Nottinghamshire is a beautiful county, inhabited by wonderfully creative minds which have given and continue to give Britain and the world many remarkable things. From some of the world's best writers and poets to inventors and one very famous outlaw (yes, we are claiming him), this gem in the East Midlands has changed a lot, and for the better.
Here are 10 significant things that originated right here in Nottinghamshire. Obviously we haven't included everything, so feel free to share your best-known gifts Nottinghamshire has given the world in the comments.
1. Some of Britain's most important Ice Age discoveries
There's a little limestone gorge in the northern reaches of the county that has quite the history. Creswell Crags, in Worksop, was thought of as a 'gateway to hell' by our ancestors, and today it is known for its archaeological marvels.
Over the years archaeologists have uncovered the bones of woolly mammoths, hyenas, bears and wolves as well as hundreds of rare cave engravings inscribed to 'protect people from witches and evil spirits'. These witch marks, only revealed to the world in the last few years, were described as one of the most significant finds in British history.
Rebecca Morris-Buck, the engagement and programmes manager at the site, says the gorge is one of the most important Ice Age archaeological sites in the UK. The caves were once home to Neanderthals around 50,000 years ago, as well as woolly mammoths and woolly rhinos which, would you believe it, roamed the region before becoming extinct.
2. Precursor technology for the Harrier jump-jet
British engineering prowess is widely-documented and respected across the world, and the East Midlands has historically been at the forefront of many significant developments. Perhaps one of the most fascinating engineering feats is the Harrier jump-jet technology, which allowed aircraft to perform vertical take-offs.
Today the Harrier is considered the forgotten hero of the Falklands war, and it was engineers based right here in Nottinghamshire that helped bring it to fruition. The very first prototype of the vertical take-off aircraft made its maiden flight at Hucknall Aerodrome on August 19 in 1953.
The pioneering and experimental aircraft, officially coined the Rolls-Royce Thrust Measuring Rig (TMR) and more colloquially 'the flying bedstead' due to its appearance, was the first of its kind in the world. Local historian and theatre consultant Bob Massey was just nine years old when he saw the flying bedstead take to the skies freely alongside some of the aviation world's elite, and the tech would later go on to be used in the legendary Harrier.
3. HP Sauce
The original recipe for HP Sauce was developed by Frederick Gibson Garton, a grocer and shopkeeper from Nottingham. He thought up the recipe for the legendary sauce in his grocery shop in New Basford, and it would soon go on to become famous across the country, particularly during the Great War when food shortages prompted the need for something with a bit of a punch to make meals as tasty as possible.
According to the Museum of Brands, he registered the name HP Sauce in 1895. Mr Garton overheard a restaurant in the Houses of Parliament had begun serving it, and so the bottle labels carried a picture of the Houses of Parliament in the years following.
The Museum of Brands says: "In 1903 Garton sold the recipe and HP brand for the sum of £150 and the settlement of some unpaid bills to Edwin Sampson Moore, the founder of the Midlands Vinegar Company (the forerunner of HP foods)."
4. The largest oak tree in Britain
Thought to be up to 1,000 years old, the Major Oak in Sherwood Forest is Britain's largest oak tree. Its canopy spread is around 28 metres, while it has a trunk circumference of 11 metres and an estimated weight of 23 tonnes, making it a hefty piece of history with legendary status.
The giant was just this year selected as one of 70 ancient trees from around the UK which were awarded a place in the Queen’s Green Canopy, a 70th Jubilee programme to inspire the planting of new trees across the country. It is also believed to have been the hideout of one figure who we will get to later in this piece.
Sadly, the world-famous pedunculate oak was subject to 'sacrilegious' vandalism in 2020, but fortunately it lives on.
5. DH Lawrence
Eastwood-born writer and poet DH Lawrence is recognised internationally for his work, which was considered unorthodox at the time. He is today famed as one of the first working-class novelists, having been the son of a coal miner, and he had practised his craft by visiting his local library, showing just how important these venues can be to up and coming talent from different backgrounds.
Lawrence felt forced to flee the country upon the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, having run off to marry his German lover, and the wife of his former Nottingham university professor, Frieda von Richthofen. It was a period in his life he termed the 'savage pilgrimage' and his work would document these travels as well as his life in Eastwood before them.
Lawrence became gravely ill while away with malaria and TB, and he died in France on March 2, 1930.
6. Ibuprofen
Dr Stewart Adams became a world-famous chemist upon his development of the painkiller ibuprofen. He helped invent the pill while working at Boots in Nottingham.
Dr Adams left school at the age of 16 and went on to study pharmacy at the University of Nottingham. Eventually, he landed a job at Boots Pure Drug Company in 1952.
He soon began researching substances which could have a pain-killing effect on rheumatoid arthritis and he conducted much of this work in a Victorian house in West Bridgford. Over a period of 10 years, Dr Adams and his team tested various compounds, many of which failed, before they discovered 2-(4-isobutylphenyl) propionic acid (ibuprofen).
It was licensed in 1969 as a prescription drug. Dr Adams died at the Queen's Medical Centre in 2019 at age 95.
7. The MRI
Sir Peter Mansfield was awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with Paul Lauterbur, for discoveries concerning Magnetic Resonance Imaging following his invention. The first MRI machine was only big enough to fit a finger in, but they grew in size and are now widely used by doctors looking at brain tumours, Parkinson's and strokes.
The inventor, a University of Nottingham professor, died in 2017.
8. Boots
Drugs, of the positive kind, were beyond the reach of most people before agricultural worker John Boot opened a shop in Nottingham’s Lace Market in 1849. The dinky herbalist’s store in Goose Gate was at first coined the British and American Botantic Establishment.
After John’s death in 1860, his widow Mary ran the shop with the help of their son, Jesse, who would go on to assume control of the business in 1877 at the age of 27. He was determined to make medicines affordable to all.
By 1885 he had developed manufacturing facilities at Island Street in Nottingham and, the following year, he met and married Florence Rowe, the daughter of a bookseller from Jersey. In 1888 the firm was re-named the Boots Pure Drug Company and in 1892, the flagship store was opened on Pelham Street in Nottingham.
Together, Jesse and Florence began to develop the concept of Boots shops as department stores.
9. Robin Hood
Legend has it outlaw Robin Hood lived in Sherwood Forest and used the aforementioned Major Oak as his hideout alongside his band of merry men. Historians have long tried to pinpoint his origins, with Yorkshire attempting to claim him for their own.
Some tales of old point towards his presence in Barnsdale Forest in West Yorkshire, but there's no getting rid of the age-old story of his battles with the Sheriff of Nottingham. The rebellious hero even appears on our flag.
10. Tarmac
Not necessarily the most fascinating thing on the list, but perhaps the most widely-used. Notts county surveyor Edgar Hooley was passing a tarworks in 1901 when he noticed a barrel of tar had been spilled and, to reduce the mess, someone had dumped gravel on it.
A year later he patented the process - and the first road to be tarmaced was in West Bridgford.
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