County motto: Advancing wisely
Best thing Legend has it that Robin Hood and his Merry Men made their home in Sherwood Forest
Houses for sale in Nottinghamshire
Local food Colston Bassett Blue Stilton; HP Sauce (developed by Nottingham grocer F. G. Garton); Mansfield Pudding (a brandy-flavoured sponge detailed in Mrs Beeton’s book)
Heroes Robin Hood; William Booth; George Green, a self-taught mathematical genius, admired by Einstein
Events Nottingham Goose Fair, which began in 1284; the Cradle-Rocking Ceremony, Blidworth, in remembrance of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple
Inventions Mary Ann Brailsford raised the Bramley at the start of the 19th century in Southwell, and every tree since is a graft, or a graft of a graft, of this original; William Lee invented the first stocking knitting machine in 1589 and, although Elizabeth I refused a patent thinking it would cause unemployment, its principle of operation is still in use
Industry Boots the Chemist was founded in Nottingham by John Boot in 1849; lawyer Frank Bowden bought a small cycle business in 1888 and founded the Raleigh Cycle Company; Nottingham had 130 factories feeding the Victorian passion for lace
One for the road Charles I spent his last hours at the Saracen’s Head in 1646, before surrendering to the Scottish Parlimentarians; Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem dates from 1189 when Crusaders stopped for a drink
Worst thing Nottinghamshire was recorded in 1016 as Snotingahamscir, which rather unfortunately means the shire of ‘Snot’s home’
Literary connections D. H. Lawrence; Alan Sillitoe; Lord Byron
Houses Newstead Abbey, the late-Georgian medieval fantasy home Byron inhabited for six years; Thrumpton, the Byron family’s Jacobean mansion; Southwell Minster; Wollaton Hall; Clumber Park is a neo-Gothic masterpiece
Population 1,055,400 Acreage 539,520 County flower Nottingham catchfly Miles of footpath 2,007 Hours of sunshine 1,410.3 Highest peak Newtonwood Lane 203m/666ft Life expectancy 79.1 years Did you know? D. H. Lawrence’s last words were ‘I am getting better’
