The Courts and Caves of Nottingham Wednesday 25th Junehi

Our highlight today was a visit to the Galleries of Justice in Nottingham.  I had read reviews of the museum/attraction which all recommend a visit.  There is audience participation, as you will see, guess who was the magistrate?

Not I.

Again we noticed that Nottingham was not overflowing with people. Maybe the university students on vacation may have been the reason.  There are lots of very old buildings all around, not as many as in Newcastle, nor York, but still some very interesting designs.

I wanted to also visit the Lace Museum, but when we visited the tourist office they told me there was no museum, nor shop, but that the Lace Market was in fact a district of the city, like the Castle Area.  I did notice some beautiful Nottingham lace products for sale.


There are so many high end shops, we didn't know how they all survived, and shopping centres and squares.

 And a tramway probably much as we are getting at the Gold Coast.

Look at the work on the ceiling

Some interesting fashions must be on the cards for summer, don't know if I would like to be dressed like this.

Reminded me of a convict uniform!  Then to the Galleries of Justice Museum

We later learnt about the tunnels

We were entertained throughout the visit by performers, and we sat in a mock trial, John was the magistrate, I was in the jury, and then we followed the convict trail showing life in the Nottingham prison as it was before it closed.  It really was the court house, and the adjoining police station.  Very well done.  People were hung on the steps outside, and at one time 20000 residents came to watch, started a crowd surge and several people died, with many hurt.  Later they decided to hang the prisoners behind closed doors.

This headpiece was put on a female prisoner to stop her shouting!

In the prison cells underground

Floggings

And hangings all attracted huge crowds

 I found one of my ancestors La Rouch had been a Sheriff in 1515, and we visited his dungeons!  Not a nice place to be.

After being found guilty the prisoners all had to have a bath, their hair chopped, and were inspected for lice and other nasties.  Duties included laundry and cleaning for the women, and building or gardening for the men.

We ended up in the exercise yard, and that meant one hour in the open air per day, but they were all handcuffed, hooded and roped together, and had to do drill just as the warden instructed, and no talking!

The hangman's noose and scaffold, bit too close for comfort!

Now if you were no good you got a free trip to Australia!  Sounds familiar in our family!

The Australian part was a bit clumsy, as they sort of combined all the different eras of transportation in one display, still old John McArthur was there to lend his side of the story.

If you were a well behaved convict you sometimes got a medal, wonder if any of ours got one of those?

I rather liked this little ditty

 The last part of the tour takes you through the prison system over the past couple of hundred years.

This tablecloth was made by a prisoner from her hair

But lastly, after hanging, a body was strung up in one of these, and left to hang in a prominent place for 12 months, just so that people would be discouraged from doing any wrong deeds!  Can you imagine?

All in all, it was a very enjoyable morning.  It has won the 2014 Tourist Attraction of the Year any wonder!

Back to the city for lunch, and a look around,

Propping up the buildings

Vertical gardens

 We then went on a tour of the underground caves.  Now this was also very interesting.  There are sandstone caves under the city, with about 500 caves in all.

We couldn't believe the next set of caves, they had a tannery down here.  Can you imagine the smell?

This was the ground floor of a tenement which was in Dury Lane, all knocked down for the large shopping centre above.

  

During the war the caves were used as shelter from the bombs, 8000 people could stay there.  It was strange to have the trams running above our heads, as we stood underground.

Look at the work on this building

This floral art was all over the city

We passed by a Chinese massage shop, and I suggested John should have another massage.  He has driven 5000 miles so far, and that and a bit of an uncomfortable bed resulted in his back knotting up again, after his superb massage from my cousin.

We have run out of time!  We didn't get to where we wanted, so have to re-arrange tomorrow's schedule a bit.!