THE KING’S ENGLAND: Nottinghamshire
by Arthur Mee

ISBN 978-1-872438-00-9 (1989 Facsimile Reprint of 1936 Edn.) 8vo Illustrated, £12.95

The long procession of Nottinghamshire luminaries, from Robin Hood to Jessie Boot, all receive their due mention, but it is the author’s love of a good story which makes this book such a stimulating read. Illustrated with many plates denoting Nottinghamshire, "the Midland Stronghold", in all its pre-war finery, showing the modern reader that much has changed and much has stayed the same. 

In the original edition of this book, first published in 1938, Arthur Mee (a Nottinghamshire man born at Stapleford in 1875) dubbed Nottinghamshire 's capital “the Queen of the Midlands”. Few inhabitants of the county would argue with those descriptions even today, although much has changed in the seventy-odd years since publication. Nottinghamshire has, according to the author, “some things that are matchless and many things that are noble”. Some of these, alas, are no longer to be seen.

Jessamine Cottages, the Moot Hall Inn and Holy Trinity, Milton Street are but three of the buildings that have vanished from the face of Nottingham itself, and the rest of the county has been equally transfigured - by post-war demolition, redevelopment and new building, changing methods of agriculture and the coming of motorways.

However, Arthur Mee’s classic text still has as much appeal today as it did fifty years ago, and the book now has the added interest for the 21st century reader of showing the enormous change which has taken place in Nottinghamshire since that time. In addition, the long procession of people who have contributed to Nottinghamshire’s history receive their due mention, not only Robin Hood, King John, Lord Byron, Jesse Boot and the Pilgrim Fathers, but also the lesser-known characters, such as the explorer, George Chaworth-Musters who, when he returned to Nottinghamshire, “found it hard to fall into civilised ways and used to sleep in the garden wrapped in a blanket.”

The text is only half of the book’s appeal, for it is copiously illustrated with over 70 plates showing Nottinghamshire as it was in the Thirties in all its finery. Essential reading for all those who know and love the county, this book will tell you where in Nottinghamshire stands the tree on which the original Mr Bramley grew his apples, and the village where the tailor robbed the bodies of the local nobility from their vault and made fine waistcoats for his customers from their funeral trappings!

Out of print for many years, Arthur Mee’s NOTTINGHAMSHIRE has at last been reprinted - to appeal both to those who know and love his remarkable work, and those who have newly come to see Nottinghamshire through his eyes.

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