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Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The largest settlement is the city of Nottingham.
The county has an area of and had an estimated population of in . Nottingham is in the south-west of the county, which is the most densely populated area. Other settlements include Worksop in the north-east, Newark-on-Trent in the east, and Mansfield in the west. For local government purposes Nottinghamshire comprises a non-metropolitan county, with seven districts, and the Nottingham unitary authority area. The East Midlands Combined County Authority includes Nottinghamshire County Council and Nottingham City Council.
The geography of Nottinghamshire is largely defined by the River Trent, which forms a wide valley which crosses the county from the south-west to the north-east. North of this, in the centre of the county, is Sherwood Forest, the remnant of a large ancient woodland.
The village of Edwinstowe close to Sherwood Forest took the name from Edwin of Northumbria, who died in 633 nearby and was provisionally buried in St Mary's Church, Edwinstowe.H Gill, Summer excursion 1914: Edwinstowe church, Transactions of the Thoroton Society, 18 (1914) retrieved on 26 April 2025
William the Conqueror in 1066 made Sherwood Forest a Royal Forest for hunting which was frequently visited by the Mercian and later Kings.
William's 1086 Domesday Book identified certain areas in Nottinghamshire being under the land of King Edward the Confessor these included Mansfield and Sutton in Ashfield, amongst other places including Skegby, Dunham-on-Trent, East Drayton, East Markham, Farnsfield, Warsop, Carburton, Edwinstowe, Carlton-on-Trent, Budby, Perlethorpe and Walesby.Lady Antonia Fraser, Domesday Book (1992) retrieved on 7 April 2023
King John's Palace ruin near Kings Clipstone was a royal residence for King John, the area being near to Sherwood Forest. King John's Palace was a place where William I met Richard I to congratulate him on his return from the crusades. King John died at Newark Castle in 1216.
During the Industrial Revolution, the county held much needed minerals such as coal and iron ore, and had constructed some of the first experimental waggonways in the world; an example of this is the Wollaton wagonway of 1603–1616, which transported minerals from bell pit mining areas at Strelley and Bilborough, this led to and being constructed in the county, and the lace and cotton industries grew. In the 18th and 19th centuries, mechanised deeper collieries opened, and mining became an important economic sector. Although there are no remaining working mines in Nottinghamshire now.
Until 1610, Nottinghamshire was divided into eight . Sometime between 1610 and 1719, they were reduced to six – Newark, Bassetlaw, Thurgarton, Rushcliffe, Broxtowe, and Bingham, some of these names still being used for the modern districts. Oswaldbeck was absorbed in Bassetlaw, of which it forms the North Clay division, and Lythe in Thurgarton.
Mansfield and surrounding areas in Nottinghamshire in the 17th century became the centre of nonconformism in separation from the Church of England. In particular Mansfield became the birthplace of the with George Fox living in the town.The Mansfield Quakers Heritage Trail" (PDF). Nottinghamshire County Council. Retrieved 26 April
Nottinghamshire is famous for its involvement with the legend of Robin Hood. This is also the reason for the numbers of tourists who visit places like Sherwood Forest, Nottingham, and the surrounding villages in Sherwood Forest. To reinforce the Robin Hood connection, the University of Nottingham in 2010 has begun the Nottingham Caves Survey, with the goal "to increase the tourist potential of these sites". The project "will use a 3D laser scanner to produce a three dimensional record of more than 450 sandstone caves around Nottingham".
Nottinghamshire was mapped first by Christopher Saxton in 1576; the first fully surveyed map of the county was by John Chapman, who produced Chapman's Map of Nottinghamshire in 1774.Chapman's Map of Nottinghamshire 1774. Nottinghamshire County Council . The map was the earliest printed map at a sufficiently useful scale (one statute mile to one inch) to provide basic information on village layout, and the existence of landscape features such as roads, , , parkland, and mills.
Nottinghamshire saw a slight change to its overall boundary in the extreme northern part of the county in 1974, when the villages of Blaxton, Finningley and Auckley (part) were merged into the Doncaster in South Yorkshire.GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Auckley, in Doncaster and Nottinghamshire | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time|3 April 2025
Nottinghamshire is sheltered by the Pennines to the west, so receives relatively low rainfall at annually. The average temperature of the county is 8.8–10.1 degrees Celsius (48–50 degrees Fahrenheit). The county receives between 1321 and 1470 hours of sunshine per year.
Following the 2025 County Council election, Nottinghamshire County Council is controlled by Reform. The party went from having a single councillor before the election to winning a majority of the council's seats. The council is currently made up of 41 Reform UK councillors, 18 Conservatives, four Labour and three from local parties. Prior to the 2025 election, the council had been fully or partially controlled by the Conservative Party since 2017. The council had historically been under Labour control; the party held a majority on the council from 1981 to 2009.
Local government is devolved to seven local borough and district councils. Ashfield is controlled by the Ashfield Independents. Bassetlaw, Gedling and Mansfield are Labour-controlled. Newark and Sherwood is controlled by a coalition of Labour, Liberal Democrat and independent councillors. Rushcliffe is Conservative-controlled. Broxtowe is run by a minority Broxtowe Alliance administration. Nottingham City Council, which governs the Nottingham unitary authority and is independent of Nottinghamshire County Council, is majority Labour-controlled.
| +General Election 2024: Nottinghamshire | ||||||
| 201,998 (41.5%) 2,013 | 119,325 (24.5%) 139,469 | 94,331 (19.4%) 78,409 | 30,517 (6.3%) 20,142 | 22,827 (4.7%) 10,758 | 17,559 (3.6%) 5,682 | 486,557 59,287 |
| +Overall number of seats in 2024 | |||||
| 9 6 | 1 7 | 1 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1973 | Labour | details | |
| 1977 | Conservative | details | |
| 1981 | Labour | details | |
| 1985 | Labour | details | |
| 1989 | Labour | details | |
| 1993 | Labour | details | |
| 1997 | Labour | details | |
| 2001 | Labour | details | |
| 2005 | Labour | details | |
| 2009 | Conservative | details | |
| 2013 | Labour | details | |
| 2017 | no overall control | details | |
| 2021 | Conservative | details | |
| 2025 | Reform UK | details |
In 1998, Nottinghamshire had a gross domestic product (GDP) per-capita of Pound Sterling12,000, and a total GDP of £12,023 million. This is compared to a per-capita GDP of £11,848 for the East Midlands, £12,845 for England, and £12,548 for the United Kingdom. Nottingham had a GDP per-capita of £17,373, North Nottinghamshire £10,176, and South Nottinghamshire £8,448. In October 2005, the United Kingdom had 4.7% unemployment, the East Midlands 4.4%, and the Nottingham commuter belt area 2.4%.
A total of 9,700 pupils took in the Nottinghamshire LEA in 2007. The best results were from the West Bridgford School, closely followed by Rushcliffe Spencer Academy and the Minster School in Southwell. In Nottingham, the best results came from the Trinity Catholic School and the Fernwood School in Wollaton.
At A-level, the highest performing institution was The Becket School, followed by the West Bridgford School. Some of Nottingham city best results tend to come from Nottingham High School, closely followed by the all-female Nottingham High School for Girls, both of which are privately run.
Worksop College is another private school near to Worksop.
Nottinghamshire contains the ancestral home of the poet Lord Byron, Newstead Abbey, which he sold in 1818. It is now owned by Nottingham City Council, and is open to the public. The acclaimed author D. H. Lawrence was from Eastwood in Nottinghamshire. Toton was the birthplace and home of English folk singer-songwriter Anne Briggs, well known for her song Black Waterside. The north of the county is also noteworthy for its connections with the Pilgrim Fathers. William Brewster, for example, came from the village of Scrooby, and was influenced by Richard Clyfton, who preached at Babworth.
Nottinghamshire has international town twinning arrangements with the province of Wielkopolska (Greater Poland) in western Poland, and with the province's capital city, Poznań.
In 2002, Crocus nudiflorus (Autumn crocus) was voted by the public as the county flower of Nottinghamshire.Dr. Peter Jarvis
The most successful football team within Nottinghamshire is Nottingham Forest, a Premier League club that won the 1978 Premier League, and followed it up with winning the 1979 and 1980 European Cup titles although success has not been seen by most of their fans in living memory. Mansfield Town of League One and Notts County of League Two are the other professional teams in the county. Notts County are the world's oldest professional football club, being formed in 1862 and are world renowned for giving Juventus their black and white striped kit and opening their new stadium in 2011.
Other notable sporting teams are the Nottingham Rugby Football Club, and the Nottingham Panthers Ice Hockey Club.
BBC Local Radio
| Ashfield | Kirkby-in-Ashfield | Sutton-in-Ashfield, Annesley, Hucknall | |
| Bassetlaw | Worksop (also a non-constituent member of the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority) | Retford, Askham, Carlton in Lindrick, Harworth, Bircotes, Elmton-with-Cresswell | |
| Broxtowe | Beeston | Kimberley, Stapleford, Attenborough, Bramcote, Chilwell | |
| City of Nottingham | Nottingham (County town of Nottinghamshire) | Bulwell, Bestwood Estate, Sneinton, Clifton, Aspley, Radford, Basford, Hyson Green, Wollaton | |
| Gedling | Arnold | Carlton, Burton Joyce, Colwick, Ravenshead, Gedling, Netherfield | |
| Mansfield | Mansfield | Rainworth (part), Forest Town, Mansfield Woodhouse, Warsop | |
| Newark and Sherwood | Newark-on-Trent | Southwell, Ollerton, Edwinstowe, Rainworth (part), Farnsfield, Sutton-on-Trent | |
| Rushcliffe | West Bridgford | East Leake, Ruddington, Bingham, Cotgrave, Tollerton, Keyworth, Radcliffe-on-Trent | |
There are several in the county. Newark-on-Trent is a bridging point of the Fosse Way and River Trent, but is actually an Anglo-Saxon market town with a now ruined castle. Mansfield, the second-largest settlement in the county after Nottingham, sits on the site of a Roman Britain settlement, but grew after the Norman Conquest. Worksop, in the north of the county, is also an Anglo-Saxon market town which grew rapidly in the Industrial Revolution, with the arrival of and railways and the discovery of coal. Other market towns include Arnold, Bingham, Hucknall, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Tuxford, Retford and Sutton-in-Ashfield.
The main railway in the county is the Midland Main Line, which links London to Sheffield via Nottingham. The Robin Hood Line between Nottingham and Worksop serves several villages in the county. The East Coast Main Line from London to Doncaster, Leeds, York, Newcastle upon Tyne, and Scotland serves the eastern Nottinghamshire towns of Newark and Retford.
The M1 motorway runs through the county, connecting Nottingham to London, Leeds, and Leicester by road. The A1 road follows for the most part the path of the Great North Road, although in places it diverges from the historic route where towns have been bypassed. Retford was by-passed in 1961, and Newark-on-Trent was by-passed in 1964, and the A1 now runs between Retford and Worksop past the village of Ranby. Many historic can still be seen along the traditional route.
East Midlands Airport is just outside the county in Leicestershire, while Doncaster Sheffield Airport lies within the historic boundaries of Nottinghamshire. These airports serve the county and several of its neighbours. Together, the airports have services to most major European destinations, and East Midlands Airport now also has services to North America and the Caribbean. As well as local bus services throughout the county, Nottingham and its suburbs have a tram system, Nottingham Express Transit.
Nottingham and its surrounding areas form part of the Nottingham Urban Area while Bassetlaw is a non-constituent part of the Sheffield City Region.
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