18 June: Nottingham

On this date in 1897 Nottingham was granted city status. Everyone knows it was the home of Robin Hood and his nemesis the Sheriff, but here are 10 more facts about Nottingham you might not know.

1. The city got its name from an Anglo Saxon tribe known as the Snotingas, which in turn was so called because its chief’s name was Snot. Hence the first name for the city was Snotingham. Somewhere along the line, they thankfully lost the S.
2. Another theory is that the name comes from an old word for caves, snottenga. Which has some credibility since there are more than 800 caves under the city. The city stands on a sandstone ridge, and sandstone is soft enough that it was easy for early inhabitants to dig cave dwellings. As recently as 1870 it was said by an anonymous author that “If a man is poor he had only to go to Nottingham with a mattock, a shovel, a crow, an iron, a chisel or a mallet, and with such instruments he may play mole and work himself a hole or burrow for his family.” It is illegal, however, to rent out the caves.
3. UK shoppers will be familiar with Boots, the chemists, which has a branch in pretty much every town. It started in Nottingham, as a herbalist’s store opened by an agricultural worker named John Boot. When he died in 1860 his family took the store on and would travel the country to collect herbs for the store. It was one of John Boot’s descendants, Jesse Boot, who inherited the store at the age of 27 and laid the foundation for the Boots stores we know and love today.
4. On a similar theme, Ibuprofen was invented in Nottingham by Stewart Adams, who started out as a pharmacy apprentice at Boots laboratories. He experimented with numerous pain relieving chemicals in a Nottingham house, but Ibuprofen was his only success. He tested it on himself to relieve a hangover.
5. HP sauce was also invented in Nottingham by Frederick Gibson Garton. He came up with the recipe and named it HP sauce when he heard that his concoction was being served in the Houses of Parliament.
6. It’s the home to Big Ben’s understudy. Nottingham Council offered the city’s 10.5 tonne bell, known as Little John, as a replacement for Big Ben should it ever fall silent. In the mean time, Little John, designed by John Taylor Co of Loughborough in 1927 sounds every 15 minutes. It’s the fifth largest bell in the UK and said to be the loudest clock bell in the country as it can be heard up to seven miles away.
7. Nottingham’s famous Goose Fair began in 1284 when it began as a gathering for people who wanted to buy and sell Geese. Over 700 years later it is Europe’s largest travelling fair.
8. Nottingham is home to the world’s smallest cinema, seating just 21 people. It was opened in 2002 by Steven Metcalf.
9. Famous people from Nottingham include Lord Byron, DH Lawrence, Alan Sillitoe, Barbara Erskine, Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden, Andy Fletcher of Depeche Mode, Jake Bugg, Ed Balls, Torvill and Dean, Rebecca Adlington, Su Pollard, Lucy Worsley and of course, Robin Hood.
10. In 1764 there was a riot over the price of food which became known as The Great Nottingham Cheese Riot because during the chaos, the mayor was knocked over by a large cheese.

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