Nottingham's origins stem from the 7th century when a Saxon chieftain named Snot ruled the area which was known as Snotingaham with 'Inga' meaning the people of and 'ham' meaning a village. They lived in what is today known as the Lace Market. When Vikings from Denmark captured the town in 867, it was to become one of the five fortified towns of The Danelaw. William the Conqueror built a wooden castle in 1067 which was made into a stone castle in the 12th century. In the late 12th century, Richard the Lionheart besieged the castle which had been favouring his brother John.

Medieval Nottingham

The tales of Robin Hood first came to prominence in the 1300s and are likely to have been based on real people who lived in the 12th and 13th century. However, Nottingham did not have a Sheriff until 1449. Nottingham was a relatively important town in the Midlands in Medieval England and had a population of around 3,000 in the 14th century. The town also had weekly markets and annual fairs which attracted people from all over the Midlands. Franciscan and Carmelite friars came to Nottingham in the 13th century. This was good news because the church ran the only hospitals in England during Medieval times and the Middle Ages. Nottingham has a Medieval Jewish community but they were all forced to leave when Jews were banished from England in 1290.

Middle Ages

During the 16th and 17th centuries, glassmaking was a major industry in Nottingham with many houses in the town also being rebuilt with bricks during this era. The town was hit with a number of plagues, the last of which occurred in 1667. The English Civil War could be said to have started here in 1642 as King Charles I first gathered his men on a hill near the town. Yet Parliamentary troops quickly seized Nottingham in November 1642 and held onto it for the rest of the war. Like most town castles, Parliament destroyed Nottingham castle in 1651. The site was bought by the Duke of Newcastle and he built a mansion there in 1679.

18th And 19th Century

The Industrial Revolution helped to quickly increase the population of Nottingham from approximately 10,000 in the 1750s to 30,000 in 1801. The textile industry was the cause of Nottingham’s growth but the town also had a terrible poverty problem. It was said that Nottingham had the worst slums in the British Empire outside of India. When the Duke of Newcastle opposed the Reform Act which was earmarked for 1832, rioters set fire to his castle.

A cholera epidemic killed more than 300 people in 1833. Yet Victorian England was to see a change in the standard of living in Nottingham. A prison was built in 1846, 11 years after the town had its first police force. A railway was built in 1839 and the town’s water supply was improved by the town corporation. Frank Bowden made bicycles in 1887 and this was to be the beginning of the world famous Raleigh bike company, named after Raleigh Street where they were made.

Modern Nottingham

Nottingham was made a city in 1897 and it moved with the times in the modern era by building electric trams in 1901. These were to be the main form of public transport until the bus service was expanded in 1936. The first council houses were also built in the early part of the century to help house the poor. Nottingham suffered during World War II with the Nottingham Blitz of May 8-9, 1941 designed to destroy the rail network and factories. One single raid alone killed around 140 people and destroyed more than 4,000 homes.

In 1952, a statue of Robin Hood was built near the site of the castle with Nottingham University built in 1948. Additional council estates were built in the 1950s and 1960s. A succession of important new buildings were also added to the Nottingham landscape including the new Clifton Bridge in 1958, Victoria Bus Station and Broadmarsh Shopping Centre in 1972 and Stonybridge City Farm in 1979. The city council decided to restore the electric trams in 2004. Modern Nottingham is a thriving city with a population of over 300,000 and although the population is the same as it was almost a century ago, it is an important financial centre in the Midlands.