Gotham, Nottinghamshire
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gotham (pronounced "goat-um") is a village in Nottinghamshire, England, south of Nottingham and north-east of Kegworth. It is administered as part of the Rushcliffe district of Nottingham, and has a parish council.
It has a twelfth-century church named for St Lawrence.
The village is most famed for the stories of the "Wise Men of Gotham". These depict the people of the village as being stupid. However, the reason for the behaviour is believed to be that the villagers wished to feign madness in order to avoid a Royal Highway being built through the village, as they would then be expected to build and maintain this route. Madness was believed at the time to be highly contagious, and when King John's knights saw the villagers behaving as if insane, the knights swiftly withdrew and the King's road was re-routed to avoid the village.
One of the mad deeds seen by the knights, was a group of villagers fencing off a small tree in order to keep a cuckoo captive. One of the four pubs/inns in the village is known as 'The Cuckoo Bush Inn'.
Reminded of the foolish ingenuity of Gotham's residents, Washington Irving gave the name Gotham to New York City in his Salmagundi Papers (1807). In turn, Bob Kane named the pastiche New York City home of Batman and Robin Gotham City. The existence of Gotham, Nottinghamshire in the DC Universe was recently confirmed in 52 #27, although the connection between two names within the DCU has not been fully explained.
Gotham is home to a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) listed as Gotham Hill Pasture.
