Although we have lived in Derbyshire for thirty four years, DH and I were born in Nottingham. 

Nottingham is eighteen miles away from where we live but if you speak to people who were born in Derbyshire, Nottingham could be a thousand miles away!!!!  We go back regularly to see family who still live there and to shop! 

So today I thought I would show you some pictures of our Home Town (picture heavy post!).

Nottingham’s most famous Resident, Robin Hood!  There was some talk about he was really from Yorkshire but we Nottinhamians just ignore that!  We have all seen the films which have been made about Robin Hood and his fight with the Sheriff of Nottingham well this is his statue which stands outside the grounds of Nottingham Castle.  For years when I was a little girl and went to see the statue the arrow was always missing, as people would steal it as a souvenir!!  However the City Council managed to make one and affix it in a manner where it cannot be stolen!!!

Nottingham Castle, which is in the City Centre, is always quite a disappointment for visitors as it really isn’t a castle at all.  A structure has stood on the rock above the city since 1067 shortly after the invasion of William the Conqueror.  It was made of wood but three years later was rebuilt of stone.  It was a Royal residence for the House of Normandy to Henry II who was quickly succeeded by Richard I (Richard The Lionheart) Robin Hood’s Time.

Richard was busy with the Crusades and left his brother, Prince John, in charge who had ambitions above his station.  He took Nottingham Castle and began to rule the country from here.  In 1194 Richard returned from abroad and took control back off John by siege tactics.  He stormed the Castle and wrested control of it away from the soldiers loyal to his brother, making it the only time the castle fell to an attacking army! 

It continued to be a Royal residence until James I of England (James VI of Scotland) sold it to the Earl of Rutland.

The original Castle was demolished in 1649 and the Duke of Newcastle built a manor house on the site (just like today when they knock an old building down and replace it with a modern monstrosity!).  Anyway in 1831 rioters burnt it almost to the ground but it was re-built in 1878 by the Nottingham Council and now houses a museum and art gallery.

It is currently closed and being refurbished inside and out and is due to re-open in 2021.

The Castle and lots of other places in Nottingham City Centre have caves beneath which were used for lots of purposes including tanning of leather and the brewing of beer, as above which at the bottom of Castle Rock in the Brewhouse Yard.

The picture above is of the Brewhouse Yard Museum (you can jus see the Castle at the top of the picture) where staff used to stay who worked at the Castle and lots of jobs were done here for the Castle including the brewing of the beer.

 

The main entrance to the Castle.

This is St. Mary’s Church, High Pavement and is the oldest religious foundation and largest Medieval building in the City.  It is mentioned in the Domesday Book and is belived to hail from Saxon times. 

The above picture is Nottingham Council House where the City Council meet and lots of offices to do with the Council are and the Dome houses the Bell, Little John who strikes the hour, quarter and half which can be heard up to seven miles away.  If we, when I lived at home, could hear the bell strike it was always going to rain!

The above building was opened in 1929 by the then Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII & Duke of Windsor.  The land in front of the Council House used to hold Nottingham’s Goose Fair and today plays host to one of the largest Christmas markets in the country and a summer “Nottingham by the Sea” event.

Two roads, which are now paved, run each side of the building and are named Long Row, above.  This stretches for a long way and is made up of fancy shops, restaurants and hotels over the years and was seen as the upmarket side.

This is the other side of the Council House where the new tram system runs and is called Cheapside.  This side used to house the butchers and there is a Poulty arcade. There wares used to be in baskets out in front of their shops.

Lots of other roads in the city centre are named after the trade which used to be carried on there.  Fletcher Gate – makers of arrows, the feather end is actually called a fletch.  Bridlesmith Gate – Bridles for horses.  Wheeler Gate – Wheelrights.  Beastmarket Hill – sale of livestock. 

The Council House from Long Row at Christmas.

The Council House in the summer “By the Sea”

The Dome all lit up for Christmas.

We are lucky in Nottingham to still have some glorious buildings.  These three were all built by Watson Fothergill, a Nottingham Architect between 1870 and 1906.  He was inspired by the Medieval buildings and churches.  The above building fronts onto Long Row.

This building sits at the junction of King Street to the right and Queen Street to the left.

As you can see from the writing on the building this is the oldest inn in England and it is where the Knights used to refresh themselves before leaving for the Crusades, no doubt including King Richard!  It is very tiny and gets very busy but when you are in there you have to hold your hand over the drink as the rear of the inn is actually in the Castle wall and it is made of sandstone so you get bits of sand in your drink!!!!!

There are lots of little yards and alleys which connect various road, the above one being Hurts Yard which connects Parliament Street with Long Row.  Tiny shops and restaurants are in these areas making them very busy places. 

This is Weekday Cross, in the Lace Market, and was the original site of all the markets in Nottingham before they moved down into the centre in front of the Council House.  The original Cross was erected in 1529 and the current one above was put in place in 1993.

This is Nottingham Theatre Royal built in 1865 by two Lace Barons John & William Lambert.  One of it’s notable claims to fame is in October 1952 it made theatre history as the World Premiere of “The Mousetrap” as part of the pre-West End tour, the play has gone on to become the longest running theatrical production in the World and we all went to see it in London a few years ago!  It was bought by the Council in 1969 and underwent a full restoration and was opened by Princess Anne in 1978 and has been open since. 

We are also very lucky to have a lot of green spaces within the City Centre this being one of them Wellington Circus off which there are several roads which had some very nice homes built for some of Nottinghams top residents.  It’s layout was influenced by London’s Regent Park and the surrounding roads bear some of the names; Oxford Street, Regent Street, College Street and Park Row!

This is one of the Trent Bridge’s which used to be over the river and is still standing, albeit currently in the middle of a traffic island around which the current Trent Bridge goes!!!!!

Finally this building is outside of the City Centre, Wollaton Hall and was built by Sir Francis Willoughby between 1580 and 1588.  It was owned by the fmaily up until 1881 and was eventually bought by the City Council in 1925 and is now another museum. 

In 2011 it became the home of Batman in “The Dark Night Rises” as Wayne Manor.  The Hall is five miles north of Gotham, Nottinghamshire and it is believed this is how Gotham City indirectly got its name!

My Grandfather worked as an Engineer for Nottingham City Council before, during and after World War II and part of his job was to look after Wollaton Hall.

I hope you have enjoyed my tour of our Home Town of Nottingham.  Some of the photographs are mine and some are from a great website http://www.nottingham21.co.uk  Run by a Gentleman named Ray Teece a former Policeman who has taken a lot more pictures of Nottingham.  If you would like to have a look at some more please click on the link above. 

I hope you are all doing okay and Stay Safe.

Hugs & Love Susie xx

 

DH, Eldest and I socially distanced ourselves around our home yesterday!!!!!  The weather was dreadful, cold wind, intermittent generally yuck!!! DH was in the den sorting software out on his computer and tidy things up in general, a job which does not get done in a normal week!  Eldest was in his room; his work is closed so all his friends at also at home and the majority of them have XBox consoles and were playing a group game!  I am thinking they might not want to go back to work when this is all over!!!  I was self distancing in the sitting room watching a series on Netflix!!!!  Youngest was with Girlfriend as she owns a horse and he needs feeding and looking after no matter what else is happening outside!!!

So that meant that we did not complete the work we started on Saturday with the garden.  I have some pictures.

Where Treacle is standing, the conifers there were planted by us.  They are slow growing ones and up to three years ago we took the tops out of them and trimmed them to keep them low and in shape.  However because of various things, time, other activities, my Op etc for three years we have not done it and they have grown too big!  Saturday it was a sunny Spring day again and not too cold so we got on with trimming these and our other trees in the garden which can be trimmed at this time of year.

Here they are now.  If you know conifers they mostly only grow on the ends and the middle bits die off so we thinned out a lot of those, took one away that was dead and brought the height down by at least five feet!!!  Treacle loves the new look!  I am going to get some shade loving, under tree plants to cover the ground we have uncovered. 

Treacle has always managed to get in amongst the conifers but now we can see what she is actually up to!

I am being good, honest!

Of course we are now left with the trimmings!

A very good friend of ours has a farm across the valley in the village and he collects this sort of thing and twice a year has a huge bonfire so he is very kind to let us take it up there for his bonfire!

We also have two pillar conifers at the top of the garden and they had not got too big but again we took the tops out of them.

By trimming the one nearest the garden on the left of our patio we have gained back quite a bit of the garden which had been overshaddowed by the conifer!

We still have quite a bit of trimming to do but cannot until after the plants have finished flowering.  There is also a holly tree which has overgrown as well.  I think they have all done really well this year because of all the rain over the winter. 

Some more Spring flowers are slowly appearing and I have some more seeds to set for plants later in the year.

A tiny purple flower just appearing behind one of the Rhododendrons.

The big star flower of Major Vinca or Perriwinkle, which we have between the bushes to control the weeds where it is hard to get to.

I will continue to take pictures as we progress.  With all this time on our hands at the moment our gardens will be pristine this summer!!!!

I hope everyone is doing okay and coping with being inside!!!  Gardening is definitely a good thing to do to get outside and in the fresh air, weather permitting of course but if you do not have a garden you can always source some houseplants to bring the green inside.  A lot of the grocery stores do sell plants for the home now and of course you can always get herbs to grow on your kitchen windowsill which has a dual purpose!

Stay safe everyone.

Hugs & Love Susie xx

 

There have been lots of cartoons, jokes, memes doing the rounds at the moment regarding the situation every country in the World finds itself in.  The funniest I have seen is a picture of the Earth and written over it, it says “Mother Nature has sent us all to our rooms to think about what we have done”!!!!!  On the back of that how environmental things have already changed by us all social distancing the most notable of which is the canals in Venice have cleared. The situation has rather taken the wind out of Miss Thunberg’s sails!!!!

Loch Ness early morning.

DH and I should have been travelling up to the Highlands Saturday April 4th for two weeks over the Easter break but because of the current situation and the fact we are all social distancing have cancelled.  Of course we are really disappointed but have to follow our Government’s rules unlike the thousands of muppets who were out over the weekend in parks, national parks, seaside resorts etc ignoring the Goverment’s rules!  No doubt these are the same people who have been panic buying!

I had a lovely day yesterday with my Boys at home and I got some lovely presents.  Some sweet pea seeds to grow, a new doorstop for our back door which has the Queen song lyrics changed to “Door Stop me now……  I’m having such a good time….. Holding the door……”!!!! It should be “Don’t stop me now I’m having such a good time, having a ball…” and a new travel mug which says “Another Manic Mum Day”!!!  So true.  In the afternoon, evening the Boys went off to see the Girlfriends’ Moms for dinner!  I did the ironing!!!!!!

DH and Eldest carried on with the building works at the front of our home over the weekend.  This is what it looked like after Friday, Eldest had done a huge amount.  The skip was changed on Saturday morning for a new one and this is what it looked like by the afternoon yesterday.  DH has ordered some stone to go into the hole to bring it up to the level of the tarmac.  The trench is for the stones they have taken out to strengthen the wall and also make a decorative feature on the concrete on the house wall.  We will then drive on it for a while to tamp it down and then get more tarmac added so the drive will be complete again.  We think that we may be able to get four cars on the drive now with DH’s truck just on the pavement!!!!

This is the soil taken out.

I am hoping to get some plants in when it is finished to help with the styling of it.

Our neighbours Magnolia tree just coming into flower.

Wanted to show you this.  Normally during the day there is one car on our road but as you can see a lot of people are self distancing by working from home.

Pictures of our back garden.  As you can see today is a beautiful Spring day and I think Phil was right in that it is an early Spring.

DH mowed the lawn yesterday, the first of the season, it always makes the garden look better.  The big conifers on the left of the picture is the next job we are tackling as although they are slow growing they have over-grown so need lopping and thinning.  Hopefully next weekend we can get this done.

The tree with the roots on the deck has come from the front and we will be planting it at the back of the garden next weekend too.

Treacle enjoying the Spring sunshine.

I know I show you this every year but I just love this primula.  I love the colour and the fact it is so pretty at this time of year.

It is at the base of the Wisteria which has one chance to flower again this year otherwise I will be digging it up and replacing it!!!!!  We gave it a good trim two years ago and since then it has been sulking!!!!

Treacle has found one of her footballs!

“Hi Mom, picture time”!!!!!

The right, above, and left, below, gardens on the patio which are just starting to wake up after the wet Winter.

This side looks dreadful at the moment but will come alive in a few weeks/month’s time.

DH has arranged for a delivery of compost so I will be able to plant some things and I have bought some seeds on line to be delivered too.  Trying to do all we can not to go out unless absolutely necessary. 

One of the blogs I follow did a post about how she had an online lunch date with her friend.  They had lunch in their homes and then spoke to each other on the phone at the same time.  She is looking into setting up Skype. I thought this was a great idea to connect with friends whilst still being responsible. 

We have been keeping in touch with friends, who are in the vulnerable group, to make sure they are okay and have all they need and our family to just make sure all are well at the moment. 

I will keep posting every day with happy things, because as the situation is dire for a lot of people at the moment, you don’t need any more from me.  Thank you for stopping by and I hope you find a few minutes of peace here at my Blog.  Stay Safe All.

Hugs & Love, Susie xx