History Gives Me Chills

Tuesday morning we were supposed to meet at a true Nottingham landmark: the Left Lion.  That sounds kind of like a pub, but it's actually one of the two lions guarding the Council House in Market Square.  For whatever reason, meeting at the lion on the left (if your back is to the square) has become such an integral part of Nottingham culture that even the underground newspaper handed out around town is named Left Lion.  So we met Neville, Charlie, and Andrew there to begin the tour portion of our Museums and Heritage course.

The Left Lion

They were waiting with another NTU professor who teaches a class about "reading the city" - in essence, looking at aspects of a city's planning and changes over time and thinking about the reasoning behind those decisions.  He joined us for our walk from the square up toward St. Barnabas Cathedral and the Nottingham Playhouse and down Standard Hill.  This area was so named because it was where Charles I raised his flag (standard) and effectively started the English Civil War.  Looking at the plaque and letting my (admittedly more active than most) imagination run wild, I felt more deeply than ever the reason I had been so excited to come to a European nation.  Here were the tangible reminders of history that the US so often lacks.  I was standing in a spot where a king had once raised his flag and gathered an army.  Although the hill has changed in the centuries since then, the physical reality of the place gave me an anchor for the intangible history.

Such a small plaque for such a momentous occasion.

This feeling only increased as we got to Nottingham Castle.  The castle itself is no longer there, having been leveled and built over long ago, but the gatehouse and original fortifications are still impressive.  After the obligatory pictures with the Robin Hood statue that stands just outside the castle wall, we proceeded inside.  The grounds still rise above the rest of Nottingham in tiers, so you can picture where the gatehouse, middle bailey, and keep would have been.  Instead of a proper castle, the top of the hill features a grand mansion built by the duke who owned it in the 1600s.  Apparently he mostly used it for parties rather than as a home, but it's beautiful.  The whole Castle Rock area has some amazing history that I strongly encourage everyone to look up - it features siege, riots, and fire!  Again, the idea of the physical object in front of me surviving for centuries gave me chills.  I looked down from Castle Rock and it was like time travel; I felt connected to the people, both powerful and ordinary, who had gone about their lives there with no idea that someday a girl from a continent they'd never heard of would stand where they had stood.

The gatehouse at Nottingham Castle

We got some time to wander around the grounds and the museum inside the mansion, then headed to the Galleries of Justice for a guided tour of Nottingham's "gaol."  After a quick mock trial in which most of us voted that Andrew was indeed guilty, we were sent down into the cells where we read about real criminals corresponding with the Convict Number we'd been given.  Actors throughout the prison like the Matron put us through our paces, which was really entertaining.  There were also somewhat creepy plaster figures in some of the cells, but I just walked quickly past most of those.

When the guided tour was over, Neville had arranged for us to talk with one of the curators about what goes into creating an exhibit.  She showed us her "mind map" and ideas for a WWI exhibit going up in September, walking us through the design concepts and the ideas they were trying to convey.  The process sounded a bit like what I go through when I think of an essay topic, research it, perhaps shift my focus a bit based on resources, and eventually get to the final product.

Neville left us with mysterious instructions to meet a special guest at the castle in a little over an hour.  Andrew continued to act as our guide and took us to The Pitcher and Piano, a pub inside what used to be a church, where we sat under stained glass windows and chatted over food and drink for a while.  Amazingly, Andy was also tolerant of us peppering him with constant questions: what was sticky toffee pudding? (Delicious.)  What was a good place to go tonight to watch the game? (Anywhere.)  How do you pronounce this menu item? (I think it was French.)  Like Allie and Lauren, Andrew has been a wonderful host as we try to figure out some of the dos and don'ts of Nottingham and the UK in general.

Descent into the tunnels

He left us at Pitcher and Piano, though, and we found our own way back to the castle.  A man in curious garb stood just inside the gate: King Edward III, it turned out, and he was going to show us around the castle.  But not the part we'd seen earlier - the tunnels and caves underneath!  This part was fascinating, showing us everything from Mortimer's Hole (so named for the nobleman arrested after a surprise attack through the tunnel, if I remember correctly) to what used to be a shortcut from the castle barracks to the local pub.  A few people got pilloried in the dungeons too.  At one point, when we ventured outside the castle walls for a minute, a random guy noticed King Edward's costume and tried to sneak onto the tour!  We got rid of him when we reentered the castle, but his boldness was funny.

Today was a better indicator of what the rest of the week will be like: less lecture, more walking and asking questions and exploring for ourselves.  While everything was definitely interesting, it was a lot to take in.  I'm aiming to strike a balance between, as my sister puts it, pushing myself to explore new things but not going so far that I cease to enjoy any of it.  The experience will involve a lot, so I'll be sure to take time to process and truly appreciate as much of what I'm doing as possible.