Sneinton
Encyclopedia
Sneinton is a south-eastern suburb
of Nottingham
, England
. The area is bounded by Carlton
to the north, Colwick
to the south, Meadow Lane
to the southwest and Bakersfield
to the east.
and the Science Centre. Near the windmill there used to stand the now-demolished Nottinghamshire County Lunatic Asylum
, later a boarding school named King Edwards, and now the location of King Edward Park.
King Edwards boarding school was run by famous head master Alfred Tanner and his wife Mary. Many of Sneinton's children were killed in industrial accidents at King Edwards, which stood for 117 years. King Edwards School also employed Sneinton resident Arnold Booth, the infamous murderer who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1977 for the murder of Renee Howard, and rumoured to have murdered Lucy Tinslop, the victim of the infamous 'Birthday girl' murder on the Bath Street rest garden, which took place in 1969.
In 1801 the population of Sneinton stood at just 588. Sneinton was then no more than a village
about a mile outside of Nottingham town centre, standing on a high ridge
overlooking the valley
of the River Trent
. Within just 50 years, however, the population had grown to 8,440 (1851 estimate). With the population continuing to rise, Sneinton was officially incorporated into the borough
of Nottingham in 1877. By 1901, the population stood at 23,093. During World War II
, Sneinton was targeted in air raids. The industrial units on Meadow Lane suffered direct hits.
There is a street named 'Notintone' street, which may be the origin of the name Sneinton. Nottingham first being called SnottingHAM, and the area away from the city inhabited by the local saxons being called SnottingTON by the Normans.
From the mid-20th Century onwards Sneinton absorbed a large influx of immigrants, mainly from the West Indies, India
and Pakistan
, Bangladesh
, Poland
and Africa
. Sneinton is home to a large Pakistan
i population, Sneinton Dale (road) and surrounding streets are home to many Pakistanis. The area still retains its multi-cultural flavour, and has a diverse range of restaurants and stores.
Sneinton has recently enjoyed a renaissance, with many of the old Victorian properties being bought and developed by young professionals. Crime remains a problem in the area with an amount of drug-related crime, car and home burglary. Although a few in Nottingham consider Sneinton to be one of the more dangerous and crime-ridden areas in Nottingham, house prices in the area have enjoyed a healthy rise in recent years. Housing is still slightly cheaper in Sneinton than in Nottingham city centre and some other suburbs of the city, although this might change when the planned urban renewal
projects around Sneinton start.
Sneinton was the birthplace of the mathematician (And Miller) George Green
(born 1793) who lived in a house close to one of the village windmill
s; One of which he owned and worked in. also of William Booth
, founder of The Salvation Army
, and who was born in 1829 in the house which is now The William Booth Birthplace Museum, located on 12 Notintone Place. Another famous son of Sneinton was the bare knuckle boxing
champion, Bendigo
. A public house in the area still proudly bears a statue of the figure above its door, though is now named "The Hermitage". A more recent Sneinton celebrity is the film director Shane Meadows
who lived in Sneinton for many years and filmed some of his early works partly in Sneinton, including Small Town.
Colwick Woods to the East of Sneinton, is a 50 hectare grassland and ancient woodland site that is a Local Nature Reserve
and Site of Special Scientific Interest
. The woodland contains ancient woodland indicator species
such as dogs mercury and ramsons
. The site is rich in mammal species including both species of pipistrelle and noctule bat. There are many well-maintained a nd waymarked public rights of way spanning the site, with numerous desire paths running through the woods. The woods and meadows are very popular with local people for outdoor activities including walking, mountain biking, and other activities and are a fine example of woodland so close to a city centre.
Wheelchair access is only from Greenwood Road to the open grassland at the north end as steep hills are a characteristic feature of most of the site. Greenwood Dale High School shares a boundary with the reserve and educational events have been held in partnership with the school including photographic scavenger hunts and sapling collection. Open days are held in the summer allowing the public to be actively involved with the reserve.
Colwick Woods has an active Friends Group who meet regularly to discuss the condition of the site and carry out practical nature conservation in the woods.
Workshops are scheduled to take place several weeks before the actual event together with young people, most often in local schools and youth groups. The workshops are based around the years theme, creating artwork, decorations and costumes for the Carnival Parade as well as dance and performance workshops. Apart from the paints, adhesives and tools the artwork is made from scrap material - either from the scrapstore
s, members donations, or found items. The Festival Group also organises school competitions to produce the years festival logos, publicity, themed stories or other similar material used for, or displayed during, the Festival week.
Every year the Festival is organised around a different theme, which is used when producing artwork, costumes, performances and also surrounds many of the events themselves. Within these themes the group also tries to focus on community issues such as recycling, differing cultures, use and access to the media, or science and technology.
Previous themes have been:
The Festival Week starts on the Saturday prior to the Carnival Day with seven days of events held in and around the area. They included exhibitions, displays, open days, performance, entertainers, socials, food tastings and multi-cultural events run and developed by local groups and organisations under the co-ordination of the festival committee. The events are free and open to everyone and endeavour to reflect the diversity of the local community and represent cultures, age and gender.
The Carnival Parade on the Carnival Day includes a variety of floats, fancy dress, costumes, event performers, samba bands, jazz bands, youth bands, dancers, jugglers and clowns. The festival then continues in the Hermitage Square when the carnival parade arrives, and features an afternoon of free and diverse entertainment, including music performers, dance groups, circus performers, fire eaters, jugglers, magicians, puppet shows, poetry readings, story tellers, as well as karate, gymnastic, aerobics and sport displays. There are also lots of refreshment available including Asian, Bosnian, West African, French, Italian and Afro Caribbean food, French Crépes and a traditional cake stall.
The festival is organised by the independent festival committee, a volunteer group made up of local residents, representatives of local organisations, community groups, schools, church, youth and play groups, artists, musicians, performers and local project workers. Since 2002 the group has been supported and co-ordinated by the two workers of the Sneinton Community Project.
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
of Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The area is bounded by Carlton
Carlton, Nottinghamshire
Carlton is a suburb to the east of the city of Nottingham in the borough of Gedling. It is close to Sneinton, Bakersfield, Mapperley, and St Anns. It is near the River Trent and has an NG4 postcode...
to the north, Colwick
Colwick
Colwick is a suburb in the east of Greater Nottingham in England. It forms part of the Nottinghamshire borough of Gedling, although Colwick Country Park is actually within the city boundary. It lies between the River Trent and the railway line, with nearby places being Netherfield , Bakersfield ,...
to the south, Meadow Lane
Meadow Lane
Not to be confused with The Meadow, home of Southern Football League Premier Division football team Chesham UnitedThe Meadow Lane Stadium is a football stadium in Nottingham, England...
to the southwest and Bakersfield
Bakersfield, Nottingham
Bakersfield is a small suburb of Nottingham situated in the eastern part of the city. It lies near the suburbs of Carlton, Sneinton, and Colwick.-History:...
to the east.
Description
Sneinton Dale is the main connecting road through the district. The area is famous for the windmill which stands on Sneinton Hill, and harbours Green's WindmillGreen's Windmill
Green’s Windmill is a restored and working 19th century tower windmill in Sneinton, Nottingham.-History:The Mill was built shortly after 1807 by the father of 19th-century mathematical physicist George Green, whose name was also George Green. It is located on the site of a previous post mill and...
and the Science Centre. Near the windmill there used to stand the now-demolished Nottinghamshire County Lunatic Asylum
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
, later a boarding school named King Edwards, and now the location of King Edward Park.
King Edwards boarding school was run by famous head master Alfred Tanner and his wife Mary. Many of Sneinton's children were killed in industrial accidents at King Edwards, which stood for 117 years. King Edwards School also employed Sneinton resident Arnold Booth, the infamous murderer who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1977 for the murder of Renee Howard, and rumoured to have murdered Lucy Tinslop, the victim of the infamous 'Birthday girl' murder on the Bath Street rest garden, which took place in 1969.
History
The original district of Sneinton was built around the brickworks, founded in the nineteenth century, at the eastern end of Sneinton Dale and most of the existing terraced houses date from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The brickworks themselves, however, have long since been demolished to make way for modern housing.Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
about a mile outside of Nottingham town centre, standing on a high ridge
Ridge
A ridge is a geological feature consisting of a chain of mountains or hills that form a continuous elevated crest for some distance. Ridges are usually termed hills or mountains as well, depending on size. There are several main types of ridges:...
overlooking the valley
Valley
In geology, a valley or dale is a depression with predominant extent in one direction. A very deep river valley may be called a canyon or gorge.The terms U-shaped and V-shaped are descriptive terms of geography to characterize the form of valleys...
of the River Trent
River Trent
The River Trent is one of the major rivers of England. Its source is in Staffordshire on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through the Midlands until it joins the River Ouse at Trent Falls to form the Humber Estuary, which empties into the North Sea below Hull and Immingham.The Trent...
. Within just 50 years, however, the population had grown to 8,440 (1851 estimate). With the population continuing to rise, Sneinton was officially incorporated into the borough
Borough
A borough is an administrative division in various countries. In principle, the term borough designates a self-governing township although, in practice, official use of the term varies widely....
of Nottingham in 1877. By 1901, the population stood at 23,093. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Sneinton was targeted in air raids. The industrial units on Meadow Lane suffered direct hits.
There is a street named 'Notintone' street, which may be the origin of the name Sneinton. Nottingham first being called SnottingHAM, and the area away from the city inhabited by the local saxons being called SnottingTON by the Normans.
From the mid-20th Century onwards Sneinton absorbed a large influx of immigrants, mainly from the West Indies, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
. Sneinton is home to a large Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
i population, Sneinton Dale (road) and surrounding streets are home to many Pakistanis. The area still retains its multi-cultural flavour, and has a diverse range of restaurants and stores.
Urban renewal
Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...
projects around Sneinton start.
Sneinton was the birthplace of the mathematician (And Miller) George Green
George Green
George Green was a British mathematical physicist who wrote An Essay on the Application of Mathematical Analysis to the Theories of Electricity and Magnetism...
(born 1793) who lived in a house close to one of the village windmill
Windmill
A windmill is a machine which converts the energy of wind into rotational energy by means of vanes called sails or blades. Originally windmills were developed for milling grain for food production. In the course of history the windmill was adapted to many other industrial uses. An important...
s; One of which he owned and worked in. also of William Booth
William Booth
William Booth was a British Methodist preacher who founded The Salvation Army and became its first General...
, founder of The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
, and who was born in 1829 in the house which is now The William Booth Birthplace Museum, located on 12 Notintone Place. Another famous son of Sneinton was the bare knuckle boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
champion, Bendigo
William Thompson (boxer)
William Abednego Thompson was an English bare-knuckle boxer.-Early life:Born in Sneinton, Nottingham in 1811, Thompson was one of a set of triplets named Abednego, Shadrach and Meshak, after the young men in the Book of Daniel who emerged from the fiery furnace of Babylon...
. A public house in the area still proudly bears a statue of the figure above its door, though is now named "The Hermitage". A more recent Sneinton celebrity is the film director Shane Meadows
Shane Meadows
Shane Meadows is an English film director, screenwriter, occasional actor and BAFTA winner.-Background:Meadows grew up in the Westlands Road area of Uttoxeter, Staffordshire. His father was a long distance lorry driver and his mother worked in a fish and chip shop...
who lived in Sneinton for many years and filmed some of his early works partly in Sneinton, including Small Town.
Sneinton Market
Sneinton Market is an open air market in the British tradition; it is situated at the western end of Sneinton, where the district meets the city proper and next to the Nottingham Arena. There are plans to regenerate the market, as a part of the Eastside regeneration project. Already, new businesses have opened up around the market. A European style food market in the area closed in September 2009.Colwick Woods
Local Nature Reserve
Local nature reserve or LNR is a designation for nature reserves in the United Kingdom. The designation has its origin in the recommendations of the Wild Life Conservation Special Committee which established the framework for nature conservation in the United Kingdom and suggested a national suite...
and Site of Special Scientific Interest
Site of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...
. The woodland contains ancient woodland indicator species
Indicator species
An indicator species is any biological species that defines a trait or characteristic of the environment. For example, a species may delineate an ecoregion or indicate an environmental condition such as a disease outbreak, pollution, species competition or climate change...
such as dogs mercury and ramsons
Ramsons
Ramsons — also known as buckrams, wild garlic, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic, bear leek, and bear's garlic — is a wild relative of chives native to Europe and Asia...
. The site is rich in mammal species including both species of pipistrelle and noctule bat. There are many well-maintained a nd waymarked public rights of way spanning the site, with numerous desire paths running through the woods. The woods and meadows are very popular with local people for outdoor activities including walking, mountain biking, and other activities and are a fine example of woodland so close to a city centre.
Wheelchair access is only from Greenwood Road to the open grassland at the north end as steep hills are a characteristic feature of most of the site. Greenwood Dale High School shares a boundary with the reserve and educational events have been held in partnership with the school including photographic scavenger hunts and sapling collection. Open days are held in the summer allowing the public to be actively involved with the reserve.
Colwick Woods has an active Friends Group who meet regularly to discuss the condition of the site and carry out practical nature conservation in the woods.
Sneinton Festival
Sneinton Festival is an event taking place every year in the end of July. The first festival was organised in 1995, and each festival is organised around three individual elements: workshops, a festival week and a carnival day.Workshops are scheduled to take place several weeks before the actual event together with young people, most often in local schools and youth groups. The workshops are based around the years theme, creating artwork, decorations and costumes for the Carnival Parade as well as dance and performance workshops. Apart from the paints, adhesives and tools the artwork is made from scrap material - either from the scrapstore
Scrapstore
A Scrapstore or Scrap Store is a particular type of not for profit organization centered upon the principle of re-use. The basic operational principle of all Scrapstores is the same, although their business models may differ significantly....
s, members donations, or found items. The Festival Group also organises school competitions to produce the years festival logos, publicity, themed stories or other similar material used for, or displayed during, the Festival week.
Every year the Festival is organised around a different theme, which is used when producing artwork, costumes, performances and also surrounds many of the events themselves. Within these themes the group also tries to focus on community issues such as recycling, differing cultures, use and access to the media, or science and technology.
- 1995 People and Places (World culture)
- 1996 Old and New (Recycling)
- 1997 Sneinton-on-Sea (Inner city Seaside)
- 1998 Planet Sneinton (Sci-Fi & Technology)
- 1999 One upon a time in Sneinton (World folklore).
- 2000 Sneinton Millennium (1000 years of people in Sneinton)
- 2001 Technicolor Sneinton (Colour, patterns and psychedelia)
- 2002 Magic Sneinton (Magic, conjuring and mystical stories)
- 2003 Channel Sneinton (TV, Video, film and media)
- 2004 Sneintopoly (Board games and play from around the world).
- 2005 (no particular theme)
- 2006 Sustainable Energy Sources
- 2007 Earth, Wind, Fire, Water (Green Energy)
- 2009 'Sneinton's Got Talent' based on well known reality TV show, Britain's Got TalentBritain's Got TalentBritain's Got Talent is a British television talent show competition which started in June 2007 and originated from the Got Talent series. The show is produced by FremantleMedia's TalkbackThames and Simon Cowell's production company SYCOtv. The show is broadcast on ITV in Britain and TV3 in Ireland...
.
The Festival Week starts on the Saturday prior to the Carnival Day with seven days of events held in and around the area. They included exhibitions, displays, open days, performance, entertainers, socials, food tastings and multi-cultural events run and developed by local groups and organisations under the co-ordination of the festival committee. The events are free and open to everyone and endeavour to reflect the diversity of the local community and represent cultures, age and gender.
The Carnival Parade on the Carnival Day includes a variety of floats, fancy dress, costumes, event performers, samba bands, jazz bands, youth bands, dancers, jugglers and clowns. The festival then continues in the Hermitage Square when the carnival parade arrives, and features an afternoon of free and diverse entertainment, including music performers, dance groups, circus performers, fire eaters, jugglers, magicians, puppet shows, poetry readings, story tellers, as well as karate, gymnastic, aerobics and sport displays. There are also lots of refreshment available including Asian, Bosnian, West African, French, Italian and Afro Caribbean food, French Crépes and a traditional cake stall.
The festival is organised by the independent festival committee, a volunteer group made up of local residents, representatives of local organisations, community groups, schools, church, youth and play groups, artists, musicians, performers and local project workers. Since 2002 the group has been supported and co-ordinated by the two workers of the Sneinton Community Project.
Sneinton Dragon
A statue of a dragon by sculptor Robert Stubley is located by the roadside on Sneinton Hermitage. It was commissioned by Nottingham City Council and was unveiled on November 21, 2006. The dragon stands 7 feet tall, has a wingspan of 15 feet and took 3 months to finish. It is made out of stainless steel. During the Christmas period, somebody puts a Santa hat on the dragon. Unfortunately, the hat always disappears a few days later.See also
- St Alban's Church, SneintonSt Alban's Church, SneintonSt. Albans's Church, Sneinton was built as a Church of England parish church on Bond Street in Sneinton, Nottingham. The parish was formed from the parishes of St. Stephen's Church, Sneinton and St...
- St. Christopher's Church, SneintonSt. Christopher's Church, SneintonSt. Christopher's Church, Sneinton is a Church of England church in Sneinton Nottingham.-History:St. Christopher's Church, Sneinton was consecrated by Rt. Revd. Edwyn Hoskyns the Bishop of Southwell on 1 December 1910...
- St. Cyprian's Church, SneintonSt. Cyprian's Church, SneintonSt Cyprian's Church, Sneinton is a parish church in the Church of England in Sneinton, Nottingham.-History:The church was built in 1935 by the architect C.E. Howitt. Construction work started in 1934 and the building was consecrated by Henry Mosley, the Bishop of Southwell on 15 May 1935...
- St. Luke's Church, NottinghamSt. Luke's Church, NottinghamSt. Luke’s Church, Nottingham was a Church of England church in Nottingham at the junction of Carlton Road and St. Luke's Road near Sneinton between 1862 and 1923.-History:...
- St. Matthias' Church, NottinghamSt. Matthias' Church, NottinghamSt. Matthias' Church, Nottingham was a Church of England church in Sneinton, Nottingham between 1868 and 2003.It is a Grade II listed building.-History:...
- St. Stephen's Church, SneintonSt. Stephen's Church, SneintonSt. Stephen's Church, Sneinton is a parish church in the Church of England.The church is Grade II listed by the Department for Culture, Media & Sport as it is a building of special architectural or historic interest.-History:...
- Green's WindmillGreen's WindmillGreen’s Windmill is a restored and working 19th century tower windmill in Sneinton, Nottingham.-History:The Mill was built shortly after 1807 by the father of 19th-century mathematical physicist George Green, whose name was also George Green. It is located on the site of a previous post mill and...
External links
- Sneinton.com - Sneinton Community Website
- Sneinton Business Forum
- Lord Nelson, a popular pub in Sneinton
- Green's Windmill and Science Centre
- Photographs of Sneinton Hermitage Caves from Nottingham21
- Photographs of The Sneinton Dragon from Nottingham21
- Sneinton Market Official Website
- Information about regeneration projects close to Sneinton
- Article about Sneinton Festival 2007
- Article about Sneinton caves
- Shane Meadows official website
- The William Booth Birth Place Museum
- Colwick Hall and restaurants in Colwick Country Park