The Wetherspoons Hunter, The Gooseberry Bush, Episode 29

This is named after the place where babies are said to be found. It was built in 1984 on part of the site of Nottingham Women’s Hospital. In c2002, it was renamed Varsity, but now has its original name. The first patients entered the hospital in January 1930. The last baby was delivered in November 1981. Not long after, the main hospital building was converted into flats.
These licensed premises were built in 1984, on part of the site occupied by Nottingham Women’s Hospital. The hospital had replaced a Victorian mansion, called Southfield House. The first patients arrived in January 1930. The last baby born here was in November 1981. The hospital closed, with the site then partly cleared for The Gooseberry Bush, named after the place where babies were said to arrive.
These premises were refurbished by J D Wetherspoon in June 2011.
The ‘Gooseberry Bush’ tale replaced the legend popularised by Hans Christian Anderson in his story Storks. In this tale babies were delivered by a stork carrying a baby in a sling in its beak.
The stork has long been considered a symbol of happiness, fertility and prosperity
The ‘Gooseberry Bush’ was a popular way of explaining to children how babies arrived. The children were told that the doctor had dug up the baby from under the gooseberry bush with a golden spade.
Households would notify when they wanted children by placing sweets for the stork on the window sill.
Gooseberries are best known for their use in desserts such as pies, fools and crumbles, to flavour drinks, to make fruit wine and as the fabled source of babies.
Lord Byron (1788-1824) was a poet and a leading figure in the Romanticism movement. He began writing whilst still at school. Byron was celebrated for his aristocratic excesses, huge debts, numerous love affairs and self-imposed exile.
He became Lord Byron at the age of ten, on the death of a great uncle, inheriting Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire.
John Russell Hind (1823-1895) was an English astronomer. He was part of the Royal Greenwich Observatory from 1840 until 1844, during which time he became the director of the private observatory of George Bishop. He was noted for being one of the early discoverers of asteroids, as well as the variable stars R Leporis, U Geminorum and T Tauri, shown above. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in June 1863. He was born in Nottingham and attended Nottingham High School.
Paul Sandby (1731-18090 was born in Nottingham. He was a member of the Board of Ordnance (the forerunner of the Ordnance Survey) and in 1747 was tasked with mapping the Scottish Highlands.
The main objective was to allow the British government and army to control the Scottish clans after the 1745 uprising.
In later life he became a watercolour landscape painter, and a founding member of the Royal Academy in 1768. His obituary noted he was “the father of modern landscape painting in watercolours”.
The significant element of this work is that the Queen was uncrowned and facing right.
When decimal coinage was introduced in 1971, the new effigy of the queen had a crown, but still faced right. The original effigy is still used on Maundy Money and commemorative coins.
The coinage with her effigy of the Queen was on the:
Farthing (1/4 of a penny)
Half Penny
Penny
Three Pence Piece
Six Pence Piece
Shilling
Two Shilling Piece
Half Crown (2 ½ Shillings)
Crown (5 Shillings)
The Nottingham Goose Fair is an annual event dating back 700 years. The event is named after the thousands of geese driven from Lincolnshire to be sold at the fair; the fair also had a reputation for high quality cheese. It is now associated with its rides and games.
The painting depicting the Goose Fair in the early 1900s was painting by Eirian Bell, a local artist from Sherwood. She is a Fellow of the Nottingham Society of Artists. The piece is acrylic on canvas and is in her bold illustrative style.
Paul Smith was born in Nottinghamshire in 1946. He is a leading fashion designer of his generation, instantly recognised for his use of stripes. Smith opening his first shop on Byard Lane, Nottingham in 1970 and officially opening Nottingham School or Art’s refurbishment Bonnington building in 2006.
It is currently protected, and when part of it had to be rebuilt, it had to meet the exact criteria of the existing wall.
Buy me a drink 🍺 🙏🏻
www.paypal.me/...
Episode 28-previous
• The Wetherspoons Hunte...
I’m not here to review the spoons I go to or score them out of 10, I’m just proving I’ve been there.
I look forward to being able to show you all around, so like, please subscribe to the channel and hit the notification bell for notifications of new videos!
TTOF for now !!!
#wetherspoons
#spoons
#budweiser
#budlight
#notts
#nottingham
#nottinghamshire
#chinesedentist
#carpet
#look
#lookaround
#2024
#drink