The Arboretum Elm Avenue, Corporation Oaks & Robin Hood’S General Chase Cemetery

The Social World of Nottingham’s Historic Green Spaces Church (Rock) The Forest Cemetery) Waterloo Promenade The Arboretum Elm Avenue, Corporation Oaks & Robin Hood’s General Chase Cemetery Bath Street Cricket Ground The Meadows Cricket Ground Queen’s Walk Fredrick Jackson’s Map, c ͘1882, reproduced courtesy of Manuscripts and Special Collections, University of Nottingham THE ARBORETUM Compiled on behalf of the Social World of Nottingham’s Green Spaces project team by Dr Judith Mills 1 FOREWORD In 2013-14, the University of Nottingham’s project The Social World of Nottingham’s Historic Green Spaces saw a small group of academics collaborate with Friends, history and heritage groups as well as individuals interested in the city’s green spaces and the City Council which owns the spaces, to research the creation and development of Nottingham’s oldest parks and open spaces.͘ This was followed in 2016 by a Public Engagement project that resulted in a number of events including a play based on the research, a month-long exhibition, workshops for children, a website and some published articles. Conversations with representatives from some of the groups involved suggested that they would find it useful to have a simple listing of the sequence of events around the creation and development of the parks and open spaces. The results of these conversations are a set of reports - Fact Files - which summarise information about the spaces created as a result of the 1845 Enclosure Act. Sometimes the quantity of information is considerable, and sometimes it is quite scanty. As well as listing the facts, the reports also aim to illustrate some of the concerns and issues that surround the creation of the green spaces and give a flavour of contemporary attitudes to health, recreation and leisure which underlie their conception. At the end of each report is a list of sources and suggestions for further reading for anyone who would like to take their interest further. There are five reports The Arboretum The Forest The Public Walks The Smaller Parks/Former Cricket Grounds The General Cemetery and the Church (Rock) Cemetery They are summaries of research carried out during 2013-14, and are concerned mainly with the period 1845-1914. Judith Mills 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS None of this work would have been possible without the support of the Green Spaces Project team, led by Professor John Beckett and the Parks and Open Spaces teams of the City Council. The contribution of and collaboration with the Friends of the Arboretum, Friends of the Forest, Mapperley and Sherwood History group and the other volunteers was also invaluable to the project as a whole. Also invaluable was the support of the staff at Nottinghamshire Archives and Nottingham Local Studies where many of the original documents are stored and cared for. All photographs and images in this report are courtesy of Picture the Past (https://picturethepast.org.uk/) and Nottingham City Council, unless otherwise stated. 3 THE ARBORETUM Contents page Introduction: The 1845 Enclosure Act 6 Creating the Arboretum 7 The Opening of the Arboretum 8 The Layout of the Arboretum in 1852 9 Ornamentation and Decoration 10 Cannon and Chinese Bell 10 Feargus O’Connor Statue 11 The Aviaries 12 Lakes, Fish and Fowl 13 Ground Maintenance 14 Planting 15 Charging for Entry 16 Public Opinion 16 Accusations of discrimination against the poor 17 Council debates and public opposition 17 Using the Arboretum 21 The Refreshment Rooms 21 Music 24 Fetes, Galas and Other Entertainments 25 Sport in the Arboretum 27 Policing the Park 28 Sources and Suggestions for Further Reading 30 4 5 Introduction: The 1845 Enclosure Act At the beginning of the 19th century the boundaries of Nottingham were (roughly) from Castle Road in the west to just the other side of Huntingdon Street in the east. The southern border was the river Trent and Gregory Boulevard now approximates the northern boundary. Most of this area was farm land - some owned by the Borough Council but much in private hands. People lived and worked in the area surrounding the Market Place (now Market Square) and St Mary’s Church.e The northern edge was Parliament Street with Broadmarsh marking the southern limit of the town. According to the website A Vision of Britain Through Time, in 1841 the population of Nottingham was 72,309 people, living in an area about 1 mile wide and ½-¾ mile high, with the odd off-shoot along Mansfield Road and Derby Road (GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, URL: http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/datavalue/20702). Inevitably, this densely packed population combined with poor Staveley and Wood Map, c.1832, sanitation led to high mortality rates, especially infant courtesy of Manuscripts and Special mortality and Nottingham was used as a case study in Collections, University of Nottingham the 1840 Government Report on the Health of Towns. Other Government Inquiries promoted gentle exercise and ‘rational recreation’ as a remedy to some of the social problems of the period e An obvious solution was to build more houses on the fields surrounding the town but as well as many being in private hands, they were protected by ancient privileges held by the town’s Burgesses who, for example, had the right to graze cattle and sheep on the fields (whoever owned them) after the harvest had been collected. An Inclosure Act was required to overcome these rights - though today this is more commonly referred to as an Enclosure Act. Empowered by Government inquiries and a better understanding of how disease was transmitted, a group of Nottingham’s leading townsmen drew up an Enclosure Act which was - eventually - adopted by the Borough Council and presented to Parliament. It received Royal Assent on 30 June 1845. Two key clauses in the Act ensured that between 125 and 130 acres was set aside as recreational space to be used by the people of Nottingham. Although three Enclosure Commissioners were appointed to oversee the revocation of the burgesses’ rights, lay out the new roads and other infrastructure, and survey and sell building plots, it was the responsibility of the Borough Council to negotiate where the green spaces should be sited. Having agreed with the Commissioners on location, the Council then had to fence, lay-out, manage and develop them for public use. A number of sub-committees were set up: the Enclosure Committee (not to be confused with the Enclosure Commissioners), the Race Committee, the Arboretum Committee and so on. These eventually were united into the Public Parks Committee and then the Public Parks and Burial Grounds Committee. Today, they have become the Parks and Open Spaces service. Creating the Arboretum The original proposal was for a Public Walk across the Sandfield, roughly from what is now Canning Circus (then a Windmill), alongside the General Cemetery, to join up with another walk on the other side of Mansfield Road (Elm Avenue). But there was public opposition to this, in favour of an Arboretum, led by newspapers and leading townspeople. A petition was presented to The Town Council. June 1846 The Nottingham Review proposed that instead of Walks, 60 acreas of recreation ground should be allocated for an Arboretum, public baths and a new cricket ground. The Arboretum to be about 15 acres. This would contribute to the happiness of all classes because all classes would share in the benefits. It said: Why should not the labourer, immured during the day amid noise and smoke, wander forth when his toil is over into the realm of birds and flowers … August 1846 The Town Council received a ‘memorial’ of petition signed by townsmen proposing an Arboretum: We the undersigned would respectfully suggest that from the quantity of land to be devoted to public walks &c by the Inclosure Act, there be sufficient quantity therefrom to form an arboretum. Suggested sites were the north-east side of the Bowling Alley, the gallows-closes, the hill to the right of Mansfield-road, the Blue Bell- hills &c. July-October The Inclosure Commissioners agreed that 12 acres on the 1847 Sandfield, next to Bowling Alley Road could be allotted for an Arboretum. The site was staked out and formally agreed by the Council in 1847. The 12 acres included the ‘tunnel’ and approach. April 1850 A letter to the Nottingham Journal from ‘Oak Sapling’ complaining that the layout of the Arboretum has been left to Moses Wood and questioned his ‘taste, skills and experience’. Sept 1850 A further 5 acres of land allocated to Arboretum making 17 acres in total. Adjacent landowners either gave their land to the Council or exchanged it for land of equal value elsewhere and some was leased to the Council – the exact arrangements are unclear. 1850 Samuel Curtis, a nursery man who had worked for the Duke of Newcastle at Clumber, presented his plans for the layout of the Arboretum. The Council commented that the layout was more like a ‘pleasure ground’ or park than an Arboretum with large area of turf in the middle surrounded by a belt of trees and shrubs, with walks and a ‘sheet of water’. The estimated cost £1,018, excluding tunnel but including entrance lodges. • £385 allocated for 4500 trees and shrubs. • £250 for lodges – building work to be supervised by Moses Wood • Work to be funded by sale of Gas shares and from the Bridge Estate which raised £1,000. 7 The Council recommended that a ‘Practical Man’ should be employed to layout and plant the grounds to Curtis’s design. May 1851 It was reported that work on the layout was nearly completed. Plans drawn up by Moses Wood (Borough Surveyor) for the Refreshment Rooms were discussed by Council.

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