepont National Watersports Centre, and Trent Bridge international cricket ground are all located in or near the city, which is also home to two professional football teams: Notts County, the world’s oldest professional league club, and Nottingham Forest, famously two-time UEFA European Cup winners under Brian Clough and Peter Taylor in 1979 and 1980. The city has professional rugby, ice hockey, and cricket teams, and it also hosts the Aegon Nottingham Open, an ATP and WTA tennis tournament. This honour came just over a year after Nottingham was named the United Kingdom’s first City of Football.
Prior to 2015, Nottingham’s public transportation system won several awards, including the largest publicly owned bus network in England. Nottingham railway station and the modern Nottingham Express Transit tram system serve the city. UNESCO designated Nottingham as a ‘City of Literature’ in December 2015, joining Dublin, Edinburgh, Melbourne, and Prague as one of only a few in the world. Nottingham’s literary heritage is reflected in the title, with Lord Byron, D. H. Lawrence, and Alan Sillitoe all having connections to the city, as well as a contemporary literary community, a publishing industry, and a poetry scene. The city is served by three universities—the University of Nottingham, Nottingham Trent University, and the University of Law’s Nottingham campus—and has the most higher education providers in the East Midlands.
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HISTORY
Nottingham Castle was built in 1068 on a sandstone outcropping near the River Leen. The Anglo-Saxon settlement was originally confined to what is now known as the Lace Market and was surrounded by a substantial defensive ditch and rampart, which fell out of use after the Norman Conquest and was filled by the time of the Domesday Survey (1086). Following the Norman Conquest, the Saxon settlement grew into the English Borough of Nottingham, complete with a Town Hall and Law Courts. A settlement grew up around the castle on the opposite hill, and it was the French borough that supported the Normans in the castle. As the town grew, the space between was eventually filled in, and the Old Market Square became the focal point of Nottingham several centuries later. In the early 12th century, defences consisted of a ditch and a bank. In the mid-13th century, the ditch was widened and a stone wall was built around much of the town’s perimeter. A short section of the wall survives and can be seen at the northern end of Maid Marian Way; it is designated as a Scheduled Monument.
The castle was occupied by supporters of Prince John, including the Sheriff of Nottingham, upon Richard the Lionheart’s return from the Crusades. It was besieged by Richard and captured after a fierce battle. Nottingham Castle is the setting for the final showdown between the Sheriff and the hero outlaw in the legends of Robin Hood.
Nottingham had established itself as a centre of a thriving export trade in religious sculpture made from Nottingham alabaster by the 15th century. In 1449, the town became a county corporate, granting it effective self-government “for eternity,” according to the charter. The Castle and Shire Hall were expressly excluded and remained as separate Nottinghamshire Parishes.
C. P. Moritz, a German traveller, was among those who were deeply impressed by Nottingham in the late 18th century, writing in 1782, “Nottingham is the most beautiful and well-kept town I’ve seen outside of London. Everything was modern, and the large central space was no less beautiful than a London square. A lovely footpath winds through the fields to the highway, where a bridge spans the Trent. From a distance, Nottingham… with its high houses, red roofs, and church steeples, appears stunning.”
During the Industrial Revolution, the textile industry provided much of Nottingham’s prosperity; in particular, the city became an internationally important centre of lace manufacturing. In 1831, citizens rioted in response to the Duke of Newcastle’s opposition to the Reform Act of 1832, torching his home on the site of Nottingham Castle.
Nottingham’s textile industry, like the rest of the UK’s, declined in the decades following World War II. Although there is little textile manufacturing in Nottingham today, many of the former industrial buildings in the Lace Market district have been restored and repurposed.
Nottingham was one of the boroughs established by the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835, and it included the parishes of St Mary, St Nicholas, and St Peter at the time. In 1877, it was expanded by incorporating the parishes of Basford, Brewhouse Yard, Bulwell, Radford, Sneinton, Standard Hill, and portions of the parishes of West Bridgford, Carlton, and Wilford (North Wilford). Under the Local Government Act of 1888, Nottingham was designated as a county borough in 1889. City status was granted as part of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations, as evidenced by a letter from the prime minister, the Marquess of Salisbury, to the mayor dated 18 June 1897. In 1933, Nottingham was expanded by incorporating Bilborough and Wollaton, as well as portions of the parishes of Bestwood Park and Colwick, as well as a recently developed portion of the Beeston Urban District. Clifton and Wilford (south of the River Trent) were incorporated into the city in 1951, resulting in a further boundary extension.
Electric trams were introduced to the city in 1901 and served for 35 years, until 1936. Trams were reintroduced after 68 years with the opening of a new network in 2004.
Nottingham is home to Notts County, the world’s oldest professional football club, which was founded in 1862. Nottingham Forest, the town’s other football club, had a period of success under manager Brian Clough between 1977 and 1993, winning the First Division, four League Cups, a UEFA Super Cup, and two European Cups. During this period, Forest signed Trevor Francis, Britain’s first £1 million footballer, who joined the club from Birmingham City in February 1979.
In 1958, race riots erupted in the city, with the St Ann’s neighbourhood at the epicentre.
Nottingham experienced urban growth in the second half of the twentieth century, with the development of new public and private housing estates and new urban centres that engulfed former rural villages such as Bilborough, Wollaton, Gedling, and Bramcote. South of the river, new areas such as Edwalton and West Bridgford have sprung up, adding to Nottingham’s urban sprawl. Although this growth slowed towards the end of the century, modern pressures for more affordable and council housing are back on the political agenda, and the city’s green belt is under threat.
GEOGRAPHY
Nottingham is situated on a low hill along the lower valley of the River Trent, and is bounded to the north by the Sherwood Forest, to the west by the Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, and Yorkshire Coalfield, and to the east and south by the Trent and Belvoir Vales.
