Did You Know?

Nottingham is a city in central Midlands region. It’s known for its role in the Robin Hood legend and for the hilltop Castle Museum and Art Gallery, rebuilt many times since the medieval times.

Many celebrities and well-known personalities have a long association with Nottingham – the Boot family, founders of Boots the Chemists pharmacy, Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson, poet Lord Byron, fashion designer, Sir Paul Smith, and Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice.

Not for the faint of heart. The Caves of Nottingham are a network of endlessly winding passages below the streets of the city. It boasts the UK’s largest network of over 800 subterranean caves that has history chiseled into its limestone structure

There's a mysterious metal line that runs down the middle of Old Market Square in Nottingham; it marks the wall that used to divide the animal market from the grain and commercial market way back in the day. 

Every single Bramley apple is descended from the same tree in a Nottingham garden. Bramley apples are so popular in Japan that in 2012 a group of Japanese tourists flew to the UK specifically to visit that tree.

The Hollywood hit film 'The Dark Knight Rises' features Wollaton Hall in Nottingham as the Wayne Manor. Though Wollaton Hall had always enjoyed great popularity as a city attraction. 

One of the most unusual facts about Nottingham is where its name comes from. Around 600AD, the town was under the control of an Anglo-Saxon tribe called the Snotingas, where the chief was called ‘Snot’, meaning caves. They called the town ‘Snotengaham’, or literally ‘the homestead of Snot’s people’.

Now, many inns across the country clamber for this title so we can’t be 100% sure it’s definitely the oldest, however Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem claims to have been established in 1189. It sits beneath the cliff just under Nottingham’s historic castle.

The Goose Fair, today, is most famous for its rides and attractions. However, it is an interesting fact that this fair has actually started as a livestock trading event in 1284. The festival became widespread, primarily due to the excellent cheese served. Today, this fair is very famous and attracts almost half a million visitors each year. It is Europe’s largest travelling fair.

Here's one of the most interesting fact. John Peake was a British railway manager who specialised in designing of signalling systems for the railway network. After continually reading about road accidents, Peake decided to apply his knowledge of railway signaling systems on the road. In 1866, he created a basic system to control the traffic. This first traffic light was installed at Bridge Street in Westminster, London. Had it not been for Peake, we would have been living a very chaotic world.