Historic Nottingham - Part 9 - Castle Gate (East)
w/e 13 January 2008
All this week's pictures were taken with a Kodak DX6490

Resuming our walk through some of the streets of Historic Nottingham, we are about to enter Castle Gate as we head back towards the castle. Our objective will be met in the next and final part of the series that is following the route as described in Malcolm Sales' book "100 Walks In Nottinghamshire". We will see the western end of Castle Walk in the next part but all of the photos in both Parts 9 and 10 were taken on the same day. Unfortunately that day was a wet one and I had to dodge from one side of the street to the other to seek shelter and to try and keep the rain off the lens. Apologies in advance if any raindrops show up. Since our last visit, Christmas has come and gone, the trees seen in this view back to Low Pavement have lost their leaves and the inclement weather meant that there were far fewer shoppers about. Whether any of those shoppers noticed the sign over the door of Weavers' shop in Castle Gate, I'm not sure but it reads as follows: "Site of the family business of Geoffrey Trease, an innovative children's author who made history come alive (1909-1998)". Trease's family were wine merchants but after an education at Nottingham High School and Oxford University, Geoffrey went on to publish 113 books, many of which were translated for foreign markets.

Geoffrey Trease is well known for his children's historical novels but a few years before he was born another Nottinghamshire author famed for literature of a more mature nature, worked in the factory next door. A green plaque shows that D. H. Lawrence was employed as a junior clerk in Haywood's Surgical Goods factory which stood on the site in 1901. An information board in Castle Gate also records this fact adding that it was his first job and that the site is now occupied by W. H. Smith's. Smith's have since moved out, the building now being occupied by New Look. D. H. L. (1885-1930) described his time at the factory in "Sons and Lovers".

On the opposite side of the road stands the Congregational Centre which dates from 1863 although this was built on the site of the first non-conformist church in the city that opened in 1689. The same information board mentioned above also states that Nottingham has a long, honourable tradition of religious dissent. Part of the Centre now houses a Christian Book Shop and the information board makes mention of the fine and detailed brickwork on the façade of the building.

Back on the other side of the road are some more old buildings. The one to the right of centre was built about 1750 with the one further right with the red car outside is from 25 years later. This is 19 Castle Gate and it was built by William Stanford who is also recorded in history as having donated half a hogshead of ale to assist in the celebrations in 1789 when King George III regained his sanity.

Many of these old buildings are finely embellished and the decoration above the doorway of 19 includes an ox-skull and drapery representing Greek and Roman pagan altars. Switching back once more to the north side of Castle Gate and a variety of architectural styles come into play but the two brick built properties in this picture both date from the eighteenth century.

We have now reached roughly the half way point of our walk along Castle Gate and a glance back will reveal more eighteenth century constructions on the south side of the road. In general this view will have changed little over the years but the view to the west which we shall be seeing in Part 10 will reveal some significant differences. A well-intentioned but unsympathetic twentieth century civil engineering project cut a swathe through the city to create the dual carriageway of Maid Marian Way bisecting Castle Gate in the process. A picture from the 1950s (link) showing the street before the construction work is available on the Picture The Past website where there are also many more images of the area. Most of these old buildings shown in this, the next and preceding parts are now protected as listed buildings and again, relevant searches at the Images of England site will reveal not only further pictures of them but many architectural details too. For example, here is the link for 29 and 31 Castle Gate pictured above. In the concluding part however we will continue along Castle Gate (right) on both sides of Maid Marian Way and finish back at Nottingham Castle. Back To Part 8  Historic Nottingham Index  Forward to Part 10

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