Description:
The site of Radford Folly is now near the junction of New Road and Maun Avenue. The pleasure gardens were laid out by William Elliott in 1780. Aged 86, he purchased a large area of land off St Peter's Street on which to build himself a country seat. He laid out the grounds and included an artificial lake fed by the River Leen. In the middle of the lake was a handsome tower giving extensive views of the countryside round about. In 1792, the estate was sold to Charles Sottai and became a popular tea garden with the name Radford Grove. Coloured lights decorated the Grove, boats could be hired. Dances and fireworks also featured in the attractions. After the passing of the enclosure act and the opening of the Arboretum in Nottingham, the Grove declined, the lake filled up and the buildings became derelict and dangerous, the last remnants being demolished in 1957. (Information from Nottinghamshire Guardian, April 1957)
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'.