In 1513 a grammar school was founded in Nottingham.
However in the 1530s Henry VIII closed the leper hostels and the friaries.
Robert Smythson, who lived from 1535 to 1614, built Wollaton Hall in 1588. In Nottingham
traditional industries such as the manufacture of wool declined. The pottery
industry continued. Tanning declined in the late 17th century. However new
industries, including making silk or wool hosiery, had started to boom by the
late 17th century. The making of malts, using is brewing beer, also flourished.
Another new industry in Nottingham was glass making.
Glass windows were rare in the Middle Ages but they became common in the 17th
century. So did brick houses. In the 1600s many of the houses in Nottingham
were rebuilt in brick with tiled roofs. By the early 18th century it was an
elegant town with many fine buildings.
Nottingham grew steadily despite outbreaks of plague,
which occurred throughout the 16th and early 17th century. The last outbreak
was in 1667. By 1600 Nottingham probably had a
population between 3,500 and 4,000. It probably rose to about 5,000 by the late
17th century. In 1642 the English Civil War began when King Charles I raised
his standard on a hill north of Nottingham and called on men to join his cause.
Nevertheless in November Parliamentarian troops occupied Nottingham.
They held it for the rest of the war despite attacks by the royalist army in
June 1643 and January 1644. In 1651, after the war, Parliament ordered that the
castle should be destroyed to prevent it ever falling into royalist hands. In
1674 The Duke of Newcastle bought the site and built a mansion there between
1674 and 1679.
18th Century Nottingham
From the late 17th century salt glaze stoneware was made in Nottingham.
In the 18th century the hosiery industry boomed. There was also a lace industry
although it was quite small. Nottingham grew rapidly
especially in the later 18th century. By the middle of the century the
population of Nottingham had passed 10,000. By 1801, the
year of the first census it exceeded 28,000. By the standards of the time Nottingham
was a large and important town. For the well-to-do it was elegant and genteel.
In the 18th century there was a piped water supply although it was expensive and
not many people could afford it. From the 1760s oil lamps lit the streets. The
first theatre in Nottingham was built in 1760. A general
hospital was built in 1782.
19th Century Nottingham
The town continued to grow rapidly, especially after 1845 when a great deal
of land around it was released for building. A cholera outbreak in 1833 killed
330 people. However conditions improved by the later 19th century. Nottingham
acquired gas street lighting in 1819. In the mid-19th century the piped water
system was taken over by the corporation and was greatly expanded. After 1835 Nottingham
had its first proper police force. A new prison was built in Nottingham
in 1846. The railway first reached Nottingham in 1839.
The first public library opened in 1868. University
College was formed in 1881. In the
late 19th century the corporation created parks and recreation grounds. The
hosiery industry continued in the town. Nottingham also
became famous for lace. A lace-making machine was introduced in 1809. Some new
industries began, including the making of cigarettes and bicycles.
Modern Nottingham
Electric trams began running in Nottingham in 1901. Nottingham
University was founded in 1948. In
1952 a statue of Robin Hood by James Woodford was erected by the castle. In the
late 20th century the main industries in Nottingham were
textiles, tobacco, bicycles, pharmaceuticals and printing.