Sneinton and Me 5 - Nottingham Spreads Into Sneinton

• Whereas in other areas at this time growth was brought about by migrants from Nottingham, driven out by conditions and prices in the town, the growth of New Sneinton was one and the same with the growth of the town. Houses built some distance away on John Musters' land at this time were of a better quality than those on Lord Newark (aka Lord Manvers)'s land which shared the poor quality of adjacent houses in the town.

Fig.1 

According to Mellors, a few houses were built at New Sneinton in 1804 (1); he elaborates no further than this and acknowledges no source for his information. H Wild's map of 1820 shows a few buildings to the East of Carlton Road and Sneinton Road, standing on John Musters' plot 13 (Fig.1). Also shown is the road leading from Sneinton Road to Bond Street and West Street.

Fig.2 

Unfortunately the map does not extend to cover any more than this, and it is difficult to know how far the building extended at this time. Some indication is given by H M Wood's map of 1825. (Fig.2) This shows that the grid of streets comprising North Street, South Street, West Street, Bond Street and Haywood Street has been laid out but is largely free of buildings, beyond the few shown on Wild  's map and a couple of blocks on Bond Street and North Street.

There are no buildings at all in the area on the enclosure map of 1796, and so if Mellors' 1804 houses do exist it is reasonable to suppose that they are among those shown on Musters' plot 13. The pre-1820 houses were at that time a good distance from the town, and would have been situated amongst gardens and orchards on elevated ground and at this time, therefore, perhaps deserved the title, 'handsome village'. But building in earnest began around 1825, when the building line crept eastwards past Water Lane and Carter Gate, to the River Beck and the Sneinton Boundary.

Fig. 3 H M Wood's Map 1825
Showing the 1820 building
line in red

H M Wood's map of 1825 shows the grid of streets on Musters' plot 13, mentioned above, and it also shows that Lord Manvers' plot between the Beck and Sneinton Road had been prepared for building. A couple of houses had been already erected on plots at the corner of Manvers Street and Old Glasshouse Street (now Southwell Road), and at the corner of Manvers Street as far as the Beck. Pierrepont Street had been laid down to join Water Lane and Sneinton Road, passing to the South of Earl Street. Manvers Street had been laid between its junction with Glasshouse Street and the intersection with Pierrepont Street. Pomfret Street had been extended across the Beck and the Sneinton boundary as far as Manvers Street, and Eyre Street continued its route to Sneinton Road.

In 1820 the block between Old Glasshouse Lane and Pennyfoot Stile appears to to have had building in progress upon it, and similarly the block between Gedling Street and Old Glasshouse Lane. By 1825, in the former block, houses had been erected along the full length of Pomfret Street, white Street, Earl Street and Stanhope Street, and were crowding up against the Sneinton boundary along the West side of the Beck. In the latter block, Nelson Street, Pipe Street, Brougham Street, Sheridan Street and Finch Street had been completed. Building had progressed as far as it could to the Northeast in this block, for beyond the row of back-to-backs on the North-eastern side of Finch Street lay the Clay Field. To the Southeast of the block lay Earl Manvers' close.

Earl Manvers began to dispose of this close of land in 1823 and early 1824. The Nottingham Journal carries advertisements offering for sale building land in lots of 200 to 1000 yards. 

'The whole will be laid out with spacious streets, commanding an immediate communication from Fisher Gate, to the upper part of New Sneinton, and affording most desirable sites for private dwellings, factories or malting offices'  (2)

 The land was sold, according to Mellors (who gives 'papers in the hands of Mr W F Grundy' as his source) subject to conditions that the houses built in Sneinton should be not less than three storeys high above the surface of the ground and must have 'front bricks and sash windows'. (3) The streets were set out as being 24, 27 or 30 feet wide (4). This land was of rather poor quality, being low and difficult to drain. It fetched 11s6d to 24s9d per square yard (5) – not as high as that inside the town (36s at its highest rate) but considering distance from the town and the poor quality of the land, not a bad price.

Mellors regrets that 'The care exercised in [the conditions upon building] was not accompanied by any forbidding cellar kitchens or back-to-back houses or narrow entries or insanitary arrangements (6). And it is interesting to compare the housing on Musters' plot 13 with that on Manvers' as it stood in 1828-9. Chapman rightly observes that the proportion of back-to-back houses in the area was lower than that in the town: what back-to-back housing does exist, exists largely in Manvers' plot. Byron Street and Camden Street show that Musters' land had no covenant prohibiting back-to-backs (unlikely anyway at this time). Musters' land is of a better quality than Manvers', being elevated, surrounded by open country and isolated from the lower part of the town. So it seems reasonable that a fair standard of building would be erected in order to attract the higher rents paid by those who could afford to be more selective in their choice of area. Manvers' plot, on the other hand, is different from the lower part of the town only insofar as it was under different ownership, and lay across the trickle of water known as The Beck, and across the Sneinton boundary. Thus the building between Sneinton Road and The Beck, and in particular that between Manvers Street and The Beck, can be regarded in everything but name as an extension of Nottingham's lower congested area.

The first buildings to appear on Manvers' close were at the junction of Manvers Street and Southwell Road, to the West of of Manvers Street and between Manvers Street and The Beck. These were built by Joseph Nall, a local builder, who bought the land in 1824. They are shown on Wood's map of 1825 (Fig.3). The plot measured 40ft in length and 20ft wide at its narrowest end. Nall managed to cram four houses into this space (7, Fig.4). These were 'through' houses, surrounding a tiny courtyard whose Southwest facing side was blocked off by the building across The Beck. (Which as yet was not culverted.)

 

Fig.4

Wood's map of 1825 needs to be handled with care with regard to Sneinton. It seems that the map must have been surveyed fairly early in the year and, because of the building activity which took place in Sneinton during that year, omits much that can claim to have been there in 1825. By the end of 1825, the whole of the land bounded by Southwell Road, The Beck, Pomfret Street and Manvers Street had been built upon (8, Fig. 4), although this is not shown to be the case by the map. The block measured 216ft x 50ft x 220ft x 20ft, and contained thirty houses: eighteen of them paired into back-to-backs, facing upon Manvers Street and Pomfret Street on the outside and Beck Yard on the inside. These back-to-backs were a continuation of those already built in White Street and Pomfret Street. They were of the standard three-storey design, arranged in terraces backing onto each other so that they had only one wall not shared. This style, says Chapman, was widely adopted in Nottingham between c1784 and 1830 (9).

Fig.5

They were coming onto the market by mid-1825:

'To be sold by auction … all those 17 freehold dwelling houses (newly erected and substantially built) in Pomfret Street and White Street in the town of Nottingham … [producing] an annual rent of £166 per annum: and also, all those 14 freehold dwelling houses adjoining to the last mentioned messuages and situated in the parish of Sneinton … producing an annual clear rental of £145 …' (10).

Press advertisements also show that property was coming onto the market in the Pierrepont Street and Kingston Street areas, which are not shown to be built up by Wood's map of 1825:

'Six newly erected dwelling houses situated in Kingston court, near Pennyfoot Stile, five storeys high, all in the hands of good tenants; are very substantially built, well-timbered, and have a pump of good water for the use of the estate. Each house has a low kitchen, house place [living room?] chamber [bedroom], workshop and attic.' (11).

This seems to be a good example of estate agent double talk: no buildings in the area could have been described as being five storeys high. Ground floor, bedroom, workshop and attic or 'cockloft' was standard. The matter seems to be resolved by the vendor's inclusion of the 'low kitchen' into the height above ground of the dwelling. The low kitchen would have been a basement or half-basement kitchen such as those which irritated Mellors. The workshops were built 'for the accommodation of twist machines.'

As with Manvers' plot, Wood's map is also misleading about Musters' land on the other side of the road. Press advertising shows that at least one large block in the South Street area of plot 13 was tenanted at the beginning of 1826. The advertising bears out the suggestion made above that there was a difference of standard between Manvers' plot adjacent to the Nottingham boundary and Musters' plot, higher and having one side looking over the Clay Field. In February 1826 a block fronting onto South Street containing houses, a brewery and a malthouse was offered for sale, ready tenanted (12). The houses were described as being ' … commodious … with gardens … bake-houses, front shops, factory adjacent thereto, and outhouses'.

Fig.6 1881 OS 25 inch
___ Sneinton - Nottingham Boundary

Examination of the 1881 25 inch OS map of the area (Fig.6) and of Staveley and Wood's, shows that the portion of the Water Lane – Pierrepont Street – Sneinton Road – Glasshouse Street block which lies in Nottingham and outside Manvers' plot is comprised totally of back-to-backs very closely packed. That part of Manvers' plot lying between Manvers Street and The Beck, and which has already been discussed, is composed of two thirds back-to-backs, while the 'throughs' are very closely packed. The story is similar with that part of Manvers' plot which lies between Manvers Street and Sneinton Road. There are 'throughs' with adequate yard space at the junction of Manvers Street and Southwell Road (then Old Glasshouse Street), and also a row of 'throughs' with rather less yard space along Sneinton Road. Behind these facades lie the tiny courts and back-to-backs. Thus Manvers' plot seems to have been much the same as the congested lower town, with the addition of a few more desirable residences along the new, wide, roads.

Fig.3  1881 OS 25 inch map
showing part of Musters' plot 13

Examination of the same maps shows that Musters' plot contained only through houses at this time, all with adequate yard space, and, if the advertisement is right, some with gardens. These were bigger than the back-to-back type, and, with windows running along the sides of their workshops, could accommodate more lace machines. Nearly all of these survived until 1958, when they were removed during slum clearance (See Photos 1 - 4).

The vendors' descriptions of property on Musters' plot are generally more fulsome than their descriptions of property on Manvers' – going into details of scenery and elevation, employing adjectives such as 'commodious' and 'spacious', and are 'suitable for retirement' (13). They are unlikely to be subject to 'annoyance from other erections' (14). 'Substantial' and 'well built' is about as far as anyone goes in describing property on Manvers' side.

How much was paid in rent by those living in the area is difficult to discover, as is the case, apparently, with Nottingham as a whole at the time. Chapman has compiled a table, from what evidence exists, of rents paid for working class housing in the city. (Table 1).

Table 1

Rents charged for working class houses in Nottingham 1825-50
	2 Storey	3 Storey	Houses of a 'Better Sort'
1825	-	2s6d	-
1829	1s6d	-	-
1833	2s3d	-	3s6d
1845	1s6d	2s2d	3s0d
1850	1s9d	2s2d	-
Source: Nottingham Review 30 September 1825, 17 April1829, 28 February1845, 25 January 1850; Nottingham Journal 8 November 1833

The only evidence of the rents paid in Sneinton is that given by the advertisements for investment property, and most of these are only useful with regard to property on Manvers' plot. What evidence there is suggests that rents for back-to-back houses were around the 4s0d mark – a very high sum indeed, compared with Chapman's average. They all come in the three storey category which Chapman prices at 2s6d. There may be some explanation for this high figure (which is based on flimsy evidence anyway) however. This was the time when the boom in house building was at its height, and when the lace trade was most prosperous. All the new property coming on the market was ready-tenanted, suggesting no shortage of demand. The district was most definitely predominantly occupied by lace makers (see below table 2), who at this time could afford high rents and were a causal factor in the housing boom. Further, Chapman's figure is an average, and it could be a misleading average, for it may consist of two widely different basic elements. As he himself says, the highly prosperous lace-makers of the 'twenties occupied different properties to the depressed frame-knitters: 

'Inevitably this divergence of fortune was reflected in housing conditions. … By the early 1830s the two social groups lived in houses of different sizes and qualities, but also in different parts of the town … the lace hands lived and worked in the upper storeys of substantial houses … in the approaches and the back streets … and the better houses of the lower town … numbers of them moved out into the new industrial villages. The framework knitters lived in the more obscure courts and alleys. Descriptions obviously refer to … back-to-backs built in the first stages of industrialisation'. (15)

The difference in rent paid by these depressed knitters and the rents paid by lace hands for newer, better, property could account for an average which approaches neither.

 

As to the basic stimulus for the growth of New Sneinton in the 1820s it can be safely said that it was the boom in the lace trade. On the sheets of signatures to the agreement to limitation of hours organised by Felkin in 1829, there are signatures belonging to 87 owners who give their address as Sneinton.

According to White's Directory of 1832, the number of new houses built during the decade was 'upward of a hundred' (16). The appearance of 87 machine owners and of 100 houses simultaneously can only mean that they were occupying the new houses – all of which (except for the small number of larger middle class houses) had second floor workshops.

The signatures are of no help in placing the owners: addresses are merely given as 'Sneinton', 'New Sneinton', or 'Old Sneinton'. White's Directory is of some little help however, giving addresses (in 1832) of 56 bobbin net makers (17). The majority - 37 - of these have their addresses on Musters' plot 13 (Table 2). Only 5 are definitely on Manvers' land.

Table 2

Distribution of Bobbin-net makers at New Sneinton as listed in White's Directory 1832
Windmill Hill	11	These are on Musters' Plot 13.
North Street	7
Bond Street	6
South Street	9
West Street	2
Haywood Street	2
Pierrepont St	4	These are on Manvers' land.
Manvers Street	1
Sneinton Road	8	These could be on either Musters' or Manvers' land depending on which side of the road they are.
Carlton Road	6

Even considering White's Directory and the hours agreement together, however, there is little in the way of hard conclusions to be had. Lace machine owners are not necessarily bobbin net makers, and frequently bobbin net machine operators rented their machines or operated them for a middleman.

What information can be had? Felkin's list (18) tells us that the 87 owners had between them 152 machines. One owner had eight, one six and a number, four. 45 had one, and there was a fair proportion of owners of two or three. There was no sharing of machines.

It is reasonable to suppose that those owning one or two machines operated them themselves, possibly with the help of employed hands, in their own homes. This may well be the case with owners of three machines (19). The owners of four or more machines would certainly have had machines and work farmed out to other operators in other houses, and there is nothing to rule out the possibility that they did not operate them at all themselves – perhaps even living in the larger middle class houses near the old village.

If the criterion of ownership of two machines or fewer is applied in classifying owners who operated their own machines in their own homes, this makes, according to Felkin's list, 73 owner-operators. White's list is obviously incomplete, which is to be expected of a county directory anyway, and which fact is shown up by comparison of the population figures and the number included in the occupations guide. Some sort of selectivity must have taken place. Bearing in mind that the practice of farming out machines and work was common enough, and also bearing in mind that the owner-operator would be a person of greater substance than an employed operator, perhaps it can be said that this selectivity operated in favour of those operators who owned their own machines. These would be the sort of people solicited for inclusion – or who would apply for inclusion. From this and from the fact that the greatest number of bobbin net makers in White's Directory occupy houses on Musters' plot 13, a tentative conclusion may perhaps be drawn. Assuming White's Directory to be selective in favour of the more prosperous lace-machine operators, there are additional grounds for believing that the area which grew up on Musters' plot was 'better' than than that which grew up across the road on Manvers' plot. The suggestions are that there were larger, more spacious houses, fewer back-to-backs and, if the reasoning and evidence in the previous paragraph are sound, a higher number of people with capital of their own, i.e. bobbin-net machines, on Plot 13 than on Manvers' plot.

***

Sneinton, a small village a mile or so to the East of Nottingham, took its first major step on the road to becoming an urban quarter in the 1820s. In the Nottingham area was concentrated an industry organised as a domestic outwork system. The industrial revolution gave a tremendous boost to this industry which, as a making-up industry, was able to profit from the abundance of cheap factory-produced yarn. A degree of prosperity in a domestic industry gave rise to a building boom of considerable proportions in the middle of the decade. A building boom in a city which could not expand outwards on most of its perimeter caused a high degree of congestion within the city. As pressure built up within the Nottingham boundary, the building line burst through into Sneinton, adjacent to Nottingham, and unencumbered by old open field restrictions.

 

Basically then, the first phase of Sneinton's growth differed from the first phases, occurring at the same time, in the growth of other areas which now form quarters of Nottingham, such as Hyson Green, Radford and Carrington. Whereas in these areas growth was brought about by migrants from Nottingham, driven out by conditions and prices in the town, the growth of New Sneinton at this time was was one and the same with the growth of the town. In quite a literal sense, Nottingham spread into Sneinton.

Having said this, there are some small grounds for considering the possibility that Sneinton Road formed a sort of demarcation line with an area more akin to the 'handsome villages' on the eastern side, built on Musters' plot, and a continuation of Nottingham's congested lower area on its western side, on Manvers' land.

 This study is by no means an exhaustive study of Sneinton's first growth phase. A long and detailed study of all the deeds to the area, which are becoming available as demolition progresses, is a priority. Perhaps when this is done, the next phase in the history of Sneinton, with the hard times in the lace industry of the late 'thirties and the 'forties, and with the degeneration of the area into a slum, can be considered.

***

Map Accompanying the Sneinton Enclosure Act 1792

(Note: Lord Newark became Earl Manvers in 1806)

Development within Enclosure plots by 1829: 

12, 13, 14 - John Musters,

15, N - Lord Newark (i.e. Earl Manvers) 

Staveley and Wood's Map, surveyed 1829, published 1831

Map accompanying a flyer for a land auction, August 1835

This plan shows Nottingham's buildings crowding up against Sneinton's boundary at the River Beck; across on the other side, Lord Newark is selling his next trenche of building land. It is a fascinating glimpse into events as they happen - lanes, footways and hedges are still there, streets are conjectural and the east side of Manvers Street is 'Subject to future decision'. Surveyors have been out measuring and draughtsmen have divided up the fields into numbered plots ready for the builders to come and bid for them. See photo 1 for an example of what was built on it.

(Note: this map did not appear in the original dissertation as it was discovered some years after it was submitted.)

Photo 1:  Manvers Square, pictured in 1931, a typical enclosed  court with tunnel entrance, on Manvers' land, shown as already built in the flyer of 1835 (above)   

The map below shows Manvers Square in its location at the corner of Pierrepont Street and Manvers Street.

Photo 2:  Manvers Square as shown on the OS large scale town plan of 1882. 
  

Photo 3:  Houses on Bond Street, Musters' plot 13, prior to demolition 1950s

Photo 4: Houses on Musters' land at the junction of North St and Carlton Rd in the 1950s showing large upper storey workshop windows

Photo 5

Photo 5 shows the corner of Manvers Street and Southwell Road - the site of Joseph Nall's houses.

.

Wood's 'Gas Bill' map of 1841, accompanying an act of parliament for supplying gas to  the areas beyond the town, shows development progressing on Manvers' land.  Also, there are houses at Sneinton Elements at the end of Windmill Lane, and at the junction of Carlton Road and Alfred Street - the Clarence Street area. The map also demonstrates the restricting effect of the unenclosed commons - soon to be addressed by an enclosure act in 1845.

H M Wood's 'Gas Bill' Map 1841

End of the Dissertation

But for more of Sneinton and me scroll down and select 'Newer post' or the Left arrow.

Notes

1/  op.cit p.10

2/ Nottingham Journal 27th December 1823 and subsequent issues to 31st January 1824, also 5th June 1824

3/ibid, and deeds to property at At Manvers St. Central Library Archives
 4/ Ibid

5/ Ibid
6/  Ibid/

7/ Deeds to the property at City Library Archives M21,385 to M21,4145; 
8/ The above deeds and also deeds to 6-26 Manvers St, and Beck Yard 1-5 inc.; Manvers St 28-34 (even); M21,436-21,503; M21,467-M21,485
9/  op.cit p.140 (Revision)

10/ Nottingham Journal 28th May 1825

11/  op.cit 8th October 1825

12/ Nottingham Journal February 2 1826

13/ Nottingham Journal 20th November 1824

14/ op.cit 22 April 1826

15/ op.cit p.151 (revision)

16/ p687

17/ p689

18/ Which, in view of the fact that it so narrowly missed the 7/8 majority can be regarded as being almost a complete list. The better houses were sometimes advertised as having room for 3 machines, e.g. Nottingham Journal 8th October 1825

19/ The better houses were sometimes advertised as having room for 3 machines, e.g. Nottingham Journal 8th October 1825

Maps:

H Wild, 1820

H M Wood, 1825

Wood's Gas Bill Map

Staveley and Wood, surveyed 1829, published 1831 Staveley and Wood's Map of Nottingham, surveyed 1828-9, published 1831: a high resolution download is available at

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nottingham_Map_1831_by_Staveley_and_Wood.jpg

OS 25 inches to 1 mile, OS Large Scale Town Plans and many others can be seen at the National Library of Scotland's brilliant interactive collection of historic maps at: https://maps.nls.uk/

Photos:

Picture Nottingham at 

https://picturenottingham.co.uk/

Sneinton and Me 4 - The Building Boom of the 1820s and its effect on Sneinton due to Failure to Enclose Nottingham's Fields

• For a period of twenty years Nottingham's only spatial expansion consisted of a north-easterly advance into the parish of Sneinton.

In his examination of building activity in England in the nineteenth century EH Cooney bases his estimates upon the importation of lath wood - oak or fir cut to size for laths for roofing and plastering - which can safely be said, unlike other commodities, to have been used exclusively for building purposes (1). He considers that brick production, being subject to the effects of speculation, can be an untrustworthy indicator. As far as the period considered here is concerned, however, his estimates based on lath wood imports give results which confirm estimates based on Shannon's index of brick production (2). Both these indicators show that during the period 1815 to 1849 peaks and troughs occurred in building activity roughly every ten years. Major peaks occurred in 1825 and 1836.

The local press gives evidence of a high degree of building activity in Nottingham during the mid-twenties. J and S Walker, builders, of Chapel Bar advertised in May 1825: 

'The present state of the trade in Nottingham rendering more bricklayers necessary, 30 or 40 good hands from a distance may be directed to regular employment...' The advertisement was directed to journeyman bricklayers (3). 

John Taft advised that his Stapleford brickyard was '… stopped from being a sale yard at present' in order to protect his regular customers and those with orders at the time outstanding (4). Chapman reports that brick prices rose from 30s to £3 per thousand mid decade (5) and land in the town was fetching 36s per square yard.

Fig.1  H M Wood's Map 1825

Examination of H M Wood's map of 1825, and Staveley and Wood's of 1828-9, indicates that building must have continued at a great rate after 1825 (Fig.1, Fig.2) – perhaps indicating that the abnormally prosperous conditions in the lace trade and the home-based nature of its organisation produced a plateau of building activity rather than the peak experienced by the country as a whole. The brickyard at Mapperley was only developed for brick production after 1825. (6)

Fig.2  Staveley and Wood's Map
 1829-31

The increase in building in the town itself as shown by comparison of the two maps is very considerable. There is a general increase in the density of building in the town, almost every area showing signs of additional building in the 1828-9 map. The block surrounding St Peter's church, bounded on the North side by Timber Hill and Poultry and on the South by Low Pavement, is shown by comparison of the maps of 1825 and 1828-9 to have been filled during that period with a warren of courts and alleys. 

Fig.3  1825 - H M Wood's Map

Similarly, the block bounded to the North by Carlton Street, to the East by Stoney Street, to the South by Low Pavement and the West by Bridlesmith Gate has been packed during those years to a very high density indeed. (Fig.3, Fig.4)

Fig. 4  1829 - Staveley and Wood's Map

Indicative of both the high demand for premises and the effect of the non-enclosure of the fields is the drastic increase in the number of courts between 1825 and 1829. Nottingham had its courts before the late 20s of course. There are, on Wood's map of 1825, a number of them dotted about: behind and to the North of Long Row for instance (the area reported by Chapman to have been congested with working class dwellings by 1784 – see above), and to the North of Rick's Gardens and in the vicinity of Plumptre Street there are fully enclosed courts, and there are a fair number of three-sided courts, for instance to the East of Rick's Gardens. But on Staveley and Wood's map of 1828-9 it is difficult to find a block which does not consist of courts. Open spaces and gardens have been filled in by houses arranged around courtyards; and this is clearly the period when the 'notorious Nottingham practice' of blocking the open end of a courtyard with an extra dwelling grew. The practice meant the existence of numerous dwellings whose only out-facing side faced into a completely enclosed yard whose only access was by a tunnel entry of about 30-36 inches (76-91cm) width.

The map below shows clearly the effect of the housing boom and the failure to enclose the fields upon the spatial development of the urban area and upon the growth of New Sneinton. This colour shows the building line of the year 1820 along the North-eastern and Eastern sides of the town. This colour shows that while the line had not advanced any further outwards, some deep breaks in the line, such as those to the East and to the West of Richmond Hill, and in the vicinity of Pipe Street, had become infilled, making the line rather smoother. This colour shows that the building line had remained completely static during the following four years along almost its entire length, except where it came into contact with Sneinton parish. And here, a considerable advance had taken place, the line pushing out along Carlton Road and including a new block of buildings bounded by Carlton Road, gardens a little to the North of North Street, Haywood Street, and Sneinton Road. In addition, there was another block of houses at the junction of Sneinton Road and Windmill Lane, around Notintone Place. This colour shows that by 1841 the building line had continued to remain static except along that portion adjacent to Sneinton, where further considerable advance had been made. The blocks at the Carlton Road end of of Sneinton Road and at the Windmill Hill Lane end had been joined into one large block which had then advanced further into the gardens of Sneinton. In addition again, a new block had appeared at the junction of Long Hedge Lane (now Gordon Road) and Clarence Street.

Thus for a period of twenty years, Nottingham's only spatial expansion consisted of a North-easterly advance into the parish of Sneinton. Progress was arrested along he rest of the building line, and the other growing areas were centred upon villages some distance from the town. It is, therefore, more proper to speak of the building of the New Sneinton area as being a continuation of the growth of Nottingham than to speak of it as a phase of growth occurring in a village due to conditions in the town. New Sneinton was, at this time, half a mile or so from the village of Old Sneinton.

Base map: Staveley and Wood - surveyed 1829, published 1831

The building lines are based on:

1820 - H Wild's Map

1825 - H M Wood's Map*

1829 - Staveley and Smith's Map

1841 - Dearden's Map

*Wood's Map needs handling with care because it lags behind the rate of building in the town (above, passim).

Detail from Dearden's
Map 1841

'Brunswick Circus'

Detail from Dearden's map, showing the area between Carlton Road and Long Hedge Lane (later Gordon Road)

This is not, in fact, the layout of the eventual development. There was, instead of Brunswick Circus, Clarence Crescent and a different arrangement of the streets. The actual development can be seen on any of the large scale OS maps later in the century. (And I can remember it.)

This factory - unpowered - in the Clarence Street area, was revealed during demolition in the 1970s.

To go to the next chapter scroll down to the end and select 'newer post' or the Left arrow

Notes

1/ 'Long Waves in Building in the British Economy of the Nineteenth Century' in Econ. History Review 2nd series, vol.8 no.2 p.257 

2/ Ibid. p.258

3/ Nottingham Journal 7th May 1825

4/ op.cit 30th April 1825

5/  op.cit p.150 (Revision)

6/ Nottingham Journal 29th January 1825 and subsequent issues.

From Nottingham City Library, Local Studies Dept:

H Wild's Map 1820

H M Wood's Map 1825

Dearden's Map 1841

Wood's Gas Bill Map 1841

Staveley and Wood's Map, surveyed 1828-9, published 1831: High resolution download available at:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nottingham_Map_1831_by_Staveley_and_Wood.jpg

Photo of old factory: WhysWhys

Sneinton and Me 3 - Graft on the Corporation and Spatial Expansion

 

Burgesses control the land surrounding Nottingham - prevent the outward expansion of the town in order to profit from land values in the town - leads to congestion and squalor - housing starts to appear in parishes at a distance and in Sneinton Parish where it abuts the town for a short distance.

White's Directory for 1832 says that,

'... the population has, during the last 30 years, nearly doubled itself, and the increase would have been much greater if the 12000 acres of burgess pasture land which nearly encompasses the town could have been sold or leased for building purposes. Within the last ten years almost every vacant piece of land that was suitable ... has been built upon.' (1)

Nottingham's open fields remained unenclosed until 1845, in which year the opposition to enclosure by the dominant Whig group on the corporation was broken by the efforts of an enclosure movement led by the Nottingham waterworks engineer Thomas Hawksley (2). Opposition to enclosure was due, in Hawksley's opinion, to the fact that, 

'... several influential members of the corporation are extensive owners of the small houses inhabited by the working classes in the worst conditions districts, [sic] and have repeatedly avowed their hostility to the principles of enclosure under ... the ... impression that their property would sustain permanent injury by the erection of better, more healthy, and more comfortable dwellings on the enclosed lands' (3)

There were two results of this failure to enclose. First, land values in the town rocketed as land became scarce. With the increasing demand for accommodation, congestion in Nottingham reached a point which prompted an investigator of the Health of Towns Commission in 1844 to describe Nottingham's housing situation as the worst in the country. (4) Second, the spatial expansion of the town was arrested, leading to the appearance of new developments outside Nottingham and beyond the fields, as the more prosperous artisans and middle classes sought better conditions in which to live. 

Evidence exists of these effects of the pressure of demand for building land before the turn of the nineteenth century. The Nottingham Journal in 1789 reported a case indicating the lengths to which developers would sometimes go in order to profit from the situation: 

'Within the last few years past, entire lands about this place being very scarce and difficult to obtain, and general increase of inhabitants holding forth a prospect of advantage ... to builders ... some of the closes immediately contiguous to the town have been bought at a very high price, and the purchasers ... have taken the opportunity of building several homes thereupon ... ' (5) 

Prompt retaliation in the form of a committee for the 'vindication of Burgess' rights ensured the demolition of these houses, and no further spatial expansion of the town took place until after enclosure.

In 1796, Benjamin Darker, a needle maker, built a row of thirteen back-to-back houses on the land made available by the Lenton enclosure act of that year, at Sion Hill (now Canning Circus) beyond the Sandfield and in the parish of Radford (6). In the boom years of the 'twenties and 'thirties of the next century, satellite communities grew up at New Radford, New Lenton, Carrington, Hyson Green and New Sneinton. 

Fig.1

New Sneinton differs, however, from the others, and it is perhaps inaccurate to describe it as a satellite community. The other places were satellite communities in that they centred upon villages some distance away from the town and beyond the open fields. White describes the open fields as 'nearly encompassing the town'; the fields did not completely encompass the town because on its eastern side the town bordered upon part of the enclosed land of Sneinton. 

Wood's 'Gas Bill' Map of 1841 (Fig.1) shows very well the  restricting effect of the Nottingham fields, shaded in yellow, and the consequent developments in adjacent parishes.

This situation makes the early development of Sneinton somewhat different from the early development of Hyson Green and the rest.

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Notes

1/ p.75

2/ For more about Mr Hawksley see:

https://whyshistory.blogspot.com/2016/05/whats-your-poison.html?m=0

3/ Quoted by Chapman, op.cit p.156 (Revision)

4 / J R Martin, Second Report of the Health of Towns Commission, appendix, part 2, pp. 249 -257.     quoted ibid p.153)

5/ Sept. 26 1789

6/ Chapman op.cit p.76 (1961)

Wood's Gas Bill Map, 1841: Nottingham City Library, Local Studies Dept.

Sneinton and Me 2 - The Industrial Revolution as a Stimulus for the Growth of a Domestic Outwork System

In Nottingham

• an increase in the availability of cotton and yarn, made possible by industrialisation, led to a boom in domestic framework knitting and lace production - and contributed to a building boom in the early nineteenth century. 

Traditionally it has been considered that a characteristic trend of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was that of a transition from individual self employment as a means of of support to a pool of labour employed for wages. This was the time when inroads were being made into the old type of economy based on self supporting village and family units. New farming methods and enclosures turned villagers into wage earning labourers or dispossessed them completely. The mechanisation of cotton spinning brought the domestic outwork system of cotton spinning to an end, and with no means of providing their own food and with no income from cotton spinning, families moved to the large centres of cotton manufacture becoming employed as wage earning labour in factories.

Developments in Nottingham were a little more involved. Since the invention of the stocking frame locally around the turn of the seventeenth century the stocking frame industry had gravitated towards London. Early in the eighteenth century, however, a movement began away from London and back to the East Midlands as knitters became disenchanted with the irksome and restrictive regulations of the Chartered Company of Frame-Knitters. Distance from London, supplies of wool from Leicestershire and, later, of cotton after the setting up of factories by Arkwright and Hargreaves made the region very suitable for the industry. (1)

The presence of such an industry modified the effect of the industrial revolution upon the labouring classes of the area. Far from there being a depression of the domestic outwork system, there occurred two 'golden ages' in the last two decades of the eighteenth century and the second and third of the nineteenth century.

Factory spinning made available large quantities of worsted yarns and cotton at cheap prices and this led to a rapid growth in the making-up side of the industry. Between 1782 and 1812 the number of stocking frames in Britain increased by 50%. (2) The first boom occurred in the production of hosiery, and this was produced by skilled operators working the hand-operated stocking frame – in their own homes.

As early as 1764 the stocking frame had been adapted to produce lace of an elementary design (3), and it is clear that, with the abundance of cotton and the existence of skilled frame-smiths and operators, there should have been some incentive to develop a frame which could produce the expensive lace net.

The breakthrough occurred in 1808 when John Heathcote perfected his bobbinet machine, which could produce a strong, stable, hexagonal net. (4). In the 'twenties and 'thirties, as the domestic hosiery industry went into a protracted decline, a major boom occurred in the domestic lace-making industry. 

Lace-making was a much more skilled task than the operation of the original stocking frame: the machines were complicated and required constant attention to every thread and moving part. (Perhaps this explains why all the labour force employed on the stocking frames was not absorbed into the lace industry, and is the reason why a large number of stocking-frame knitters existed in the most miserable circumstances alongside the prosperous bobbin-net makers.) Wages were high: earnings for operators during the twenties could vary between 30s and £4 (5). The skilled smiths who built the machines earned £3 - £10 per week. 

An indication of the number of people earning these fabulous wages – at a time when stocking knitters were making 12s a week – can be gained from the sheets of signatures attached to an agreement to restriction of hours in the bobbin-net trade, organised by William Felkin in 1829, and from his comments on the agreement in his book, History of the Machine Wrought Hosiery and Lace Manufacturers (1867). He says in his book that a seven-eighths majority was missed by 55 machines. (6). Owners of 3,307 machines signed out of a total of 3,842 machines existing to Felkin's knowledge. Not all of these were in Nottingham of course, but examination of the signature sheets, which include the owners' addresses, shows that a very large majority were Nottingham based. Further, a large number of the machines not included in the votes in favour belonged to one large out-of-town operator (7). As for frame builders, Chapman quotes a figure of 1500 in Nottingham. (8).

The years at the end of the eighteenth century, then, and the twenties of the nineteenth were periods when there existed artisan elites of highly paid workers: workers who worked within a domestic outwork system. It is therefore to be expected that these people should want, and should be able to afford, housing of a reasonably good standard in which to live and carry on their trades.

This factor needs to be considered in conjunction with another factor: that of population growth. In common with the rest of the country the population of Nottingham began on a rapid upward curve. Blackner says that in 1779 there were 3,556 families in Nottingham (9). An examination of later censuses shows an average of five persons per family. If there were five persons per family in 1779 (and it is unlikely that the figure would have been higher) Nottingham's population would have been around 17,500 persons. The census returns for 1801 give Nottingham's population as 28,861 – an increase of more than a third on the 1779 estimate. By 1821 it was 40,000 and by 1831, 50,727 (10). The population of Nottingham trebled between 1779 and 1831 – and had nearly doubled in the years 1801-31. 

Such a large growth in numbers and the prosperity of the boom years would be expected to have contributed to a large increase in housing accommodation – and such an increase did occur. According to Chapman, by 1784 concentrations of working class housing had appeared to the North of the Old Market Square between Long Row and Back Side (now Parliament Street - see below, (Fig.1), and the ' … peripheral Narrow Marsh and Broad Marsh [areas] were only beginning to emerge as distinct working class districts …' (Fig.2, Fig.3) Even so, Dearden's enumeration of houses suggests that the area contained at least 17% of the houses in the town. (11)

Fig.1  H Wild's Map of the Town of Nottingham, 1820

The real boom in house building occurred in the 'twenties of the next century however. H Wild's map of the town in 1820 shows that a considerable amount of building had taken place since Deering's enumeration (Fig.2). The Leenside area and Red Lion Street area (Narrow Marsh) has been filled with a concentration of terraces and courts packing the area between Red Lion Street and the Nottingham Canal. However, open spaces remain in the area bounded by the triangle between Rick's Gardens in the North and St Mary's church and Pennyfoot Stile to the South. Comparison of this map with Staveley and Wood's map of 1828-9 shows the extent to which building went on during the decade, filling in most of the remaining open spaces (Fig.4).

Fig.2  Narrow Marsh 1820: H Wild's Map of the Town of Nottingham 

Fig.3  Narrow Marsh 1829:Staveley and Wood's Map of Nottingham (surveyed 1829, published 1831)
  

Fig.4(a)  1820 - H Wild's Map

Fig. 4(b) 1829 - Staveley and Wood's map, (published 1831)

Houses in Pennyfoot Street, with characteristic upper storey workshop windows

But before this increase in building activity can be considered in detail, it is necessary to take account of another factor of great importance.

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Notes

 1/ Royal Association, Nottingham and its Region, p.303

2/ S.D. Chapman, 'Working Class Housing in Nottingham During the Industrial Revolution', in Transactions of the Thoroton Society, 1963, p.70)

3/  'Nottingham Lace', in Industrial Nottingham, April 1967, p27

4/  Ibid.

5/ Chapman, op.cit. p.76. His sources include J. Blackner, History of Nottingham, Wm Felkin (see below), and Dearden's Nottingham Directory, 1834 

6/  pp.335ff.

7/ Ibid. - this would possibly be Heathcote in Somerset – and Felkin was Heathcote's agent in Nottingham (Dearden).

8/ op.cit. p.76, source: Nottingham Journal

9/ J Blackner, History of Nottingham, 1815, p.50

10/ White's Directory 1832, p.76

11/  op.cit. p.138 revised 1971 in Symposium: The History of Working Class Housing

Photo of Pennyfoot St: Picture Nottingham at 

https://picturenottingham.co.uk/

Maps: 

H Wild's Map of Nottingham 1820: Nottingham City Library, Local Studies Dept.

Staveley and Wood's Map of Nottingham, surveyed 1828-9, published 1831: a high resolution download is available at

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nottingham_Map_1831_by_Staveley_and_Wood.jpg

Sneinton and Me 1 - Introduction 2025

Sneinton is where I spent most of the early part of my life. When I went to uni I studied the history of working class housing. This entailed a piece of research leading to a dissertation and for this I chose the first phase of Sneinton's growth from a rural village into a densely populated urban area. I loved doing it and it was the start of a lifelong interest.

Recently, I dug it out to help a young relative who was doing a school project. And having done so, it seemed natural to include it in my History blog. It was written over 50 years ago and, while I think the research stands the test of time, some contemporary references may be out of date. And whereas I'm sure the sources I cite do still exist - quite possibly some of the places where I say you can find them don't. But I've added in some more up to date sources too.

With it I have provided supplementary posts giving context. I was writing it at a time of huge urban redevelopment: as I was researching its origins the world I had grown up in was being torn down around me.

I have not uploaded the original, 1974, introductory chapter of the dissertation as it is full of now out of date contemporary material. Odd bits that are useful, I have posted as notes and footnotes.

The Illustrations 

Originally I illustrated the growth of Nottingham and Sneinton by using a series of transparent overlays which could be folded across a base map. As I do not possess the tech to do this online, I have included pictures within the text which, I hope, will serve just as well. 

The Sneinton Enclosure Act

Sneinton's open fields were enclosed in 1796 by an act of Parliament of that year. The principal beneficiaries were the Lord of the Manor, Lord Newark, and John Musters of Colwick Hall. The dissertation deals largely with parcels of land allocated to these two by the act. A map of Sneinton was drawn up to show the holdings of the beneficiaries, and this is referred to as the Enclosure Map. Here's  the relevant portion of the map, showing who owned what.

This is sufficient to provide a bit of background to what follows. It is not my intention here to discuss the enclosure movement in general. There's plenty of information online if you want to know more about it. Lord Newark became Earl Manvers in 1806 and this is how he is referred to in the dissertation. His actual name was Charles Pierrepont. He was also heir to the estate of his uncle, the Duke of Kingston. Basically you can't walk more than a few yards in Sneinton without blundering into something named after him. My grandmother was born on Evelyn Street. He had a brother called Evelyn ... 

The Nottingham Enclosure Act

Nottingham's open fields were not enclosed until 50 years after Sneinton's - for reasons which will become apparent in Me and Sneinton 3.

A word About Money

The changeover from pounds shillings and pence had happened just a couple of years before I did this, so there was no need to explain what it meant in 'new money'. So, if you weren't there at the time:

The Posts

       Sneinton and Me 1 - Introduction 2025 (This one)

Sneinton and Me 2  - The Industrial Revolution as a Stimulus for the Growth of a Domestic Outwork System

•  An increase in the availability of cotton and yarn, made possible by industrialisation, led to a boom in domestic framework knitting and lace production - and contributed to a building boom in the early nineteenth century.

Sneinton and Me 3. Graft on the Corporation and Spatial Development

• Burgesses control the land surrounding Nottingham -  prevent the outward expansion of the town in order to profit from inflated land values in the town – leads to congestion and squalor - housing starts to appear in parishes at a distance, and in Sneinton Parish where it abuts the town.

 Sneinton and Me 4  - The Building Boom of the 1820s and its effect on Sneinton due to Failure to Enclose Nottingham's Fields

• For a period of twenty years, Nottingham's only spatial expansion consisted of a North-easterly advance into the parish of Sneinton.

 Sneinton and Me 5 - Nottingham Spreads Into Sneinton

• Whereas in other areas at this time growth was brought about by migrants from Nottingham, driven out by conditions and prices in the town, the growth of New Sneinton was was one and the same with the growth of the town. At this stage, houses on land allocated to Lord Newark (aka Earl Manvers) were of a poorer quality than those on John Musters' land on the north side of Sneinton Road.

More:

Sneinton and Me 6 - The View From Fifty Years On

Sneinton and Me 7 - Peter Elliot Bate - Property Developer

Sneinton and Me 8 - The Bedsit, Castle Street and Sneinton Hollows

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