You think you know a place. Nottingham, after all, isn’t the biggest or most flash of cities. Nationally it can get overlooked for the bigger powerhouse cities north, west and south, and many people in Britain still aren’t sure whether it’s even in the north or the south.
But we all know the good old place like the back of our hands don’t we? Well maybe. But we’re sure that you don’t know some of the more eccentric stories about the city, from the spooky tales of haunted old houses, to the modern day rogues that have called Nottingham their home.
1. In the 1930s and ‘40s one of the world’s most iconic motorcycles was manufactured right here in Nottingham. From a factory originally on Haydn Road, linking Sherwood and Basford, and later Vernon Road, George Brough designed and manufactured the Brough Superior, described as the “Rolls Royce of motorcycles”. The Superior gained a cult status among early motorbike lovers the world over. Not least one T.E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, who made several trips to Nottingham in search of the only bike that would do, the motorcycle, as he put it “with a touch of blood in it”.
Lawrence of Arabia’s favourite motorbike was made here
2. Cult British movie buffs of all generations know the classic foppish comedy Withnail & I. But few seem to know that the character of Withnail was based more than loosely on a real actor, Vivian MacKerrell, who was born and raised in Nottingham. In the 1960s MacKerrell was a friend of Withnail writer director Bruce Robinson, the two lived together in a flat in Camden on which the fictional drinking den is based. The legendary scene in which Withnail the character finds out the flat is empty of alcohol and improvises by gluggin lighter fuel instead is based on a real life incident in which MacKerrell resorted to the same desperate measure - losing his eyesight for two days. Later in life MacKerrell became friends with not-yet-world-famous fashion designer Paul Smith. In 2006 Paul Smith agreed to redesign the seating and decor at one of the screen rooms at Broadway Cinema. The first film shown in the newly-refurbished screen room was Withnail & I.
The real life Withnail is from Nottingham
3. It’s well known that Charles I raised his standard at Nottingham Castle, effectively marking the start of the conflict now known as the English Civil War. A little street running uphill from the gatehouse to Nottingham Castle, Standard Hill, bears a plaque signifying the moment. Charles could not peer into the future and see the doom that awaited him then: the bloody conflict that followed would be lost, along with his head. But there was another fateful event that day, which now looks like a harbinger. When a violent storm whipped around the city of Nottingham later that night, the silk flag, Charles’ standard, raised just a few hours earlier, was ripped from its pole. One of the King’s Earls noted afterwards that “a general sadness covered the whole town, and the king himself appeared more melancholic than he used to be”. Charles was executed less than seven years later. He did see Nottingham again on his last fateful journey, to trial: defeated he was marched through the town in chains, past the spot where his fate had been made on a dark and stormy night in 1642.
A dark and stormy night in Nottingham signalled doom for Charles I
4. The striking bust of liberal MP for Nottingham and slavery abolitionist Samuel Morley makes for a grand entrance to the Arboretum from Waverley Street. Morley was a major figure in his day, achieving a high place among 19th century reformers within the Whig, later Liberal party. His efforts to encourage education and literacy in the early Victorian era were pioneering - Morley founded the United Kingdom’s first ever children’s library, on Shakespeare street - and his pronouncements against slavery, and war, make him an illustrious child of the city he represented in Westminster. It is a shame then that more care wasn’t taken in transporting Morley’s homage: the original was dropped, causing the stone to shatter into several pieces. Fortunately the head and shoulders of the statue remained intact, and there it stands, as an improvised bust.
The Samuel Morley bust in the Arboretum used to be a complete statue
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