Description:
Henry Kirke White was a Nottingham poet who drew inspiration for much of his poetry from Wilford and Clifton, the most notable being his poem 'Clifton Grove'. He was born March 21st 1785 in Nottingham where the Exchange Walk Arcade now stands on Cheapside. He spent his formative years in his favourite places of Wilford and Clifton Village, and died in Cambridge on October 19th 1806.
A small slate plaque marked the location, and was erected in the late 1800s.
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'.