Nottingham is a city in Nottinghamshire, England, 30 miles (48.28 kilometers) south of Sheffield and 30 miles (48.28 kilometers) north of Leicester.
Nottingham has links to the legend of Robin Hood and to the lace-making, bicycle (notably Raleigh bikes) and tobacco industries. It was granted its city charter in 1897 as part of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Nottingham is a tourist destination; in 2011, visitors spent over £1.65 billion - the thirteenth highest amount in England's 111 statistical territories.
In 2015, Nottingham had an estimated population of 350,790 with the wider urban area, which includes many of the city's suburbs, having a population of 802,975. Its urban area is the largest in the East Midlands and the second largest in the Midlands. The population of the Nottingham/Derby metropolitan area is estimated to be 1,697,300. Its metropolitan economy is the seventh largest in the United Kingdom with a GDP of $55.99bn (2014). The city is also ranked as a sufficiency-level world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.
Nottingham has an award-winning public transport system, including the largest publicly owned bus network in England and is also served by Nottingham railway station and the modern Nottingham Express Transit tram system.
It is also a major sporting center, and in October 2015 was named 'Home of English Sport'. The National Ice Centre, Holme Pierrepont National Watersports Centre, and Trent Bridge international cricket ground are all based in or around the city, which is also the home of professional football, rugby, ice hockey and cricket teams, and the Aegon Nottingham Open, an international tennis tournament on the ATP and WTA tours. This accolade came just over a year after Nottingham was named as the UK's first City of Football.
On December 11th, 2015, Nottingham was named a LONESCO City of Literature, joining Norwich, Melbourne, Prague and Barcelona as one of only a handful in the world. The title reflects Nottingham's literary heritage, with Lord Byron, DH Lawrence and Alan Sillitoe having links to the city.
It has two universities, the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University, which are attended by over 60,000 students.
Geography[]
Nottingham is situated on an area of low hills along the lower valley of the River Trent, and is surrounded by the Sherwood Forest in the north, the Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire Coalfield in the west, and the Trent and Belvoir Vales in the east and south.
Climate[]
There are weather reporting stations close to Nottingham – the former "Nottingham Weather Centre", at Watnall, about 6 miles (9.66 kilometers) north-west of the city center; and the University of Nottingham's agricultural campus at Sutton Bonington, about 10 miles (16.09 kilometers) to the south-west of the city center. The highest temperature recorded in Nottingham (Watnall) stands at 34.6 °C (94.3 °F), whilst at Sutton Bonington stands at 34.8 °C (94.6 °F) both recorded on August 3rd, 1990, and the record high minimum temperature is 19.9 °C (67.8 °F) recorded in August 2004. On average, a temperature of 25 °C (77 °F) or above is recorded on 11.0 days per year at Watnall (1981–2010), and the warmest day of the year reaches an average of 29.4 °C (84.9 °F).
For the period 1981–2010 Nottingham (Watnall) recorded on average 42.9 days of air frost per year, and Sutton Bonington 47.1. The lowest recorded temperature in Nottingham (Watnall) is −13.3 °C (8.1 °F) recorded in January 1963 and January 1987. The record low maximum temperature is −6.3 °C (20.7 °F) recorded in January 1963. For the period of 1981-2010, the coldest temperature of the year reaches an average of −6.6 °C (20.1 °F) in Nottingham (Watnall).
Economy[]
In 2010, Nottingham City Council announced that as part of their economic development strategy for the city, their target sectors would include low-carbon technologies, digital media, life sciences, financial and business services and retail and leisure.
Nottingham is home to the headquarters of several companies. One is Boots the Chemists (now Alliance Boots). Other large companies include Chinook Sciences, GM (cricket bats), Pedigree pet food company, the credit reference agency Experian, the energy company E.ON UK, the tobacco company Imperial Tobacco, the betting company Gala Group, the amusement and gambling-machine manufacturer Bell-Fruit-Games, the engineering company Siemens, the sportswear manufacturers Speedo, the high-street opticians Vision Express and Specsavers, the games and publishing company Games Workshop, the PC software developer Serif Europe (publisher of PagePlus and other titles), the Web hosting provider Heart Internet, and the national law firm Browne Jacobson. Nottingham is also the home of the Nottingham Building Society (set up in 1849), the offices of HM Revenue and Customs, the Driving Standards Agency, BBC East Midlands offices, and formerly, the Government Office for the East Midlands.
Nottingham was made one of the UK's six science cities in 2005 by the then chancellor of the Exchequer (later prime minister), Gordon Brown. Among the science based industries within the city is BioCity. Founded as a joint venture between Nottingham Trent University and the University of Nottingham, it is the UK's biggest bioscience innovation and incubation center, housing around 80 science-based companies.
Until recently cycle manufacturing was a major industry, the city being the birthplace of Raleigh Cycles in 1886, later joined by Sturmey-Archer, the developer of three-speed hub gears. However, Raleigh's factory on Triumph Road, famous as the location for the filming of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, was demolished in Summer 2003 to make way for the University of Nottingham's expansion of its Jubilee Campus. The schools and aerial photographers, H Tempest Ltd were Nottingham-based for many years, until relocating to St. Ives (Cornwall) around 1960.
Nottingham is also host to the UK's first and only local authority-owned and not-for-profit energy company; Robin Hood Energy.
In 2015, Nottingham was also ranked as being in the top 10 UK cities for job growth (2004–13), in the public and private sectors. And in the same year, it was revealed more new companies were started in Nottingham in 2014/15 than any other UK city, with a 68% year-on-year increase.
