The Park Tunnel

NOTTINGHAM PARK, the "Coney Garth" " or rabbit warren, as it was sometimes called, of Nottingham Castle, has a curious history whose story it would take long to unfold.

Suffice it to say that it was supplied with fishponds and was stocked with deer until 1717, when the herd was sold, although carted stag’s were sometimes hunted here till about 1790.

These deer were objects of interest to a little army of poachers, amongst whom Thomas Booth, whose tombstone may be studied on the south wall of St. Nicholas’ Church, was perhaps the most notorious.

The first house to be built in the Park was erected in 1827, but about 1850 when the estate was taken seriously in hand and developed for building purposes it was intended to make the main entrance through the tunnel from Derby-road.

Mr. T. C. Hine was the engineer of the project, and the Duke of Newcastle agreed that the gradient should not be more than one in fourteen.

However, it turned out to be one in twelve, which was found to be too severe, and other entrances to the estate had to be arranged.

The old tunnel, with its wealth of greenery and the soft yellows of its sandstone, is a very picturesque spectacle and a curious feature of the city.