Description:
A century or so ago Nottingham was very well supplied with windmills; there were thirteen of them along the hill crest where Forest Road now runs, and the remains of two of these still exist incorporated in modern houses. There were three other mills at the top of Derby Road in the neighbourhood of the entrance to the General Cemetery; but the only one that remains in anything like a complete condition is the mill at Sneinton, the subject of this drawing; it is a striking landmark for the whole district. It appears to have been built during the third quarter of the eighteenth century, probably by a man called Green; and its chief claim to interest lies in its association with his son George, who had a natural genius for mathematics. George Green was born in 1793 and died in 1841; and though he seems to have lived and worked in and about his father's mill, he achieved very high repute as a mathematician. He published many papers dealing with his subject, and although the 'Vibration of Pendulums in Fluid Media' is not very generally read, upon it and similar publications George Green's name rests secure. The mill has recently been purchased and restored by a public spirited citizen in memory of its famous occupant. The views from the foot of this building are extremely beautiful, and a pilgrimage thither on a clear day is very well repaid. Image and descriptive text taken from 'Nottingham Past and Present', published in 1926.
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'.