Nottingham IT Support

Nottingham (/ˈnɒtɪŋəm/ (listen) NOT-ing-əm, locally /ˈnɒtnʊm/) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located 110 miles (180 km) north-west of London, 33 miles (53 km) south-east of Sheffield and 45 miles (72 km) north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robin Hood and to the lace-making, bicycle and tobacco industries. The city is also the county town of Nottinghamshire and the settlement was granted its city charter in 1897, as part of Queen Victoria‘s Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Nottingham is a tourist destination; in 2018, the city received the second-highest number of overnight visitors in the Midlands and the highest number in the East Midlands.^[6]

In the Census 2021 results, Nottingham had a reported population of 323,632.^[3] The wider conurbation, which includes many of the city’s suburbs, has a population of 768,638.^[7] It is the largest urban area in the East Midlands and the second-largest in the Midlands. Its Functional Urban Area,^[8]the largest in the East Midlands, has a population of 919,484.^[9] The population of the Nottingham/Derby metropolitan area is estimated to be 1,610,000.^[5] The metropolitan economy of Nottingham is the seventh-largest in the United Kingdom with a GDP of $50.9 billion (2014).^[10] Aside from Birmingham, it is the only city in the Midlands to be ranked as a sufficiency-level world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.^[11]

Nottingham is a major sporting centre and, in October 2015, was named ‘Home of English Sport’.^[12]The National Ice Centre, Holme Pierrepont National Watersports Centre and Trent Bridge international cricket ground are all based in or around the city, which is also the home of two professional football teams: Notts County, recognised as the world’s oldest professional league club, and Nottingham Forest, famously two-time winners of the UEFA European Cup under Brian Clough and Peter Taylor in 1979 and 1980. The city has professional rugby, ice hockey and cricket teams; it also hosts the Aegon Nottingham Open, an international tennis tournament on the ATP and WTA tours. This accolade came just over a year after Nottingham was named as the UK’s first City of Football.^[13]

The city is served by Nottingham railway station and the Nottingham Express Transit tram system; its bus company, Nottingham City Transport, is the largest publicly owned bus network in England.^[14] In December 2015, Nottingham was named a ‘City of Literature‘ by UNESCO, joining a list of 20 Cities of Literature.^[15] The title reflects Nottingham’s literary heritage, with Lord Byron, D. H. Lawrence and Alan Sillitoe having links to the city, as well as a contemporary literary community, a publishing industry and a poetry scene.^[16] The city is served by three universities: the University of Nottingham, Nottingham Trent University and the Nottingham campus of the University of Law; it hosts the highest concentration of higher education providers in the East Midlands.

Toponym

The name of Nottingham is Anglo-Saxon in origin. A Saxon chieftain named Snot ruled an area known as Snotingaham in Old English;^[17] the homestead of Snot’s people (-inga = ‘the people of’; -ham = ‘homestead’).^{[18][failed verification]} Some authors derive Nottingham from Snottenga (caves) and ham(homestead) but “this has nothing to do with the English form”.^[19]

A settlement existed before the arrival of the Anglo Saxons in the early 7th century CE because it is known in the Brythonic as Tig Guocobauc, meaning Place of Caves (known also as “City of Caves”). In modern Welsh, Nottingham is known poetically as Y Tŷ Ogofog and in Irish as Na Tithe Uaimh, ‘The Cavey Dwelling’.^[20]

History

Nottingham Castle was constructed in 1068 on a sandstone outcrop by the River Leen.

The early history of Nottingham dates back to 919A.D. where King Edward the Elder captured Nottingham to which he built a fortress on the southern bank of the river Trent in 921A.D. During the Norman Conquest King William the Conqueror built a castle in Nottingham which was entrusted to William Peverel.^[21]

The Anglo-Saxon settlement was originally confined to the area today known as the Lace Market and was surrounded by a substantial defensive ditch and rampart, which fell out of use following the Norman Conquest and was filled by the time of the Domesday Book (1086).^[22] Following the Norman Conquest the Saxon settlement developed into the English Borough of Nottingham and housed a Town Hall and Law Courts. A settlement also developed around the castle on the hill opposite and was the French borough supporting the Normans in the castle. Eventually, the space between was built on as the town grew and the Old Market Square became the focus of Nottingham several centuries later.^[22] Defences consisted initially of a ditch and bank in the early 12th century. The ditch was later widened, in the mid-13th century, and a stone wall built around much of the perimeter of the town. A short length of the wall survives, and is visible at the northern end of Maid Marian Way, and is protected as a Scheduled Monument.^[22]

On the return of King Richard the Lionheart from the Crusades in 1194, the castle was occupied by supporters of Prince John, including the Sheriff of Nottingham. It was besieged by Richard and, after a sharp conflict, was captured.^[23] In the legends of Robin Hood, Nottingham Castle is the scene of the final showdown between the Sheriff and the hero outlaw.^[24] King John of England (formerly Prince John) visited Nottingham in 1199 and 1202. Later King Henry III of England held a court in Nottingham.^[25]

By the 15th century Nottingham had established itself as a centre of a thriving export trade in religious sculpture made from Nottingham alabaster.^[26] The town became a county corporate in 1449^[27] giving it effective self-government, in the words of the charter, “for eternity”. The Castle and Shire Hall were expressly excluded and remained as detached Parishes of Nottinghamshire.

One of those highly impressed by Nottingham in the late 18th century was the German traveller C. P. Moritz, who wrote in 1782, “Of all the towns I have seen outside London, Nottingham is the loveliest and neatest. Everything had a modern look, and a large space in the centre was hardly less handsome than a London square. A charming footpath leads over the fields to the highway, where a bridge spans the Trent. … Nottingham … with its high houses, red roofs and church steeples, looks excellent from a distance.”^[28]

During the Industrial Revolution, much of Nottingham’s prosperity was founded on the textile industry; in particular, the city became an internationally important centre of lace manufacture. In 1831 citizens rioted in protest against the Duke of Newcastle‘s opposition to the Reform Act 1832, setting fire to his residence on the site of Nottingham Castle.

In common with the UK textile industry, Nottingham’s textile sector fell into decline in the decades following World War II.^[29] Little textile manufacture now takes place in Nottingham; however, many of the former industrial buildings in the Lace Market district have been restored and put to new uses.

Nottingham was one of the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, and at that time consisted of the parishes of St Mary, St Nicholas and St Peter. It was expanded in 1877 by adding the parishes of Basford, Brewhouse Yard, Bulwell, Radford, Sneinton, Standard Hill, and parts of the parishes of West Bridgford, Carlton, Wilford (North Wilford). In 1889 Nottingham became a county borough under the Local Government Act 1888. 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. Nottingham was extended in 1933 by adding Bilborough and Wollaton, parts of the parishes of Bestwood Park and Colwick, and a recently developed part of the Beeston Urban District. A further boundary extension was granted in 1951 when Clifton and Wilford (south of the River Trent) were incorporated into the city.^[30][31]

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