Description: John Player, the son of a solicitor, whose family were well known Baptists and philanthropists, came to the city from Saffron Walden, Essex, in 1862 to take up a job as a draper's assistant. At that time, tobacco was sold loose from jars and even hand-made cigarettes were weighed out on scales in the shop, according to individual needs. The shop continued to prosper, so much so that 15 years after his arrival in Nottingham in 1877 he bought a tobacco factory in Broad Marsh. In 1881, additional land was purchased at Radford, Nottingham, for three new factory blocks, two of which were leased to lace manufacturers until such time as they were required for the manufacture of tobacco. Today the old 'Lace factory' on the Radford site is dwarfed by Player's modern factories in Nottingham. The new John Player's Horizon factory at Nottingham, built at a cost of £8 million in 1972, used natural gas to power the entire building. It collected three major architectural awards. (The first trademark of the company was Nottingham Castle, registered in 1877. However, the familiar sailor's head took shape gradually, first with the sailor alone, registered in 1883, and then, five years later, in the lifebuoy frame with Player's Navy Cut superimposed, as in this picture. In 1891 the two ships HMS Britannia and HMS Hero were added. In 1927, it was decided to rationalise the position and arrive at one standard sailor, which would be used on all packaging, display and advertising material. This was based on a painting by A D McCormick.)