Visit to Nottingham Castle

10th August 2023 Site Visit to Nottingham Castle, Museum & Art Gallery– Tour Guide: Dave Young

Having had Dave’s talk to Club on 27^th July we were looking forward to seeing it on site! 19 members attended on a beautiful sunny day and Dave started by explaining that the Medieval Castle grounds originally covered 10.5 acres (cf. 6 acres on today’s site) this was spread over 3 ‘baileys’ which the levels had been modified over the years. The gatehouse was built by Henry III and the castle walls were twice as high as the current ones, with some deep ditches identified. The river Leen was diverted into the castle grounds. Dave pointed out the statue of Albert Ball VC, DSO & 2 BARS, MC who was a Nottingham born fighter pilot in the First World War. He also mentioned various archaeological digs that had taken place on site, one finding Edward IV’s fireplace under the rubble adjacent to the latrine ditch. He explained that Edward in 1461 was at the Battle of Towton in Yorkshire with 60 000 men fighting all day. Edward won and rode down to Nottingham Castle to declare himself as the 1^st Yorkist King. He spent a lot of his time at the Castle, building some Royal apartments. He appointed his brother Richard as Commander of the Northern Yorkist Army and when he was King, he based himself at the ‘impenetrable castle’, but Henry VII invaded and was heading South, so Richard had to pursue him and did so catching him at Bosworth Fields and losing his life and becoming the last English King to die in battle.

In 1642 King Charles raised his Standard at Nottingham Castle, starting the beginning of the 9 years of Civil War

When Richard Cavendish returned from exile after the Civil War, he gained the title Duke of Newcastle and took a shine to the derelict site of the castle grounds and built the Ducal Palace together with a mason called Samuel Marsh in the Italian Renaissance design. The last grand ball was held here in 1766. During the Reform Act Riots of 1831, the palace was ransacked and set on fire, burning for 3 days and nights.

The Nottingham Corporation took over the place in 1875, commissioning T C Hind to remodel the duke’s derelict palace into an Art Gallery and Museum, opening in 1878. The Art gallery at Nottingham is based on the design of the Louvre in Paris, but obviously on a smaller scale. Dave guided us through the art gallery, pointing out some of the famous local artists and the valuable paintings and Wedgwood pottery they have. He showed us the famous Nottingham Salt Glaze pottery, and Alabaster, fine grained, massive gypsum used for centuries for statuary, carvings and ornaments.

We thanked Dave for the very informative tour we had experienced and our party applauded him in the normal manner.           AR