the Parliament by setting up his standard at Nottingham, and during the ensuing Civil War the castle was held by each of the two parties more than once. In 1644 it was dismantled by Cromwell’s orders.
Henry II. granted the first extant charter, which confirmed to the burgesses the liberties they had under Henry I., referred to a market on Saturdays, and forbade the working of dyed cloth, except in Nottingham, within ten leagues of the borough. This was confirmed by John, who also granted a gild-merchant. Henry III. allowed the burgesses to hold the town in fee-farm, and Edward I. granted them a mayor and two bailiffs, one to be chosen from each borough. Henry VI. confirmed all preceding privileges, first incorporated the mayor and burgesses, and granted that the town, except the castle and the gaol, should be a county of itself. Two sheriffs were to replace the two bailiffs. This charter remained, except for temporary surrenders under Charles II. and James II., the governing charter of the corporation until the Municipal Act of 1835. Nottingham returned two members to parliament from 1295 until 1885, when the number was increased to three. Edward I. granted an eight days’ fair in September and a fifteen-days’ fair in November, the last altered by Richard II. to a five-days’ fair in February. Two other fairs were granted by Anne; one large fair, Goose Fair, is still held. This begins on the first Thursday in October and lasts three days. The markets on Wednesdays and Saturdays are held by prescriptive right. Besides the Reform riots of 1831, Nottingham witnessed in 1811 the Luddite disturbances. In 1870 Nottingham was made the seat of a suffragan bishop of the diocese of Lincoln, but as it is now in the diocese of Southwell there is no suffragan bishopric.
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, or Notts, an inland county of England, bounded N.W. by Yorkshire, W. by Derbyshire, S. by Leicestershire and E. and N.E. by Lincolnshire. The area is 843·4 sq. m. The N. is included in the great plain of York, and in the extreme N. there is some extent of marshes. The valley of the lower Trent and that of the Idle are also very flat. In the S.W. between Nottingham and Warsop, the undulations swell into considerable elevations, reaching near Mansfield a height over 600 ft. This district includes the ancient Sherwood Forest (q.v.). Some portions of it are still retained in their original condition, and there are many very old oaks, especially in the portion known as the Dukeries (q.v.). The county generally is finely wooded, although to the E. of the valley of the Soar there is a considerable stretch of wolds. The principal rivers are the Trent, the Erewash, the Soar and the Idle. The Trent, which enters the county near Thrumpton in the S.W., where it receives the Erewash from the N. and the Soar from the S., flows N.E. past Nottingham and Newark, where it takes a more northerly direction, forming the N. part of the E. boundary of the county till it reaches the Isle of Axholm (Lincolnshire). The Soar forms for a short distance the boundary with Leicestershire, and the Erewash the boundary with Derbyshire. The Idle, which is formed of several streams in Sherwood Forest, flows N. to Bawtry, and then turns E. to the Trent.
Geology.—All formations, from Lower and Middle Coal Measures, overlain unconformably by Permian, to Lower Lias, crop out successively eastward across the county, with a general but slight dip away from the Pennine uplift. The strike of the Carboniferous rocks veers from S. to E. in the S.; that of younger formations bends to S.W. The Coal Measures, about 3000 ft. thick, continue the Derbyshire Coalfield. A boring at Ruddington proved the lowest measures, underlain by Millstone Grit. The remaining Lower and Middle Measures below the important Top Hard Coal, with the Kilburn, Main, Deep Hard and Soft Coals, crop out in the south and along the Erewash Valley; higher strata farther N. All these consist of shale, clay and little sandstone. They contain Carbonicola acuta, C. robusta, Neuropteris heterophylla, Alethopteris and Lepidodendron, showing essentially non-marine conditions. But several thin marine beds occur. The highest measures, divisible into red Etruria Marls, Newcastle Sandstones and a red sandy Keele series have been proved underground in eastward succession. A thin basal breccia, a sandy and marly group, the Magnesian Limestone with Productus horridus and Schizodus obscurus (granular dolomite typically, its upper part locally a dolomitic sandstone, the Mansfield building-stone), red gypsiferous Middle Marls, an Upper Limestone, and Upper Red Marls, collectively 550 ft. thick in the north of Nottinghamshire, terminate a Permian outcrop continuous from Durham, but dying out at Nottingham. Only the lowest divisions persist so far. The more extensive Trias overlaps southward on to the Carboniferous. Its lower sandstones (Bunter, 600 ft. thick, consisting of Lower Red Sandstone with breccias, and Pebble Beds; Keuper Waterstones, 200 ft. in the east, mainly brown sandstones, conglomeratic at the base and containing the fish Semionotus) form an undulating wooded district. Higher red and pale green Keuper Marl (700 ft.), with subordinate sandstones and gypsum, makes a low agricultural tract on the E., traversed longitudinally by the Trent. Black Rhaetic shales succeed with Pteria (Avicula) contorta, Protocardium rhaeticum and bone-beds, below light-coloured marls and limestones (“White Lias”). Lower Lias, almost up to the Semicostatus zone, crops out within the county. The basal Planorbis zone contains argillaceous limestones, worked for hydraulic cement at Barnston, and saurian remains. Of two types of Glacial boulder-clay, mainly confined to the Triassic and Jurassic clays on the E. and S.E., one containing Carboniferous and some extraneous boulders probably came with the Pennine ice from the N.W. The other, uppermost where both occur, and full of chalk and flint, belongs to the Chalky Boulder Clay of the North Sea ice. Glacial gravels cap the higher ground of the Triassic sandstones. Church Hole, one of the Magnesian Limestone caves of Creswell Crags, yielded remains of cave-lion, bear, mammoth, rhinoceros, &c. Older river-gravels flank the asture land of the Trent alluvium.
Climate and Agriculture.—As the higher regions of Derbyshire and Yorkshire attract the rain clouds, the climate of Nottinghamshire is above the average in dryness; thus, the mean annual rainfall at Bawtry is 23·57 in. and at Nottingham 26·83 in. On this account crops ripen nearly as early as in the S. counties. The soil of about one-half the county is gravel and sand, including Sherwood Forest, where it inclines to sterility, and the valley of the Trent, where there is a rich vegetable mould on a stratum of sand or gravel. The land along the banks of the Trent is equally suitable for crops and pasture. The farms generally are of moderate size, the great majority being under 300 acres. Most of the immediate occupants are tenants-at-will. Roughly four-fifths of the total area is under cultivation. Apples and pears are grown in considerable quantities, but there are not many orchards of large size. Shorthorns are the favourite breed of cattle, and dairy farming is considerably prosecuted. The old forest breed of sheep is almost extinct, Leicesters and various crosses being common.
Industries.—Coal is mined chiefly on the S.W. border of the county near Nottingham and near Mansfield; there are also mines near Worksop. Clay, sandstone and limestone are also extensively raised. The lace and hosiery industries are of old establishment in the county, Nottingham being the principal centre. There are silk, worsted and cotton mills. A large number of hands are employed in machinery works, and the cycle and motor manufacture of Beeston is important. The manufacture of tobacco and cigars is considerable at Nottingham and Hucknall Torkard.
Communications.—The main line of the Midland railway touches the S.W. border of the county, with an alternative route through Nottingham, and branches thence N. through Hucknall and Mansfield to Worksop, to Newark and Lincoln, from Mansfield to Southwell and Newark, &c. The main line of the Great Central railway serves Nottingham and Hucknall. That of the Great Northern railway serves Newark and Retford, with a branch to Nottingham and local lines in that vicinity. A branch of the Great Central railway, formerly (till 1908) the main line of the Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast railway, enters the county on the W. from Chesterfield, and crosses the Dukeries by Ollerton to Dukeries junction (G.N.R.) and Lincoln. The Sheffield-Grimsby line of the Great Central crosses the N. of the county by Worksop and Retford. The Trent is navigable throughout the county, and the Idle between Bawtry and the Trent. The principal canals centre upon Nottingham.
Population and Administration.—The area of the ancient county is 539,756 acres, with a population in 1901 of 514,578. The area of the administrative county is 540,123. The county contains the city and county and municipal borough of Nottingham (pop. 239,743), and the municipal boroughs of Retford or East Retford (12,340), Mansfield (21,445) and Newark (14,992). The urban districts are Arnold (8757), Beeston (8960), Carlton (10.041), Eastwood (4815), Hucknall Torkard (15,250), Hucknall under Huthwaite (4076), Kirkby in Ashfield (10,318), Mansfield Woodhouse (4877), Sutton in Ashfield (14,862), Warsop (2132), West Bridgford (7018), Worksop (16,112). For parliamentary purposes the ancient county is divided into four divisions (Bassetlaw, Newark, Rushcliffe and Mansfield), each returning one member; and the parliamentary borough of Nottingham returns one member for each of its three divisions. There are one court of quarter sessions and seven petty sessional divisions. The boroughs of Newark and Nottingham have separate commissions of the peace, also separate courts of quarter sessions;
