This major new study of Nottingham over the past one thousand years is the most comprehensive account of the city's development ever produced. Nottingham's past is studied from its Anglo-Saxon origins to the modern industrial and commercial centre of the late twentieth century.

Nottingham's history has encompassed more than Robin Hood, lace, Luddites and Lawrence, bikes, baccy and Brian Clough. Founded as an Anglian settlement on the north side of the River Trent, Nottingham's royal castle placed it at the crossroads of England and English history through the medieval centuries and during the English Civil War.

The Useful Knowledge of William Hutton shows the rapid rise of a self-taught workman and the growing prominence of the city of Birmingham during the two major events of the eighteenth-century - the Industrial Revolution and the Enlightenment. Hutton achieved wealth, land, status, and literary fame, but later became a victim of violent riots. The book boldly claims that an understanding of the Industrial Revolution requires engagement with the figure of the 'rough diamond', a person of worth and character, but lacking in manners, education, and refinement. A cast of unpolished entrepreneurs is brought to life as they drive economic and social change, and improve their towns and themselves. The book also contends that the rise of Birmingham cannot be understood without accepting that its vibrant cultural life was a crucial factor that spurred economic growth. Readers are plunged into a hidden provincial world marked by literacy, bookshops, printing, authorship, and the spread of useful knowledge. We see that ordinary people read history and wrote poetry, whilst they grappled with the effects of industrial change. Newly discovered memoirs reveal social conflict and relationships in rare detail. They also address the problems of social mobility, income inequality, and breath-taking technological change that continue to perplex us today.

Weird, spooky, gruesome, humorous, and strange but true stories come alive in The A-Z of Curious Nottinghamshire. ‘Curious’ is perhaps not the first word you would use to label Nottinghamshire. But ‘curiouser and curiouser’ itbecomes when you dig below the surface. Here the reader will meet highwaymen and hangmen, saints and martyrs, flying cars and bedsteads. To sum up, eccentrics, legends, folklore, murders, scandals, ghosts, incredible characters and oodles of wow factor, all may be found within the pages of this book.

Professor David Bebbington is a highly regarded historian. He holds a chair at the University of Stirling, has been President of the Ecclesiastical History Society, and has delivered numerous endowed lecture series, as well as being deeply involved in the Dr Williams’s Dissenting Academies Project. He is both a popular and influential academic historian, whose writings have significantly shaped our thinking about the history of evangelicalism, Baptist life, and political developments. In Pathways and Patterns, colleagues, former research students and friends who are indebted to Professor Bebbington and value his contribution to scholarship join together to pay tribute to his outstanding work. Not only has he stimulated academic endeavour, he has also given much personal support, not least to those in the Baptist Historical Society and in Colleges, among them Spurgeon’s College and Baylor University (USA) where he is a Distinguished Visiting Professor. This volume reflects his wide involvements and the grateful esteem in which he is held. Among Professor Bebbington’s achievements has been both instituting and masterminding the very important International Conference on Baptist Studies (ICOBS), held every three years in different parts of the world. It is appropriate, then, that this volume was presented to him at the Seventh ICOBS Conference held in Manchester, July 2015.

Sample Text

NOTTINGHAM: THE BURIED PAST OF A HISTORIC CITY REVEALED covers the story of the part of the city which was known as Nottingham during Medieval times. It is an accessible read and the ideal book for anyone with a general interest in the history of the city of Nottingham. However, it will also suit professional archaeologists and students alike due to the large amount of previously unpublished material. Key points to be discussed include Nottingham Castle, the churches and friaries of the Medieval period, the Medieval town wall, Nottingham's manmade caves, the industries which took place in Saxon and Medieval times, as well as little known facts such as Nottingham's connections to the Vikings. This book also offers some possible answers to the never before published mysteries which archaeological work has uncovered such as the large burial site in the city centre and a mysterious village or suburb which briefly existed just outside of the city centre in the 14th century.As featured in the Nottingham Post and on BBC Radio Nottingham.