Bright extravagant costumes, loud music, dancing and big smiles were the order of the day as Nottingham held its annual Caribbean Carnival today.

The big parade wound its way through the city, starting at Castle Gate and ending-up at the carnival site on the Forest Recreation ground. There the festivities continued with music, fairground rides and Caribbean, African and Asian cuisine.

For more pictures of the parade, take a look at my Nottingham Caribbean Carnival Flicker Set

Prudentia on the Prudential Building

The statue on the front of the Prudential Assurance building is Prudentia, one of the four cardinal virtues.

Prudentia is more commonly depicted with a mirror, but Alfred Waterhouse, the architect, preferred snakes.

The Roman numerals translate to 1848 – the year that Prudential Assurance was founded

The current bridge is the third known bridge to cross The Trent at this point.  The first bridge was built around 920 and the second one in 1156.  This second bridge was constructed from stone and had more than 20 arches and had a chapel to St James at one end.  A small section of this medieval bridge has been preserved and is still visible on the south bank

Part of the Medieval Trent Bridge still exists

The bridge was damaged by flooding several times and in 1863 the Northern section was washed away.  The bridge was repaired, but had by now become so unsafe it was decided to completely replace it.

The Current Bridge

The current Trent Bridge was designed by Nottinghams Borough Engineer, Marriott Ogle Tarbotton. Work started in 1868 and was completed in 1871.  There are three arches, each spanning 100ft. Originally Trent Bridge was 40ft wide, but it was widened to 80ft between 1924 and 1926.

For many years, both old and new bridges stood side-by-side and even after the old bridge was demolished, locals would talk about ‘going down the bridges’.

Detail of the decoration on Trent Bridge

I’ve recently been exploring the two large graveyards in Nottingham, Rock Cemetery on Mansfield Road, and The General Cemetery at Canning Circus. It was while I was at The General Cemetery today, that I came across the above bizarre sight.  As the tree has grown it has begun to engulf the headstone next to it – breaking it in the process.

As well as being very strange, this is also a poignant reminder of how fragile life was in Nottingham 150 years ago.  The father died age 40 and three young children, all aged under 8, followed him. Two of the children died within a week of each other. Judging by the quality of the headstone, these were not poor people either.

Infant mortality was rampant at this time, something that you cannot help be reminded of as you wander around these two cemeteries.  Figures collected between 1844 and 1850 showed that 44% of all deaths were children below the age of 5.

The current building dates from 1823  and continued to be an alms house until 1991

Plaque above the doorway of Plumptre Hospital detailing its history. The inscription reads:

PLUMPTRE HOSPITAL
Founded and endowed for the support of a Master,
a priest, and thirteen poor Widows,
By John de Plumptre, A.D. 1392.
Repaired by Huntingdon Plumptre, Esq., 1650
By John Plumptre, Esq., A.D. 1751
By John Plumptre, his son, A.D. 1753.

First stone of the present Hospital was laid on the
First Day of August, A.D. 1823 By the Rev. Charles Thomas
Plumptre, Rector of Claypole In Lincolnshire, on behalf
of his father, John Plumptre, of Fredville In the county
of Kent, Esq., the Master or Guardian of the said Hospital,
And a descendant of the Founder.

The arms of the Plumptre family. The motto is 'Sufficit Meruisis' - 'it is enough to serve'.

]]> http://nottinghamviews.wordpress.com/2010/02/28/plumptre-hospital/feed/ 1 nottguy Plumptre Hospital, Nottingham Plumptre Hospital, Nottingham - Inscription The arms of the Plumptre family. http://nottinghamviews.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/setting-up-the-wheel-of-nottingham/ http://nottinghamviews.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/setting-up-the-wheel-of-nottingham/#comments Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:22:48 +0000 Adam http://nottinghamviews.wordpress.com/?p=127 ]]> Nottingham’s Wheel makes a welcome return to the Old Market Square in time for the third Nottingham Light Night

The main reason I’ve decided to resurrect this blog is the loss of the very thing that initially piqued my interest – the Montague Burton Heads.

Montague Burton Heads

Until recently this pillar stood outside the Broad Marsh bus station.  It was taken down during the renovation of the area.  Unfortunately some of the heads fell apart during the process as they were only being held together by the brickwork.  The four top heads were saved and they were put aside in case anyone wanted to preserve them for historical reasons.

Then the area they were being stored was broken into and the heads were stolen.  The council reported the theft to the police but don’t hold out much hope for their recovery.

Even if they are recovered, it seems that no-one wants them anyway.  Ken Brand from The Nottingham Civic Society said “I don’t think they were really worth saving. They had broken noses, broken chins and so on. I don’t want to get too nostalgic about this.”

I’m very sad that this story has such a unhappy ending, however.  As well as being a link to the area’s history, the pillar was such a random and quirky feature.  I’m sure that many people have passed it in the past an thought, “Why is it here?” – just as I did.

You can read more about the loss of the heads at the BBC web site.

Exchange Walk by Mat Rhodes

Mat Rhodes uses a technique called High Dynamic Range (or HDR) to create amazing pictures of familiar places in Nottingham.  The process involves taking three pictures at different exposures and then merging them together.  With HDR photography you get a much wider range between light and dark areas on the image compared with normal images.

Click on the picture above to see more pictures by Mat Rhodes on the BBC web site.

The Sneinton Dragon stands at the junction of Manvers Street and Sneinton Hermitage in Nottingham. It was unveiled on 21 November 2006

Made from stainless steel it is 7 feet tall and its wingspan is 15 feet.

Local craftsman Robert Stubley spent 3 month sculpting the piece after residents of Sneinton were asked by the Renewal Trust what they would like to see as a piece of public art to represent their area.

The Original Sneinton Dragon

In 1914 Robert Mellors wrote about Sneinton:

For more than half a century there has existed in certain parts of Nottingham a monster who has devoured in the first year of their lives a large number of infants, and, what is worse, probably an equal number who have survived have dragged out a pitiable existence in weakness, small in stature, deformed, or anaemic, with diseases, lack of energy, unable to maintain themselves, and therefore dependent on others or the public charge; and, worse still, some have had a natural tendency to vice or crime.

…

Who is this monster, and what is his name ? His name is SLUM.

Robert Mellors, Old Nottingham suburbs: then and now, 1914.

It was not until the 1930s that the slums of Sneinton were cleared to be replaced by new housing and the wholesale market

Today I took pictures from the same positions (as near as I could get) to show how much Arnold has changed in the last 15 years.

This picture shows the junction of Worrall Avenue and Front Street, just after the demolition of Suttons Farm – the last farmhouse on Front Street to go.

And the same view today:

The view down Front Street from Arnold market in about 1993.

Today it looks like this:

Looking down towards King George V playing fields. Arnold market is on the left.

And today: