Nottingham

Locality
Coordinate	52.954783, -1.158109
Adm. div.	Nottinghamshire
Vicinity	In Nottinghamshire
Type	Settlement
Interest	Literary locale
Status	Extant
First Record	c. 1450

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Nottingham.

Nottingham skyline from Sneinton / John Sutton, 6 May 2016, Creative Commons, via Geograph.

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2013-08-07. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2021-01-07.

Nottingham, the hometown of the sheriff, is the (or a) locale in the vast majority of Robin Hood ballads, beginning with Robin Hood and the Monk (c. 1450). First recorded as "Snotengaham" in A.D. 895, the accepted etymology of "Nottingham" is "[t]he ham [homestead] of the people of Snot", the latter being a man's name.

Allusions

1638 - Braithwaite, Richard - Barnabee's Journal (1)

[Latin text:]
Veni Nottingam, tyrones
Sherwoodenses sunt Latrones,
Instar Robin Hood & Servi
Scarlet, & Johannes Parvi;
Passim, sparsim peculantur,
Cellis, Sylvis deprædantur.

[English text:]
Thence to Nottingam, where rovers
High-way riders, Sherwood drovers,
Like old Robin-Hood, and Scarlet,
Or like Little John his varlet;
Here and there they shew them doughty,
Cells and Woods to get their booty.

Nottingham in the ballads

Date	Source	Nottingham	Sheriff of Nottingham
c. 1500	Gest of Robyn Hode	Sts. 178:3, 205:1. 289:1, 325:1, 332:3, 337:3, 344:1, 354:1, 365:2, 369:3, 370:3, 380:1, 384:3, 422:3, 423:3, 427:1.	Sts. 15:3, 146:3, 282:3, 313:3, 317:3, 329:3.

Gazetteers

• Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), pp. 300-301.

Sources

• Gover, J.E.B.; Mawer, Allen; Stenton, F.M. The Place-Names of Nottinghamshire (English Place-Name Society, vol. XVII) (Cambridge, 1940), p. 13.

Maps

• 6" O.S. map Nottinghamshire XLII.NW (1885; surveyed 1880-81)
• 6" O.S. map Nottinghamshire XLII.NW (1899; rev. 1901)
• 6" O.S. map Nottinghamshire XLII.NW (1920; rev. 1919)
• 6" O.S. map Nottinghamshire XLII.NW (c. 1947; rev. 1938).

Also see

• Nottingham place-name cluster
• Place-names in Gest of Robyn Hode.

Notes

Image gallery

Click any image to display it in the lightbox, where you can navigate between images by clicking in the right or left side of the current image.

• 

  Nottingham skyline from Sneinton / John Sutton, 6 May 2016, Creative Commons, via Geograph.

• 

  Dennis, E T W. Nottingham (67) (Scarborough, [19??]). Multiview photographic postcard (col.). 149 x 105 mm. / HTN collection.

• 

  Reflections of a Bygone Age; O'Brien, Michael, illus. Historic Nottingham (Nottingham Heritage, No. 2) (Keyworth, Nottingham, [s.d.]) / HTN collection.

 Nottinghamshire place-names 

 Place-names