Saxon Nottingham

Saxon Nottingham In the 6th century, when the Anglo Saxons (410 – 1066 AD) colonised Nottinghamshire they established a small, fortified settlement called Snotta-inga-ham on a steep sandstone outcrop (visible exposure of bedrock). The settlement was on high and dry ground, overlooking a shallow crossing point of what is now known as the River Trent. The settlement is now thought to have been in the Lace Market area of the city. The Anglo-Saxon word ham meant village or homestead. The word inga meant 'belonging to' and Snotta was a man (probably a Saxon Chieftain). So its name meant the village was owned by Snotta. Gradually, its name changed to Snottingham, then the Normans dropped the s and it became Nottingham. Viking Nottingham King Alfred defeated the Vikings in AD 878 and divided the country in two. The area north of the divide was ruled by the Vikings and called the Danelaw. Snotta-inga-ham was captured in 867 by Danish Vikings who had conquered North East and Eastern England. They turned Nottingham into a fortified settlement or burgh. It became one of the Five Burghs – or fortified towns – of The Danelaw. Under Viking rule, the town had a ditch around it and an earth rampart with a wooden palisade on top. The settlement flourished in this time with homes, grazing lands and orchards being developed. In 920, the English king recaptured Nottingham and he built a bridge across the Trent. By the 10th century, Nottingham was a busy little town with a population of several hundred. The western limit of the town stood roughly where Bridlesmith Gate is today (pictured left). From the 10th century, Nottingham also had a mint (a place where money is coined, under authority). In 1067, William the Conqueror built a wooden castle to guard Nottingham. (It was rebuilt in stone in the 12th century). Nottingham in the Middle Ages Nottingham grew rapidly after the Norman Conquest. Life continued in the Saxon part of town but a new area was created between the old town and the castle, around the Castle Rock on the western side. It was called the French borough because most of those who lived there were Norman French. The old town was called the English borough. The two areas had separate administrations until about 1300. The ditch and rampart around Nottingham were extended to surround the new area. Later, in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, they were replaced by stone walls. Nottingham may have had a population of around 1,500 at the time of the Norman Conquest. By the 14th century, it may have grown to 3,000. By the standards of the time, Nottingham was a fair-sized town. However, it was not large or important nationally. In 1155, the king gave Nottingham a charter. In the Middle Ages, a charter was a document granting the townspeople certain rights. Nottingham gained its first mayor in 1284 and it gained its first sheriff in 1449. Medieval Nottingham had markets. There was a weekly market in the Saxon part of town at Weekday Cross. It also had an annual fair. From 1284 Goose Fair began. In those days, a fair was like a market but was it was held only once a year for a period of a few days. Buyers and sellers would come from all over Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire to attend one. A guildhall was also built there, on the site of the now Nottingham Contemporary. This became the centre of justice and administration for this growing and prosperous town. The main industry was wool making. The raw wool was woven and then fulled. This means it was pounded in a mixture of water and clay to clean and thicken it. Wooden hammers worked by watermills pounded the wool. There were tilers and potters in Nottingham as well as goldsmiths. There were also the same craftsmen you would find in any Medieval town. These included: brewers, bakers, carpenters, shoemakers, blacksmiths, bridle smiths, wheelwrights and fletchers (arrow makers). In the 13th century, friars arrived in Nottingham. There were Franciscans known as grey friars because of their grey habits and Carmelite friars known as white friars. In the Middle Ages, the church ran the only hospitals. In Nottingham, there was a hospital dedicated to St Thomas. In it, monks cared for the sick and the poor as best they could. Sherwood Forest was preserved to provide hunting for the Norman Kings. Legend has it that Robin Hood was supposed to have lived in Sherwood Forest sometime in the 13th century. The story of Robin Hood is first recorded in the 14th century and it is likely it is based on a real person or possibly several real people. However, the town of Nottingham did not get its own sheriff until 1449. Religion was at the heart of life in Medieval times, so much so that many churches were enlarged or rebuilt to hold larger congregations; one of the great town churches being St. Mary's in Nottingham which was built around 1474. Nottingham in the 16th and 17th Centuries Nottingham continued to prosper and grew steadily during this period with elegant houses being built around St Mary’s. By 1600, Nottingham probably had a population between 3,500 and 4,000. It probably rose to about 5,000 by the late 17th century. Significant events included the opening of a grammar school in 1513 by Dame Agnes Mellers. The school is now known as Nottingham High School (see picture left). In the 1530s, Henry VIII closed the friaries. Robert Smythson (1535-1614) built Wollaton Hall in 1588. Outbreaks of the plague occurred throughout the 16th and early 17th century. The last outbreak was in 1667. A period of great anxiety also occurred during the English Civil War in (1642 – 1651). Traditional industries, such as the manufacture of wool and tanning, declined. Yet new industries arose to replace them. These included the manufacture of silk and wool hosiery. By the late 17th century, this industry was booming in Nottingham. So was the malting industry (malt, made from barley, is used in brewing). Another new industry in Nottingham in this period was glassmaking. Glass windows were rare in the Middle Ages but they became common in the 17th century. So did brick houses. In the 1600s, many of the houses in the town were rebuilt in brick with tiled roofs. People took an interest in the townscape. Public buildings such as the Guildhall were restored or replaced, and new buildings erected, including the Bluecoat School, the Exchange (replaced in 1929 by the current Council House), Collin's alms houses (houses founded by charity offering accommodation for the poor), and the St Mary's Gate theatre. New leisure pursuits particularly suited to the tastes of the emerging middle classes included bowling greens, assembly rooms, the race course on the Forest, plays and concerts. Attention was also paid to the quality of life in the town, with improvements to the water supply and new regulations for cleaning the increasingly busy streets as greater affluence was reflected in the number of coaches and carriages. Chapel Bar, the last surviving medieval gate, was demolished in 1743 to ease traffic flow and several of the narrow medieval streets were widened. Nottingham in the 18th Century By the early 18th century, Nottingham was an elegant town with many fine buildings. The area around St Mary’s developed as an elegant, residential area, with buildings such as Willoughby House, on Low Pavement being built for nobility and rich merchants. This is a picture of the Market Square in 1740. The travel writer Celia Fiennes said: 'The town of Nottingham is the neatest town I have seen. It is built of stone and has delicate large and long streets much like London and the houses are lofty and well built. The Market Place is very broad - out of which run 2 very large streets'. During the 18th century, Nottingham grew rapidly due to the development of the hosiery trade and there was growing over-crowding within the town. By the middle of the century, the population had passed 10,000. By 1801, the year of the first census, it exceeded 28,000. By the standards of the time, Nottingham was a large and important town. For the well-to-do, it was elegant and genteel (although, as always, there were many poor people). There was a piped water supply (although it was expensive and not many people could afford it). From the 1760s, oil lamps lit the streets. The first theatre in Nottingham was built in 1760 and a general hospital was built in 1782. From the late 17th century, salt glaze stoneware was made in Nottingham. In the 18th century, the trade and industry side of the town further developed. It rapidly became a centre for the hosiery industry which boomed. Workers made stockings on frames in their houses and sold their products to merchants. There was also a lace industry although it was quite small at this stage. Nottingham in the 19th Century Nottingham continued to grow rapidly, especially after 1845 when a great deal of land around it was released for building. Nottingham gained gas street lighting in 1819. However, like all towns in the early 19th century, Nottingham was a dirty, unsanitary place. There was a cholera epidemic in 1833, which killed 330 people. However, life in 19th century Nottingham gradually improved. In the mid-19th century, the piped water supply was greatly expanded. After 1835, Nottingham had its first proper police force and a new prison was built in 1846.

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