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Jessamine Cottages, Castle Road
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JESSAMINE COTTAGES were formerly called Workhouse-yard and on a bright summer day when the flowers surrounding the grass plot in front of them were all ablow it would be hard to find a more charming spectacle than is presented by these ancient buildings.
Years ago Nottingham was divided into three parishes—St. Mary, St. Nicholas, and St. Peter— and each parish had to look after its own poor.
These cottages were erected in 1729 by the parish of St. Nicholas to act as a workhouse; and they remained in such use until 1815—the year of the Battle of Waterloo.
At that time a new and more commodious parish workhouse was built near the corner of Chapel Bar and Park Row, and the old St. Peter’s workhouse was divided up into little tenements which still remain for us.
The old name for the hillock upon which these houses stand was Gillyflower or July Flower Hill, because of the wild wallflowers which grew upon it ; and one wishes that this old name could be revived.