Look Down

The Forest Recreation Ground

With its dodgy characters, bleak expanse of mangy grass and busy surrounds, the Forest Recreation Ground in the 21st century can be a difficult place to love.

In terms of its historical interest, though, it is far more compelling.

In the 1840 edition of his book The Rural Life of England, William Howitt described the Forest as '...a long, furzy common, crowned at the top by about twenty windmills, and descending in a steep slope to a fine level, round which the race-course runs.' - a quote that is enshrined in stone on a set of steps near (and to the rear of) the pavilion.

The Howitt quote on a beautiful set of steps near the pavilion

The racecourse to which Howitt refers was once an incredible four miles long, extending out towards Radford, though by 1813 it had been reduced in size to a mile and a quarter. The last race meeting was held in September 1890.

One of the features of the racecourse that particularly interested me when I first read about it was the grandstand, which was designed by the architect John Carr (also responsible for grandstands at several other racecourses) and built in 1777.

A local newspaper of the time, reporting on the commencement of the grandstand's construction, was of the opinion that, 'to [the architect], and the subscribers of so noble an edifice, it is not to be doubted, but praise will be handed down to future generations.'

The report went on to provide a full description of the facility:

'The above building will extend upwards of 81 feet in the front, and in the centre upwards of 52 feet wide; the lower story will consist of tea and card rooms, a vestibule, and geometrical staircase, exclusive of a kitchen, bar, store rooms, cellars, &c.; and the upper story of a genteel room, upwards of 61 feet long (breadth in proportion); this room is designed, not only for entertainments, but so ordered that those ladies and gentlemen who don't choose to stand on the veranda or platform (which is to be supported by an arcade below), may have an opportunity of seeing the course in every part. The roof will have steps thereon, covered with lead, on which near 500 people may stand at once, and will, as well as the veranda or platform below, be inclosed with a stone balustrade.'

John Blackner, in his History of Nottingham (1815), described the structure as 'handsome'. Robert Mellors, on the other hand, in his book The Gardens, Parks and Walks of Nottingham and District (1926), deemed it to have been been 'an exceedingly ugly building...'

The grandstand in 1900

By the early 1900s, the Public Parks Committee was recommending that the grandstand, which by that point was said to be in a dilapidated state, having been largely unused for some time, should be demolished. The committee's wish was granted, and by 1912 it had vanished for good.

By using online mapping facilities, I was able to work out exactly where the grandstand had been located, and I decided to have a stroll down to the Forest to inspect the area in question.

Detail from an old OS map

Aerial image showing the former location of the racecourse grandstand (the blue rectangle), determined by using Insight Mapping and the National Library of Scotland's side by side georeferenced map viewer

The romantic voice in my head hoped that I might happen upon a previously unnoticed hint of foundation, while its realist counterpart contended that I'd be highly unlikely to notice much more than discarded beer cans.

In the event, as I explored the former footprint of the grandstand, to the east of the park and ride site, I saw neither. What I did discover, to my great surprise, was a plaque in the ground that read, 'Site of former race course grandstand, built in 1777, demolished in 1912'.

Plaque on the site of the former Forest racecourse grandstand

View towards the Forest Park & Ride site, with the grandstand plaque in the foreground

The plaque seems to be of fairly recent vintage and is in remarkably good condition given that it has to survive the depredations of Goose Fair every year. I've been unable to find any mention of it online, so its origins will have to remain a mystery for now.

In a world that sometimes seems to have less respect for the past than ever before, it is just nice to know that it is there.

Echoes

 

The Lord Roberts, on Broad Street

The First Boer War – a relatively low-key affair compared to the Second – was fought between December 1880 and March 1881, and the Second Boer War was fought between October 1899 and May 1902.

Nottingham’s Boer War memorial - a pink granite obelisk on a square pedestal with plinth and inscription, currently sited near the south-west corner of the Forest Recreation Ground - commemorates men with local connections who died during the Second Boer War, or, as the memorial has it, the South African War.

The main part of the inscription reads, ‘To the Memory of Officers and Men of the City and County of Nottingham, who voluntarily and patriotically gave their services to the country during the South African War, 1899-1902, and who lost their lives while nobly performing their duty. The names of all are recorded hereon, with the Regiments to which they were attached.’

The memorial was originally located at the junction of King Street and Queen Street, very close to where the Brian Clough statue stands now. It was unveiled on 26 March 1903 by Lord Methuen, one of the British commanders in the war, having been donated to the City of Nottingham by Thomas Birkin, lace manufacturer, two of whose sons had served with Methuen’s division.

The memorial was moved to its present site in late 1927 to provide more room for trolley buses and other traffic, the installation of flag paving and railings being completed by January 1928. The memorial was listed at Grade II on 30 November 1995.

The first Europeans to settle in southern Africa were the Dutch. The Boers were farmer descendants of those original settlers. They came into conflict with the British – a later wave of settlers - in order to protect their way of life in the face of increasing British influence, control and – let's face it - raw greed (‘Gold and diamonds, you say?’) The majority black population, of course, had relatively little say in the matter. The Boers saw them as a lower class of human being and the British - even in victory - failed to adequately protect their interests.

The Second Boer War saw the extensive (albeit non-genocidal) use of concentration camps by the British, though such camps had first been introduced by Spain in Cuba in 1896.

The rise of popular printed media, higher literacy levels and new, faster forms of communication meant that the public were able to follow the progress of the Second Boer War as with no other previous conflict. As the British Empire and the jingoism associated with it were at their height during this period, public interest in imperial/colonial shenanigans was high.

Though immense British numerical superiority eventually prevailed*, at the time of the Second Boer War’s outbreak, British forces in the area (the theatre of operations was said to be the size of France) numbered around 14,000. The Boers aimed to gain the initiative while the British were building up to full strength, and early victories were aided by their superior knowledge and use of the terrain and ineptitude on the part of British commanders.

Famously, three towns of strategic importance – Kimberley, Mafeking and Ladysmith - were encircled and besieged by the Boers early on, and these sieges are commemorated in the names of three streets in Sneinton: Kimberley Street, Mafeking Street and Ladysmith Street.

Several other streets in the area have names relating to the Second Boer War – Lord Street and Roberts Street (Lord Roberts was Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in southern Africa between December 1899 and December 1900), Baden-Powell Road (yes, that Baden-Powell – he established the garrison at Mafeking) and Kingsley Road (Mary Kingsley was an explorer and ethnographer who died during the war while volunteering as a nurse).

These streets saw the arrival of their first residents between 1902 and 1907. A further Nottingham reminder of the war is the Lord Roberts pub on Broad Street, which was built c. 1936.

By the end of 1899, the Boer offensive had begun to lose momentum, with many men tied down at Kimberley, Mafeking and Ladysmith, though what became known as Black Week saw three major defeats for the British in the space of a few days in December. General Sir Redvers ‘Reverse’ Buller was replaced as Commander-in-Chief by Lord Roberts, and the Boers did not take the opportunity to resume the offensive.

The siege of Kimberley lasted from 12 October 1899 to 15 February 1900, the siege of Ladysmith from 29 October 1899 to 27 February 1900 and the siege of Mafeking, the last to be relieved, from 13 October 1899 to 16 May 1900.

Another location to gain cultural currency in the years after the war was Spion Kop. Spion Kop was/is a hill near Ladysmith, and the Battle of Spion Kop was a significant battle in the war. The hill gave its name in full or part to a number of stands and terraces in football grounds in Britain and elsewhere, our nearest example being the Spion Kop Stand (formerly Spion Kop) at Meadow Lane. The first recorded reference, in 1904, was in relation to Woolwich Arsenal’s Manor Ground. A news reporter compared the sight of silhouetted fans standing on the bank of earth to soldiers standing on the top of the hill at the battle.

The British captured Bloemfontein, Johannesburg and Pretoria in the first half of 1900 and the war entered a new phase – one of guerilla warfare on the part of the Boers, who, at that stage, still controlled large areas of territory.

In December 1900, Lord Roberts left for Britain to take up the role of Commander-in-Chief of the army, leaving the command of his forces in the hands of Major-General Lord Kitchener, who implemented a strategy involving the burning of all Boer farmsteads within reach of British forces, the relocation of civilians into concentration camps and the limiting of the movement of the Boer combatants.

Around 28,000 Boers died in the concentration camps, mainly due to disease and malnutrition, approximately 24,000 of whom were children under 16. Black Africans were interned separately, and it is thought that 14-20,000 of that group died.

The Boers surrendered on 31 May 1902.

War casualties for the British forces numbered a staggering 100,000, including 22,000 dead (6,000 of whom were killed in action, with the rest dying from their wounds or due to disease). 7,000 Boer combatants were killed, along with 28,000 civilians.

Self-rule for the Orange River Colony/Orange Free State and the Transvaal (the two formerly independent Boer republics) was initially not deemed by the British to be an option, but, following a Liberal victory in the 1905 General Election, it was granted in 1906 and 1907 respectively. With nationalism in the ascendancy, the Union of South Africa came into being in May 1910 as a self-governing dominion of the British Empire, with the completely independent Republic of South Africa being created in 1961.

One regrettable outcome of the war was that Britain did not secure suffrage for the black population, thus helping to perpetuate white supremacy in southern Africa, which eventually contributed to the introduction of Apartheid in 1948.

The war resulted in various reforms in the British armed forces, and lessons learned from the Boer conflict meant that, by the time of the First World War, the British Army was one of the finest in the world.

Memories of the Second Boer War were to be eclipsed by ‘the war to end all wars’ in just a few short years, but its legacy continues to echo through the ages.



* ‘Britain eventually required no fewer than 450,000 men to subdue an enemy that was never stronger than 60,000 men at any one time.’ (Essential Histories: The Boer War 1899-1902 by Gregory Fremont-Barnes – a splendid introduction to the conflict)