Nottingham Off The Beaten Path

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The Crown Inn, in Beeston was originally a sixteenth century cottage. Inside it, the confessional (the inn is in Church Street, behind the church) is one of the smallest and oldest serving bars in England. In 1830 the inn was purchased by a captain from the Queen's regiment, who named it the Crown. It is reputedly haunted by the ghost of a cavalier.

It's listed in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide, and it's my favourite pub in Beeston. They show live Sky Premiership football, which you may see either as a good or a bad thing, depending on whether or not you like pubs that show football.

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The first Unitarian chapel was built on High Pavement in the 1680s. But, this was largely rebuilt, and is now used as the Pitcher and Piano bar and restaurant. In the eighteenth century a second Unitarian chapel was opened in Halifx Place, but this is now the Lace Market Theatre. The Unitarians moved to their new chapel , a former lace warehouse in Plumptre Street, in 1982 .

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In the grounds of Nottingham Castle, you can still see some of the ruins of the original 12th century castle, including the foundations of the Middle Bailey wall and lower section of the north-eastern tower, the Middle Bailey Bridge and Gatehouse. Most of these ruins are to the right of the modern castle, as you enter.

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Newdigate House in Castle Gate was the "open prison" for Marshall Tallard, the commander of the French army, after he was defeated and captured in Bavaria, at the Battle of Blenheim, by the Duke of Marlborough in 1704. He lived here for 6 years, as a prisoner of war.

This was quite a luxurious prison, as Castle Gate was where the homes of Nottingham's wealthiest citizens were located in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and Newdigate House was one of the grandest buildings on the street. It was built in 1675 for the Newdigate family. It now houses Nottingham's top restaurant, World Service.

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3 miles south of the city centre is the Nottingham University district of Beeston. In the centre of its pedestrian precinct is one of the nicest sculptures in England: the Beeston Beekeeper, sometimes known as George. He is sitting on a bench looking across a hedgerow at a beehive. The details, like the bees clinging to the hive and the net on the beekeeper's floppy hat, beside him on the bench, are wonderful.

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The bandstand in the grounds of Nottingham Castle was built in Victorian times when the gardens were opened as a recreational park for local people. Bands used to entertain promenaders here at weekends. Brass bands still give occasional performances here.

Surprisingly the headquarters of the Inland Revenue, the government's tax administrator, is not in London, but in Nottingham. It moved here in the 1990s, and its futuristic building is one of the city's landmarks.

In St. Mary's Churchyard, in the Lace Market area, there is a unique tombstone made of clay. It was for the daughters of William and Elizabeth Sefton, who died in 1714. William Sefton was a manufacturer of clay pipes, and when his children died, instead of purchasing a tombstone, he made one from a mass of pipe clay and scratched his own epitaph in the soft clay. He then baked it in the factory oven, to harden it. It seems to be remarkably resilient and has outlasted some of the granite and marble tombstones.