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'.
Until 1801, close to the point from which this picture is drawn, stood a cross which was called the 'Hen Cross', around whose feet on market days were exposed for sale all sorts of country produce, such as butter, eggs, and poultry; this market being much frequented by housewives was nicknamed the 'Women's Market'.
On the left side of the picture is a row of shops, known as 'Cheapside', which was called 'Rotten Row' from 1666 to 1810. Cheapside, of course, simply means 'the side of the market', for the old name for market was 'Chepe', a name which has come down to us in the many 'Chippings', such as 'Chipping Camdon', which are scattered about the modern map of England. The other side of the picture shows us a row of houses now called the 'Poultry', but better known in olden times as 'Cuckstool Row' because the Cucking-stool was kept there. This dire implement of torture was used for correcting scolds. To its seat were firmly strapped the good ladies who were unable to control their tongues, and they were ducked until they became unconscious. It is not known where this rite was actually carried out, but there was a horse pond somewhere in the Market place, and it seems probable that it would be the site of the ceremony.
Modern necessities have destroyed some of the beauties of the Poultry, but this picture fortunately retains them for us. The house at the extreme right of the picture, with the bow windows (which were the last ancient bow windows in Nottingham) is the traditional house of the Earl of Mansfield, who was so much associated with the accession of William and Mary, and it was refronted after the Restoration. The adjoining building was the tenement of William Babbington Esq., whose family name brings up tragic memories of the romantic acts of Anthony Babbington in his efforts to save Mary Queen of Scots. Opposite the lamp post shown on this side of the picture is a low two-storied building in which Henry Kirk White the poet was born on the 25th March, 1725, and close to this lamp post is the one remaining example of the ancient posts which carried the projecting upper stories for which Nottingham Market Place is famous. Image and descriptive text taken from 'Nottingham Past and Present', published in 1926.