The first section visited on a self-guided tour of the city caves is through an area that would have been the cellars for slum dwellers living cheek by jowl on an upper level. Although street access to the caves is now blocked, different sections of cave system were once separate parts of an interlocking underground society. As a result what is now known as the City of Caves has preserved a unique part of NottinghamвЂ™s history.Д®ntered curiously from the top level of the Broadmarsh shopping centre, a narrow winding passage and stairs lead down to another world far removed from the commerce and bright lights a matter of feet overhead. When the Broadmarsh Centre was being built in the 1960s, the network of tunnels dating from the 13th century was almost lost for ever, but an outcry of public opinion made the developers think differently. All this area of slum back-to-backs and tiny overcrowded workshops was levelled in 1968 and developed as the Broadmarsh shopping precinct. Narrow though it was, at one time Drury Hill was the main road from London. One of them, Drury Hill, a street so narrow that it was possible for a pedestrian standing on one side of to shake hands with someone opposite. Folk legend also claims erroneously that it is possible to walk underground from one end of the city to the other, something never proven despite the skilled efforts of cave explorers.ДЄs recent as recorded history an area of marshland south of the city centre near the River Leen was filled with slum property criss-crossed by narrow winding lanes. What is certain though is that the cave beneath the old Town Hall was used as a jail for prisoners. Even the notorious Victorian murderer Charles Peace is reputed to have made his way up to Nottingham in order to hide in the maze of underground hideaways. Myths surrounding the caves tell of their use by druids, or even buried treasure cock fights were allegedly held in secret places below the city streets and highwayman Dick Turpin is supposed to have hidden in one of them. This was probably mainly due to the rapid expansion of NottinghamвЂ™s population, partly from the growth of industry leading up to the Industrial Revolution a couple of hundred years later. This latter feature was quickly exploited by publicans who could not only build public rooms for next to nothing, but more importantly the caves created an ideal place to store their ale.Д«etween AsserвЂ™s time and the Middle Ages, there were roughly 100 caves already in use, but from then on until the 1600s there appears to have been an expansion in cave dwelling. The result was a reasonably dry hole with a temperature hardly varying a degree or so above or below 14вЊ throughout the year. If someone wanted a new home all they had to do was find a suitable sandstone outcrop and start digging. Apparently Tigguacobauc means вЂPlace of CavesвЂ™, leading to the theory that from as early as Saxon times, or even previously, people were living in man-made caves deep beneath what became the City of Nottingham. This tongue twisting name seems to have been coined by Asser a Welsh monk, Alfred the GreatвЂ™s chronicler. What became Nottingham was known then as Tigguacobauc. Recent surveys have estimated that there are at least 418 caves beneath the city.ДЄs early as 868AD people were living in caves cut haphazardly into the sandstone. Known by geologists as Nottingham Castle sandstone, it is easy to work and from this it was soon exploited by digging caves used as houses, pubs and even factories some even served as air-raid shelters during World War 2. This desert was frequently washed by floodwaters that left the pebbles now featuring prominently where the weathered red sandstone is open to view. Brian Spencer goes below ground to find links with NottinghamвЂ™s subterranean past.Дuring pre-history the land on which Nottingham is built was part of a huge desert stretching as far as Mansfield.

Lost caves nottingham