NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, a county of England, area square miles. The highest land, in places exceeding 600 ft., is found in the west between Nottingham and Mansfield. The hills die away eastward towards the basin of the Trent and Idle. In the Dukeries portions of the Sherwood forest are still preserved.
Early History.—In the limestone caves near Cresswell im plements of presumably the Paleolithic age have been found along with remains of the mammoth, cave-lion, rhinoceros, etc., other wise Nottinghamshire does not seem to have been inhabited until Neolithic times. The chief evidences of settlement in the Neolithic and Bronze ages come from the more open county of the south east. The town of Nottingham, even in pre-Roman times, seems to have marked the point where the Trent was crossed by the tracks along which salt was distributed from Cheshire and Worcestershire. The presence of river and forest seemed to have caused the Romans to deflect the course of the Fosse Way north eastward from Leicester via Newark to Lincoln, and so they did not influence the history of the county profoundly. The earliest Teutonic settlers were an Anglian tribe who, not later than the 5th century, advanced from Lincolnshire along the Fosse Way, and settled in the fertile districts of the south and east. At the end of the 6th century Nottinghamshire already existed as organ ized territory, though its west limit probably extended no farther than the Saxon relics discovered at Oxton and Tuxf ord. Notting ham of ter the treaty of Wedmore became one of the five Danish boroughs. On the break-up of Mercia, Nottinghamshire was included in the earldom of the Middle English, but in 1049 it again became part of Leofric's earldom of Mercia. The first mention of the shire of Nottingham occurs in 1016, when it was harried by Canute. The boundaries have remained practically unaltered since the time of the Domesday Survey.
The most interesting historic figure in the Domesday Survey of Nottinghamshire is William Peverel. His fief represents the honour of Nottingham, and in 1068 he was appointed constable of the castle which William the Conqueror had raised at Notting ham. The chief lay tenant was Roger de Busli, while the majority
of the church lands belonged to the archbishop of York. The Clif tons of Clifton and the Byrons of Newstead held lands in Nottinghamshire at the time of the Survey. Holme Pierrepoint belonged to the Pierrepoints from the time of Edward I. ; Shelford was the seat of the Stanhopes, and Langer of the Tibetots, after wards earls of Worcester. Archbishop Cranmer was a descendant of the Cranmers of Aslockton near Bingham. Of the old castles the principal remains are those at Newark, but there are several old mansions, as at Kingshaugh, Scrooby, Shelford, Southwell, Wollaton Hall, near Nottingham (c. 1580). The more modern mansions are Welbeck and others in the Dukeries (q.v.). Not tinghamshire was originally included in the diocese and province of York, and in 1291 formed an archdeaconry. After the Con quest several monastic establishments were founded, and at the dissolution of the monasteries there were no fewer than 4o reli gious houses. The only important monastic remains, however, are those at Newstead.
Until 1568 Nottinghamshire was united with Derbyshire under one sheriff, the courts and tourns being held at Nottingham until the reign of Henry III., when with the assizes for both counties they were removed to Derby. In the time of Edward I., the assizes were again held at Nottingham, where they are held at the present day. The Peverel Court, founded before 1113 for the recovery of small debts, had jurisdiction over 127 towns in Nottinghamshire, and was held at Nottingham until 1321, in 1330 at Algarthorpe and in 1790 at Lenton, being abolished in In the Wars of the Roses the county as a whole favoured the Yorkist cause, Nottingham being ons of the most useful stations of Edward IV. In the Civil War of the 17th century most of the nobility favoured the Royalist cause, but Nottingham Castle was garrisoned for the parliament, and in 1651 was ordered to be demolished.