The National Justice Museum in Nottingham

I was staying in a very convenient AirBnB in the center of Nottingham. About five minutes walk away was the National Justice Museum. A very impressive museum giving the history of crimminal reform and extraordinary conditions that existed in prisons and courts from the 1700 onwards. Names like John Howard and Elizabeth Fry are well known. Britain still had the death sentence until 1964. Of particular interest (having been to the Tasmanian prison) was the history of Transportation. Convicts were transported to the American colonies until the American revolution in 1776. The museum visit was made the more interesting by the performances by professional actors including the dramatisation of a public hanging.

Nottingham Castle

Thanks to Catherines suggestion I had booked three tours at Nottingham Castle which I was able to do from home. The present castle (which is actually a Georgian Manor) has in the last few years had a major upgrading. There is a Robin Hood tour where you hear the many tales that have been told about Robin Hood. You could also practice shooting an (electronic) bow and arrow fight with a stave and play a game of putting out a fire. There was also a tour of some of the caves under the old castle site. A superb actress guide (she had studied political theatre) made this cave tour most enjoyable. Nottingham has always been a city renowned for rebellions. There was a big lace industry until mechanisation started to come in in the 1920s. There is a history of pottery glazing with salt. The castle has several museum galleries. One contemory one was by Paul Smith - a very successful fashion designer - telling the story of his life particularly how he started his artistic creations after spending six months in hospital after a bicycle crash injury. It was the Luddites who tried to overthrow the manufacturing of lace with machines that created one of the rebellions in Nottingham. Another was in 1801 when the English Parliament did not pass the Reform Bill because of a vote by the local lord. In response the local people burnt down the castle that was on this site at that time.

Nottingham

My cousin Catherine (first cousin once removed - daughter of my first cousin Susan Adams) teaches communications at Nottingham University.I had never met her except when she was a baby. I have a photograph of her with her mother and my grandmother - Catherines great grandmother - taken in 1963 in the garden of Friarswood (the house built by my grandfather) in Cambridge. I was looking forward to meeting her to discuss issues in common - family and also my experiences in public communications in the past. To-days student of hers either focus on journalism (she had been a foreign correspondent in the past) or in media relations. What is different to-day is the students have to be very familiar with all the social media issues. I had tea at her house and was pleased to meet her husband Christy and half sister Rachael. Catherine has two very bright twin children - her son is in fifth year in medical school and her daughter just got a first class degree in English. On the Friday evening we met for dinner and then went to ZPeggy's Skylight jazz club where we heard a Brazillian band called Sambossa. They played "compact but very powerful music ranging from sultry bossa nova and grooving afro-funk, to blistering samba"!

Day two in London

I was able to sleep in but missed the 10 am deadline for breakfast at the Travellers Club. It is fun to realise how easy it is to wander around central London - walking from Picadilly Circus, to Leicester Square (why is it not i before e except after c?) and Trafalgar Square. Going by tube, when you have not done it for a few years is an adventure. Luckily I allowed a lot of time to get to St Pancras as there was a signal problem on the Picadilly Line and I had to divert to the Northern line and change again. I met niece Helen and her partner Simi at the Hanson restauraunt in the St Pancras Renaisance hotel. We had a wonderful two hours together. Simi is from Lithuania and speaks Russian. They have done several adventure trips together and on one occassion rode a tandem bicycle through old farm tracks and other difficult and muddy places in Lithuania.