Description:
Following is an extract from an article called 'Notes on Domestic Architecture of Old Nottingham' (1907) By MR. H. GILL:- 'It has the characteristic 'shaped' gables, quoins, and dentilled string courses, and notwithstanding 'its present sordid surroundings, it still retains a distinguished and picturesque appearance'. The bricks are irregular in size about 10ins. long x 21/2ins. thick the usual hand-made, clamp-burnt bricks of the period, laid in irregular bond, with wide mortar joints. Above the open porch is a carved stone panel, containing a central shield surmounted by mantling and crest, with a space for the date beneath, and a smaller shield in each of the four corners. The crest is the well-known Saracen's head of the Strelleys, and on the upper dexter shield there are traces of what appears to be Paly of six for Strelley. On the upper sinister shield the arms of Sacheverell, on a Saltire five water bougets are plainly visible. The remainder of the heraldry is now worn beyond recognition. A workman who repaired the building in 1900 has stated that the date 1667 was then legible on the date-stone. I learn from a Deed of Trust, dated 1669, that this fine specimen of early brickwork, now occupied as a dwelling and known as 'Strelley House,' was built in the Parish of Bulwell in the County of Nottingham by George Strelley, late of Hemshill in the said County, esquire; for the educating and teaching young children of the Inhabitants of the said Parish. 'The Honourable William Byron of Bulwell Wood in the County of Nottingham, Esqre. was appointed Governor and Richard Slater of Nuthall in the said County, Esqre, Daniel Chadwick, Minister of the Parish of Bulwell, William Strelley of Arnold and Edward Clud of Northwell Park in the said County to be his Assistants.' These were appointed to meet at the school-house at least once in each year, and 'for their accommodation at their General Meeting there shall be allowance of £6 and 8 shillings to be spent in Ales and Cakes yearly on the first day of November, which charge to be borne by the said Schoolmaster out of revenue settled upon the School. James Wylde was appointed to be the schoolmaster, and he was to take not more than thirty children. of the parish of seven years old and upward, and instruct them in the 'Latin tongue,' and 'likewise to write and read written hand and to cypher and cast acompts (that is to say) to be taught Arithmetick untill they shall attain the first 5 rules therein,' and 'such of his Scholars as are capable of learning, and willing to learn, and to be taught, he shall use them mildly and with gentleness, and those that are perverse, and stubborn, and not willing to be taught, to such the master is to give due correction with the rod, for the quickening on to learning.' By an Order in Council, 12 December, 1885, a scheme was approved whereby this school was discontinued, and the building was directed to be sold, and out of the proceeds scholarships were instituted, to be known hereafter as the 'George Strelley Endowment.' The building is now privately owned.
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'.