| Sneinton | |
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Sneinton
Sneinton shown within Nottinghamshire |
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| OS grid reference | SK585401 |
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| District | City of Nottingham |
| Shire county | Nottinghamshire |
| Region | East Midlands |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | NOTTINGHAM |
| Postcode district | NG2 |
| Dialling code | 0115 |
| Police | Nottinghamshire |
| Fire | Nottinghamshire |
| Ambulance | East Midlands |
| EU Parliament | East Midlands |
| UK Parliament | Nottingham East |
| List of places: UK • England • Nottinghamshire | |
Sneinton (pronounced "Snenton") is a south-eastern suburb of Nottingham, England. The area is bounded by Carlton to the north, Colwick to the south, Meadow Lane to the southwest and Bakersfield to the east.
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Sneinton Dale is the main connecting road through the district. The area is famous for the windmill which stands on Sneinton Hill, and harbours Green's Windmill and the Science Centre.[1] Near the windmill there used to stand the now-demolished Nottinghamshire County Lunatic Asylum, later a boarding school named King Edwards, and now the location of King Edward Park.
King Edwards boarding school was run by famous head master Alfred Tanner and his wife Mary. Many of Sneinton's children were killed in industrial accidents at King Edwards, which stood for 117 years. King Edwards School also employed Sneinton resident Arnold Booth, the infamous murderer who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1977 for the murder of Renee Howard, and rumoured to have murdered Lucy Tinslop, the victim of the infamous 'Birthday girl' murder on the Bath Street rest garden, which took place in 1969.
The original district of Sneinton was built around the brickworks, founded in the nineteenth century, at the eastern end of Sneinton Dale and most of the existing terraced houses date from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The brickworks themselves, however, have long since been demolished to make way for modern housing.
In 1801 the population of Sneinton stood at just 588. Sneinton was then no more than a village about a mile outside of Nottingham town centre, standing on a high ridge overlooking the valley of the River Trent. Within just 50 years, however, the population had grown to 8,440 (1851 estimate). With the population continuing to rise, Sneinton was officially incorporated into the borough of Nottingham in 1877. By 1901, the population stood at 23,093. During World War II, Sneinton was targeted in air raids. The industrial units on Meadow Lane suffered direct hits.
There is a street named 'Notintone' street, which may be the origin of the name Sneinton. Nottingham first being called SnottingHAM, and the area away from the city inhabited by the local saxons being called SnottingTON by the Normans.
From the mid-20th Century onwards Sneinton absorbed a large influx of immigrants, mainly from the West Indies, India and Pakistan, Bangladesh, Poland and Africa. Sneinton is home to a large Pakistani population, Sneinton Dale (road) and surrounding streets are home to many Pakistanis. The area still retains its multi-cultural flavour, and has a diverse range of restaurants and stores.
Sneinton has recently enjoyed a renaissance, with many of the old Victorian properties being bought and developed by young professionals. Crime remains a problem in the area with an amount of drug-related crime, car and home burglary. Although a few in Nottingham consider Sneinton to be one of the more dangerous and crime-ridden areas in Nottingham, house prices in the area have enjoyed a healthy rise in recent years. Housing is still slightly cheaper in Sneinton than in Nottingham city centre and some other suburbs of the city, although this might change when the planned urban renewal projects around Sneinton start.[2][3][4][5]
Sneinton was the birthplace of the mathematician (And Miller) George Green (born 1793) who lived in a house close to one of the village windmills; One of which he owned and worked in. also of William Booth, founder of The Salvation Army, and who was born in 1829 in the house which is now The William Booth Birthplace Museum, located on 12 Notintone Place. Another famous son of Sneinton was the bare knuckle boxing champion, Bendigo. A public house in the area still proudly bears a statue of the figure above its door, though is now named "The Hermitage". A more recent Sneinton celebrity is the film director Shane Meadows who lived in Sneinton for many years and filmed some of his early works partly in Sneinton, including Small Town.
Sneinton Market is an open air market in the British tradition;[6] it is situated at the western end of Sneinton, where the district meets the city proper and next to the Nottingham Arena. There are plans to regenerate the market, as a part of the Eastside regeneration project.[7] Already, new businesses have opened up around the market. A European style food market in the area closed in September 2009.
Colwick Woods to the East of Sneinton, is a 50 hectare grassland and ancient woodland site that is a Local Nature Reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest. The woodland contains ancient woodland indicator species such as dogs mercury and ramsons. The site is rich in mammal species including both species of pipistrelle and noctule bat. There are many well-maintained a nd waymarked public rights of way spanning the site, with numerous desire paths running through the woods. The woods and meadows are very popular with local people for outdoor activities including walking, mountain biking, and other activities and are a fine example of woodland so close to a city centre.
Wheelchair access is only from Greenwood Road to the open grassland at the north end as steep hills are a characteristic feature of most of the site. Greenwood Dale High School shares a boundary with the reserve and educational events have been held in partnership with the school including photographic scavenger hunts and sapling collection. Open days are held in the summer allowing the public to be actively involved with the reserve.
Colwick Woods has an active Friends Group who meet regularly to discuss the condition of the site and carry out practical nature conservation in the woods.
Sneinton Festival is an event taking place every year in the end of July. The first festival was organised in 1995, and each festival is organised around three individual elements: workshops, a festival week and a carnival day.
Workshops are scheduled to take place several weeks before the actual event together with young people, most often in local schools and youth groups. The workshops are based around the years theme, creating artwork, decorations and costumes for the Carnival Parade as well as dance and performance workshops. Apart from the paints, adhesives and tools the artwork is made from scrap material - either from the scrapstores, members donations, or found items. The Festival Group also organises school competitions to produce the years festival logos, publicity, themed stories or other similar material used for, or displayed during, the Festival week.
Every year the Festival is organised around a different theme, which is used when producing artwork, costumes, performances and also surrounds many of the events themselves. Within these themes the group also tries to focus on community issues such as recycling, differing cultures, use and access to the media, or science and technology.
Previous themes have been:
The Festival Week starts on the Saturday prior to the Carnival Day with seven days of events held in and around the area. They included exhibitions, displays, open days, performance, entertainers, socials, food tastings and multi-cultural events run and developed by local groups and organisations under the co-ordination of the festival committee. The events are free and open to everyone and endeavour to reflect the diversity of the local community and represent cultures, age and gender.
The Carnival Parade on the Carnival Day includes a variety of floats, fancy dress, costumes, event performers, samba bands, jazz bands, youth bands, dancers, jugglers and clowns. The festival then continues in the Hermitage Square when the carnival parade arrives, and features an afternoon of free and diverse entertainment, including music performers, dance groups, circus performers, fire eaters, jugglers, magicians, puppet shows, poetry readings, story tellers, as well as karate, gymnastic, aerobics and sport displays. There are also lots of refreshment available including Asian, Bosnian, West African, French, Italian and Afro Caribbean food, French Crépes and a traditional cake stall.
The festival is organised by the independent festival committee, a volunteer group made up of local residents, representatives of local organisations, community groups, schools, church, youth and play groups, artists, musicians, performers and local project workers. Since 2002 the group has been supported and co-ordinated by the two workers of the Sneinton Community Project.
A statue of a dragon by sculptor Robert Stubley is located by the roadside on Sneinton Hermitage. It was commissioned by Nottingham City Council and was unveiled on November 21, 2006. The dragon stands 7 feet tall, has a wingspan of 15 feet and took 3 months to finish. It is made out of stainless steel. During the Christmas period, somebody puts a Santa hat on the dragon. Unfortunately, the hat always disappears a few days later.
Lucci Del-Gaudio
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