Early Modern Nottingham (1500 – 1799)

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‘View of Nottingham from the East’ by Jan Siberechts c1695 © Nottingham City Museums and Galleries

1512

A charter signed by Henry VIII licensed a group of Nottingham people, including Dame Agnes Mellers, widow of Mayor and bell founder Richard Mellers, to establish the Nottingham Free School, which later became Nottingham High School

11 April 1538

Nicholas Heath, the last Prior of Lenton, was condemned for high treason and hanged in front of the gateway to the great Cluniac Priory of Lenton

1541

The first documented reference to Nottingham’s ancient Goose Fair appears in the Nottingham Borough Records

21 February 1551

Edward VI’s charter (Nottingham’s first illuminated charter) granted the property of St. John’s Hospital and St. Mary’s Chantry to the Corporation for the maintenance of Trent Bridge

1558

A great storm swept over Nottingham damaging churches and other buildings

c1563

William Lee was born about the year 1563 in Calverton near Nottingham; in 1589 he devised the first stocking frame knitting machine

1580 to 1588

The spectacular Elizabethan mansion Wollaton Hall was designed by Robert Smythson and built by Sir Francis Willoughby

1597

A number of the lath and timber houses of the old medieval part of Nottingham were destroyed by fire

2 October 1603

Huntingdon Beaumont started construction of the country’s first documented railway in Nottingham; two miles of wooden waggonway track

1 October 1604

The country’s first documented and earliest form of railway, two miles of wooden waggonway track between coal pits in Strelley and Wollaton, was laid and completed in Nottingham by Huntingdon Beaumont

1614

The Nottingham Arms were officially recognised by the College of Arms, but it is not known how long they had been in use before that date, although the crest is based on the Seal of the City, which has been in use since the 15th century

1617

Architect John Smythson’s plan of Nottingham Castle is the earliest surviving document to give detailed layouts and accurate information about the medieval construction

1620s

Religious dissenters moved in to the area known as Rock Yard, below the Castle, as it fell outside the boundary of the town authorities and had for decades been a popular retreat for all kinds of thieves and vagabonds

1621

Richard Bullyvant became Nottingham’s first postmaster

1623

James I granted Nottingham Castle and the surrounding estate to Francis, Earl of Rutland, the last constable of the castle

1623

Royal Mail coaches running to and from London were the earliest documented post in Nottingham

4 August 1634

Charles I made his first visit to Nottingham

1634

The Mayor, Sheriff and Aldermen were required to officially open Goose Fair by reading out a proclamation and ringing bells

1636

The old Heth Beth Bridge over the River Trent fell into such decay that one arch fell down completely

1637

By 1637 there was a fortnightly delivery of mail between Nottingham and London, with the postman covering the distance of over 100 miles on foot

22 August 1642

Charles I raised his standard at Nottingham Castle to signal the outbreak of the Civil War

1643

Royalists from Newark took control of Nottingham and briefly lay unsuccessful siege to the castle, using the tower of St. Nicholas’ Church as a vantage point from which to fire into the fortifications; the church was later demolished by Colonel John Hutchinson, the governor of Nottingham Castle, to prevent it being used as a gun platform

1646

Goose Fair was cancelled because of the plague

1648

Oliver Cromwell visited Nottingham

1649

George Fox, founder of the Quaker Society, started his ministry in Nottingham

1651

Colonel John Hutchinson got Parliament’s approval to remove the Nottingham garrison and demolish Nottingham Castle

1654

Nottingham’s silver oval wait badges were probably made in 1654; they were worn by the official musicians until the office of town wait was abolished in the l830s

1660

Sometime around 1660 Nottingham cloth merchant Thomas Smith began to offer banking services to his customers; the first private bank outside London and one of the earliest banks in England

1663

Trent Bridge was nearly destroyed by the severe winter weather

1669

The two Sheriff’s silver maces were made at a cost of £8 or £10 apiece and each Sheriff was obliged to reimburse his predecessor for their cost, less ten shillings, until they were paid for

1672

Sir Francis Willoughby of Wollaton Hall wrote the world’s first systematic study of birds, his major works on the subject were published in 1672 after his death

1674-79

The ruins of Nottingham Castle were cleared

1674

The site of Nottingham Castle was bought by William Cavendish, First Duke of Newcastle, who began building a residence on the rock summit; he died when the walls were only a yard high

1678

The Duke of Newcastle’s mansion on Castle Rock was completed; the architect was William Marsh

1683

Trent Bridge was badly damaged and a considerable portion carried away by a flood

1685

Highwaywoman Joan Phillips was hanged for highway robbery on a scaffold at the junction of Loughborough Road and Wilford Lane

c1688

The approximate date of the formal establishment in Nottingham of Smith’s Bank by local merchant and banker Thomas Smith

c1690

The first race meeting was held around this date on the old Forest Racecourse, just to the north of Nottingham; the course was said to be one of the best in England

1692

The Royal Charter of William and Mary was the last to deal with town government in Nottingham

1696

Powers were taken to supply Nottingham with water and a Waterworks Company was formed, taking water from the river Leen at the Castle rock and pumping it with an hydraulic engine, housed at the foot of Finkhill Street, to a reservoir on the east side of Park Row

1699

Nottingham banker Thomas Smith died. Thomas had established Smith’s Bank in about 1688; the first private bank outside London

1700

Nottingham’s population was about 6,000

1704

Marshal Tallard, the French general, was captured at the battle of Blenheim and spent 14 years in exile in Newdigate House on Castle Gate in Nottingham

1706

The Nottingham Bluecoat School was founded as a co-educational Charity School at Weekday Cross

1708

A Mr Aiscough set up the first printing press in Nottingham

1709

Abel Collins Almshouses were founded at Park Street and Houndsgate in Nottingham

c1710

A Mr Ayscough established the first printing in Nottingham

1713

The crumbling remains of the old dividing wall in the Market Place, between the English and the French boroughs, were finally swept away

1718

The corporation ordered the Market Place to be paved

1720

John Plumptre, who promoted education among poor people, was the first of the Trustees in the Deed of The Blue Coat Charity School

1723-26

The new Exchange was built at the eastern end of the Market Place; the building was designed by the Mayor, Marmaduke Pennel

1724

The Shambles, a group of old shops, was demolished to make room for the new Exchange buildings

1725

Trent Bridge was repaired again and a toll house was set up

27 June 1729

A lease was granted by Nottingham Corporation for land to build a workhouse at the junction of York Street and Mansfield Road

1730

The first fully-fashioned cotton stocking was produced in Nottingham

1739

Kitty Riley, an inmate of the Nottingham Workhouse, died at the age of 100

1743

The last surviving medieval gate, Chapel Bar, was demolished to improve traffic flow and several narrow medieval streets were widened

1750

Nottingham’s population was about 11,000

September 1752

The year the calendar was revised, missing out 11 days of September, was one of the few occasions Nottingham’s Goose Fair was not held

2 October 1753

The date of Goose Fair was switched from September to start every year on 2 October

30 November 1759

Mass murderer William Andrew Horne was executed on Gallows Hill at the top of Mansfield Road

1760

Nottingham’s first theatre was built

2 October 1766

Nottingham’s ‘Great Cheese Riot’¹ took place at Goose Fair over the high cost of cheese, during which the Mayor was knocked down by a large rolling cheese

3 October 1766

Infantry and cavalry were brought in keep the peace following the riots of the previous day, but later that evening there were serious clashes between the rioters and military, with some people wounded by gunfire from the soldiers¹

1767

James Hargreaves settled in Nottingham and built the world’s first cotton mill off Lower Parliament Street

1769-1772

The Shire Hall was re-built, the architect was James Gandon of London

4 July 1776

The United States Declaration of Independence from the British Empire was adopted by the Continental Congress

1776

Colwick Hall was built by the River Trent about three miles east of Nottingham

1777

A new two stories high brick grandstand was opened on the old Forest Racecourse

1779

The first Post Office in Nottingham was established in the shop of John Raynor, a seedsman on the west side of High Street

12 February 1781

A foundation stone for the General Hospital was laid on Derry Mount by the Mayor and Corporation

28 September 1782

Nottingham’s General Hospital opened

1783

The Trent Navigation Company was formed in to improve navigation on the River Trent between Nottingham and Hull

1784

Mail coaches started to run between Nottingham and London

1785

The Great Mace, the Mayor’s symbol of authority, was stolen

1787

A new Great Mace, the Mayor’s symbol of authority, was made by John Stirland to replace the one stolen in 1785. The new mace was made of silver gilt, roughly 4ft 6in long, weighing approximately 200 ounces and bearing the royal arms of King George the Third

1788

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, preached his last sermon in Nottingham, from the pulpit in Hockley Chapel

30 July 1792

The first sod was cut starting construction of the Nottingham Canal

14 July 1793

George Green, a mathematical genius much admired by Albert Einstein, was born to a Nottingham miller, Green’s work was the beginning of modern mathematical physics

April 1796

The entire length of the Nottingham Canal was completed, 14¾ miles to Langley Mill, causing the price of coal to be halved in the city

1797

All 33 miles of the Nottingham to Grantham canal finally opened

If you want to know more about Nottingham’s past there is further information in ‘Events and dates in Nottingham’s history’ and through these websites: