England’s counties: Nottinghamshire

County motto: Advancing wisely

Best thing Legend has it that Robin Hood and his Merry Men made their home in Sherwood Forest

Houses for sale in Nottinghamshire

Local food Colston Bassett Blue Stilton; HP Sauce (developed by Nottingham grocer F. G. Garton); Mansfield Pudding (a brandy-flavoured sponge detailed in Mrs Beeton’s book)

Heroes Robin Hood; William Booth; George Green, a self-taught mathematical genius, admired by Einstein

Events Nottingham Goose Fair, which began in 1284; the Cradle-Rocking Ceremony, Blidworth, in remembrance of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple

Inventions Mary Ann Brailsford raised the Bramley at the start of the 19th century in Southwell, and every tree since is a graft, or a graft of a graft, of this original; William Lee invented the first stocking knitting machine in 1589 and, although Elizabeth I refused a patent thinking it would cause unemployment, its principle of operation is still in use

Industry Boots the Chemist was founded in Nottingham by John Boot in 1849; lawyer Frank Bowden bought a small cycle business in 1888 and founded the Raleigh Cycle Company; Nottingham had 130 factories feeding the Victorian passion for lace

One for the road Charles I spent his last hours at the Saracen’s Head in 1646, before surrendering to the Scottish Parlimentarians; Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem dates from 1189 when Crusaders stopped for a drink

Worst thing Nottinghamshire was recorded in 1016 as Snotingahamscir, which rather unfortunately means the shire of ‘Snot’s home’

Literary connections D. H. Lawrence; Alan Sillitoe; Lord Byron

Houses Newstead Abbey, the late-Georgian medieval fantasy home Byron inhabited for six years; Thrumpton, the Byron family’s Jacobean mansion; Southwell Minster; Wollaton Hall; Clumber Park is a neo-Gothic masterpiece

Population 1,055,400 Acreage 539,520 County flower Nottingham catchfly Miles of footpath 2,007 Hours of sunshine 1,410.3 Highest peak Newtonwood Lane 203m/666ft Life expectancy 79.1 years Did you know? D. H. Lawrence’s last words were ‘I am getting better’