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'. Trent Bridge Inn was acquired together with adjoining land by the Notts. County Cricket Club. It has been re-constructed and is still a well-known feature of the road side at the corner of the celebrated Trent Bridge Cricket Ground. This cricket ground, which is over seven acres in extent, is classic, for upon its greensward have appeared all the great cricketers ever since modern cricket existed, and from it George Parr made the mighty hit over the elm tree which has ever since borne his name. Image and descriptive text taken from 'Nottingham Past and Present', published in 1926.