The Nottingham caves are really quite beautiful and are very well known all around the world.

The nature of these beautiful caves made them quite valuable to a few tradesmen like candle makers, bakers and blacksmiths. They could build hot fires without worrying about their workshops setting on fire and without having to damp down or cover their fires each night as was required because of the curfew orders in place at the time.

Butchers and fishmongers built their workplaces there so as to take advantage of absence of flies and cool temperature. Even maltsters were able to use the cool temperature of around 53 degrees Fahrenheit to create malt from barley all throughout the year unlike competitors from other regions who were forced to wait till winter to do so.

There is a pub called “Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem” which is rumored to be one of the oldest pubs in the country. Half of it has been carved from sandstone. It has quite a deep cellar too.

As the town prospered and grew, the old caves would get blocked up at times and then converted for other uses. Some of them became storehouses or vaults where people stored wool which was very popular in local markets. In many of them, some of the formerly elaborate details were hewn away so that the chambers could serve new purposes too.

Some of the caves were later acquired by wealthy owners who started working their whims into the stone. One of the stones were converted by a lace maker by the name of Thomas Herbert who carved summer house back in 1856 with balustrades, windows, arches, pillars and recesses over The Park & Meadows. This was converted into a grotto later on with the help of some petrified stone since its roof had already collapsed.

Here we take a brief look into the centuries old history of the Nottingham caves.

Nottingham is a city which stands near Triassic sandstone which forms low hills to the north of the River Trent. The broadest of all these hills is where the original Saxon settlement had been and the higher hill towards the west had been occupied as the stronghold for the Norman’s in 1068. The Norman town had expanded until it was occupying a major part of the sandstone outcrop to the north of low cliffs and the bluffs which descend towards the Trent floodplain. The town grew a little more until the middle of the 1800’s.

The Triassic sandstone, which is locally called the Nottingham Castle Formation in the Sherwood Sandstone Group has been distinguished by its high rock mass strength and low intact strength. It is very porous. The rock is notably free from significant joints too. This combination of minimal structural breaks and weak material makes the sandstone ideal as a tunneling medium. It is excavated quite easily and still manages to stand safely over unsupported spans.

This is probably why the earliest inhabitants of this region found it a lot easier to create dwellings spaces by excavating into the sandstone cliffs foot along the Trent floodplain edges. Even though Nottingham has been documented as the house of caves, there is very little that is known about the earliest cave houses. All of them have been destroyed ever since. Weathering has caused the degradation and retreat of the cliffs which is also matched by townspeople who cut back the profiles of the cliff. The newer caves had either been excavated behind the positions of the ones which had collapsed or had been removed as soon as they became unstable.

And there you have it. A brief look into these caves.

One part of the history of the city of Nottingham which many people may not know is the fact that there are more than 540 man-made sandstone caves beneath the city.

The ridge on which the city has been built is made of sandstone which was earlier called Bunter Pebble Beds. They were formed around 230 million years ago around the Triassic or Permian geologic periods. The stone is very hard and can make for a very reliable building material. At the same point of time it is also soft enough to be worked on with chisels and hand-held picks.

Unlike other sandstone areas, these caves weren’t created because of flowing water. For over a thousand years, residents from the area carved homes and stables horizontally in the cliffs and workshops and cellars vertically into foundations so as to create chambers that may be sturdier and cheaper as compared to the building structures overhead. The first mention of these caves was in the “Life of King Alfred” which was written by a monk back in 900 AD.

A number of the caves started off as wells since the sandstone was an excellent filter for creating cold, clear water. Unfortunately, residents didn’t really understand the porous benefits of sandstone and a lot of the wells were fouled soon after by garbage pits and nearby sewage.

But once the residents were aware of how easily the stone could be worked, they started created stairways, cellars and even rooms for a number of different purposes. Underground chambers were built for brewing and general storage too. They were used to store ale, as bank vaults, tanneries, wine cellars, live fish storage, etc. The County Gaol even dug caves to house prisoners. One of the Castle Boulevard complexes even had a chapel which was dedicated to St. Mary of the Rock too.

There are very few things which can compare to the beauty that of the Nottingham caves. They are very well known for their exceptional sandstone caves which have made throughout the centuries.

One of these caves, owned by Thomas Herbert, a lace maker, has been called the Victorian Folly because of the huge carving on its back wall of Daniel with six lions from the bible. The rest of the cave has also been intricately carved with a number of arches, pillars, staircases, buttresses, windows, ornamental animals, etc.

In the Second World War, more than 80 of these cases were used as shelters for air raids. There are a number of ancient caves which were opened up and then connected with some newly dug passages and new shelters were also excavated, including a lot of space beneath the cigarette factory of Player’s which could hold as many as 9000 people. Most of the sand which had been excavated at the time of these operations were filled in sandbags and used for the war bunkers both locally as well as abroad. It was only later discovered that there was a cave below the Nottingham castle which had been used secretly for radon and radium extraction at the time of the war too. This prompted a lot of local outcry.

Visitors are now allowed to explore all of these intriguing caves since they have been made open to the public. The largest group is the City of Caves which is located underneath the Broad marsh Shopping Centre. It contains a number of wells, an air raid shelter example, a pub cellar by Sam Hancock, a Victorian slum, Drury Hill Street remains and the Piller Cave and Tannery. There are even audio tapes available from the visitor facility for anyone looking for self-guided tours. Guides are available for group visits too.

Here you will find a few interesting facts about the Nottingham caves that not everybody knows.

First of all, did you know that the caves were used for work places? These included some medieval malt caves which were unique to Nottingham. 30 of them have been discovered so far. Each of them consisted of a smaller complex of caves which include a large germination room for the grain to be prepared, the kiln for it to be roasted and the well for reaching the local water table.

The underground tanneries are quite distinctive as well with tanning pits which have been cut into the rock floors. They are all found in the caves which are along the cliffs floodplains which is adjacent to the 16th century tanneries which were mainly outside and restricted from use in the freezing winters at the time of the mini Ice Age period where temperatures were a degree lower than where they are nowadays. Metal works, monastic chapels, wagon works, ornamental follies, cisterns, butchers, cold stores, wine vaults, etc. were just some of the other uses for these caves.

There are some mine groups there too from which sand has been extracted. The largest of the groups were worked by James Rouse and his colleagues for as much as twenty years in the 1800’s.

There are just a handful of these caves which are still in use. The sandstone also weathers due to the breakdown of its weak clap cement. This is very important for the exposed faces and the caves open to the circulation of atmosphere, but it isn’t a problem for the caves which have been virtually sealed beneath houses or behind doors. These caves aren’t accessible since they are below private houses but there are public footpaths which lead to some of them.

Clicking an amazing photograph isn’t as easy as it may sound. Some people think that they just need a fancy camera and they will be able to capture stunning images. While yes, an expensive camera certainly helps, it isn’t a foregone conclusion that photographs from such a camera will be perfect. It has a lot to do with the photographer as well. Here are a few of the qualities which any photographer must possess in order to click an excellent photograph:

Creativity

Every artist needs to be creative in order to succeed in the field of photography. They should be able to churn out innovative and unique ideas. You should think of a plan on how to use the picture, before you take it. You can find a lot of inspiration on websites. A cool example is to use pictures as a wall mural. Just look at that!

Attention to detail

A good photographer will need to pay a lot of attention to detail too. This doesn’t just mean look at the landscapes, it also means emphasizing on the smaller things in a picture. Even the smallest of details can make a big difference to perfection.

Ambitious

Photography is a very competitive line of work. Just like most other professions, a photographer will need to be very ambitious if they want to showcase their talents and make their brand of photography grow.

Social presence

In today’s world, not having an online presence is a sin to say the least. Even for photographers, they must have an online presence if they want to be able to promote their brand on the internet.

Equipment

Like it or not, without the proper equipment, no photographer is going to be able to compete with the best. No matter how good they are, they just need to possess the proper equipment to be able to take high quality photographs.

Conclusion

A good photographer will need to possess all of the above mentioned qualities if they are to make it big in life. Without these qualities, they might as well stop trying right away.

Business travel is quite common in a number of organizations nowadays. As a business grows, the need for its employees to travel grows as well. In fact, one of the biggest expenses that a business may incur in the long run is lodging. So how can you save on your business travel? Here are a few lodging tips:

Credit cards

Credit cards are used to pay for everything nowadays. In fact, many people have more than one credit card to their name as well. Sometimes, different lodgings offer special discounts to particular card holders. If you have one of those cards, it only makes sense to take advantage of the discount by using it right?

Couch surfing

Who said lodging meant staying at a fancy hotel? Even when on business trips, you could still save money on lodging by staying somewhere cheap right? And there’s nothing cheaper than Couch surfing now is there? This is the best way to find the most affordable lodging.

Phone apps

Things like food and lodging can cost quite a lot in an unknown city. Luckily for you, there are a number of phone apps that have been introduced today which can help solve this problem. So when you are in a new city. Don’t forget to download these apps. They will surely help you find what you want.

Choose the right days

Sometimes, it could be something as simple as choosing the wrong days for business travel that can end up driving lodging costs sky high. It may not be possible sometimes, but on most occasions, business travel can be scheduled in such a way that it saves on a lot of money. So why shouldn’t you try to?

These simple tips will go a long way in ensuring you don’t pay too much money for your business lodgings for sure.

Buy business shirts on sale

Obviously, you will need to bring the best shirts with you on any business travel. Shirts from Eton is precisely crafted from some of the world’s finest fabrics and will make you look good both during meetings and leisure time.

Buying accessories for home furnishings such as carpet rugs, curtains, cushions, pillows, bathroom, rugs, bed sheets, etc. has become so much easier today thanks to the internet. Even purchasing things like drapery rods, mirrors, candle holders, etc. from online portals has made life so much easier. The internet is a shopaholic’s paradise and is quite alluring. It sure helps the quintessential buyer decorate their home with elegance and panache.

Thanks to the growing number of online shopping websites, the assurance of originality and quality is almost absolute. The average customer is spoilt for choice and benefits from the availability of free home delivery too.

The number of people who lack faith in the online shopping process today are very low. This process has become quite safe too. With all the details regarding a product easily available online, buyers will have no problem figuring out which product is best for them. What’s more, for buyers who aren’t satisfied with the product they purchased or want to exchange it for something else, they can do so effortlessly online. That’s more than enough reasons to shop for home furnishings online isn’t it? But even if it wasn’t, one more reason why so many people prefer shopping for home furnishings online is because they are so much cheaper.

Whether it is innovative furnishings like silk plants, room dividers, fireplaces, bookends, plant stands, doorstops, etc., you will certainly be able to find it all online. There is absolutely no reason for people to shop any other way anymore.

So the next time you are thinking of buying some new furnishings, why don’t you consider going online and searching for them instead of wasting time and energy going to a store and then walking around trying to find the perfect furnishings. Online, all it takes is a click of the mouse.