Description: Thomas William Hammond 1854-1935. Born in Philadelphia of Nottingham emigres, and orphaned at the age of four, he came to England with his younger sister Maria and lived for a short while with his grandparents in Mount Street. In 1868 age 14 he enrolled in the Government School of Art. On the 1871 census he is described as a lace curtain designer, and in 1872 he was awarded the 'Queen's Prize for a Design of a Lace Curtain'. Other prizes followed and in 1877 he was again awarded the Queen's Prize, this time for the design for a damask table Cloth. Hammond was an indefatigable worker, and soon began to use his skills as a draftsman to record aspects of the changing town. He began showing his work at local venues in 1882 and in 1890 exhibited for the first time at the Royal academy. His real hobby was black and white sketching in charcoal. He drew about 350 pictures all together mainly scenes of a Nottingham he knew but which has largely passed away today. Extracted from 'The Changing Face of Tom Hammond's Nottingham' by John Beckett which is the introductory essay in 'A City in the Making Drawings of Tom Hammond'. This drawing shows us the aspect of the old Trent Bridge towards Wilford, and portrays very clearly the appearance of the mediaeval structure. How long there has been a passage of the Trent near this point no man can say. There was a ford here in Roman times and in the year 924 Edward the Elder, a son of King Alfred, built across this passage the first stone bridge in England since Roman times. Edward the Elder was then in the midst of his campaigns against the Danes, and was being ably seconded by his noble sister Aethelfleda the Lady of the Mercians. The southern approach to Edwards bridge was protected by a fortification call a burgh, and it is a point to be considered whether the modern name of Lady Bay should not really be Lady Burgh, and refer to this burgh which was erected by the Lady of Mercians. Edward the Elders bridge was succeeded by a mediaeval bridge called Heth Beth Bridge, an extraordinary name which has never been very satisfactorily explained. It may derive from Hythe - meaning a landing place, as in the name Rotherhythe - and Beth which is another form of the word Wath, which means a ford or passage, as in the name Wath-on-Dearn. If this derivation is correct it would make Heth Beth mean the landing place by the ford or crossing, which is a not unlikely name. Like many other mediaeval bridges Heth Beth Bridge carried a chapel, for the upkeep of bridges was considered a religious duty in olden times, and further, the condition of the roadways was so terrible that travellers were fain to pray ardently before commencing a journey, and to return fervent thanks at its conclusion. The chapel on Heth Beth Bridge was dedicated to St Mary, and a small portion of the tracery of one of its windows is still preserved in the Thoroton Societys room. The old bridge became so decrepit and inconvenient that in 1871 the present Trent Bridge was build from the designs of Mr Tarbotton, the Borough engineer, at the cost of £30,000. Image and descriptive text taken from 'Nottingham Past and Present', published in 1926.