Description: The Forest's name survives from mediaeval times when the land now occupied by the recreation ground was part of Sherwood Forest, a royal hunting forest. The forest land had not, until then, been though worth the effort and expense of enclosing, but a nearby parish had recently enclosed some and the value had greatly increased. The land had retained a rural feel; on the high ground around Forest Road once stood thirteen windmills. Following the Nottingham Enclosure Act of 1845 eighty acres of the Forest were permanently preserved for 'public recreation'. This picture shows the last windmill on the crest of the hill around Forest Road, which burnt down on the 2nd December 1858.