History of Nottingham

The middle Trent Valley was covered by ice sheets for large parts of the Paleolithic period between 500,000 and 10,000 years ago, and evidence of early human activity is limited to a small number of discarded stone artefacts found in glacial outwash or boulder clays.

[1] The post-glacial warming of the climate in the Mesolithic period between 10,000BC and 4,000BC saw the Trent Valley colonised by hunter-gatherers taking advantage of the emerging mixed woodland environment.

[8] Cropmarks indicating the ring ditches of Bronze Age burial sites are densely distributed across the gravel terraces around the Trent in the south of the city.

[8] Excavation of these sites have revealed evidence of cremations and traces of Bronze Age pottery, including urns.

[9] The importance of the Trent as a trade route during the period has been shown by the discovery of three dugout canoes and a spoked wheel dating from the Iron Age in the gravels at Holme Pierrepont.

[10] Iron Age ditches have been excavated at Nottingham Castle and at several sites in the Lace Market, suggesting that pre-historic fortifications in these areas are possible.

[12][13] Although the Fosse Way was one of Britain's major Roman roads and passed within six miles to the south of Nottingham, there is no record of any crossing of the Trent or settlement close to the site of the modern city.

In Anglo-Saxon times, around 600 AD, the site formed part of the Kingdom of Mercia, where it may have been known as "Tig Guocobauc" (though this is only known from the later 9th-century account of the Welsh cleric Asser, active at the court of Alfred the Great) meaning in Brythonic "a place of cave dwellings", until falling under the rule of a Saxon chieftain named Snot,[15] whereby it was dubbed "Snotingaham" literally, "the homestead of Snot's people" (Inga = the people of; Ham = homestead).

[21] Nottingham was captured in 867 by Danish Vikings and later became one of the Five Burghs – or fortified towns – of The Danelaw, until recaptured by the Anglo-Saxons unded Edward the Eldar in 918.

Eventually, the space between was built on as the town grew and the Old Market Square became the focus of Nottingham several centuries later.

(Attributed to be Britain's oldest Pub) In 1264, during the Second Barons' War, rebels attacked the Jewish community of Nottingham.

King Charles I of England raised the Royal Standard in Nottingham on 22 August 1642 at the start of the English Civil War.

In October 1766, city residents rioted over rising cheese prices, which resulted in the military being called in to restore order.

Thomas Hawkesley, Borough Water Engineer, testified to the Commission that he considered Nottingham to be the worst town in England.

The first incinerators for waste disposal were built in Nottingham by Manlove, Alliott & Co. Ltd. in 1874 to a design patented by Alfred Fryer.

City status was awarded as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of Queen Victoria, being signified in a letter from the Prime Minister the Marquess of Salisbury to the Mayor, dated 18 June 1897.

Very little textile manufacture now takes place in Nottingham, but the city's heyday in this sector endowed it with some fine industrial buildings in the Lace Market district.

The Nottingham Caves have always formed an important part of the region, at first providing shelter and sanctuary, but growing to house thriving tanning works and in modern times becoming a tourist attraction.

The caves are artificial, having been carved out of the soft sandstone rock by prospective dwellers, and have grown to become a complex network under the city.

Part of the network can be viewed by the public at the City of Caves attraction which is accessed from the upper mall of the Broadmarsh Shopping Centre.

A section of the cave network under the Broadmarsh Shopping Centre is now open as a tourist attraction, and some parts are still used as pub cellars.

Nottingham Castle, founded by William the Conqueror, famed through the Middle Ages as one of the country's finest strongholds, and where Charles I raised the Royal Standard in 1642 no longer exists, and has been replaced by a classical ducal palace.