Sneinton Circular Walk (with focus on Jesse Boot & City Nature Challenge)

About

Sunday 30 April 2023 | 2pm-4pm
Green's Windmill and Science Centre
£5 per person

From Barefoot Herbalist to International Pharmacist

Join Champion of Nottingham, local hero and Chairman of Green's Windmill Trust Tom Huggon for this guided walk around Sneinton, with a particular focus on Jesse Boot and also the City Nature Challenge.

This walk will start at Green's Mill going across to Goosegate, Hockley and Woolpack Lane wandering about places showing how nearby Sneinton developed gradually, becoming part of the town during the long life of Jesse Boot who became an international pharmacist with manufactories on the edge of Sneinton and employing many local people.

Duration: 2 hours
Cost: £5 per person (pay on the day)
Age: 16+

This walk is circular returning back to Green's Mill. Booking essential. Please call 0115 915 6878 to book. Sturdy walking shoes required and be prepared for the odd steep path.

This walk takes place during the City Nature Challenge 2023 of which Nottingham is a prominent participant and so if you want to participate in recording herbs and other plants as you visit local open and green spaces you are welcome to do so.

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Preamble to the walk by guide Tom Huggon

"Nowhere else shall we find so large a mass of inhabitants crowded into courts in Nottingham and those of the worst construction."

– From the Report of the Health of Towns Commission 1845.

This was an accurate description of the disease-ridden slums around and about Goosegate, Hockley and Woolpack Lane at that time.

Born in Woolpack Lane in 1850 was a boy whose father kept a herbalist shop in Goosegate. His father died when he was 11 years old, after which his mother continued to keep the shop with the help of her young lad.

In those days Sneinton was still a pleasant country hamlet separated from the squalor of the town by extensive fields. Mother and son went out regularly to collect herbs for their medicines.

You will learn what inspired Jesse Boot to provide medicines for ordinary people and why he went barefoot in quest of herbs.