Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire is a county in the English midlands. It shares borders with Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire. Its annual Goose Fair is of course known the length and breadth of England, but it is perhaps most famous for its connexion with the gallant outlaw Robin Hood.

The county however also has many associations with magic. Mr Tubbs, persecutor of the unfortunate Jack Starhouse, and the thaumatophile brewers Messrs. Gatcombe and Tantony all hail from Nottinghamshire; as of course does the 12th century magician Hugh Torel, popularly known as the Master of Nottingham, his daughter Donata and the noted Aureate Thomas Godbless. It was also in the Nottinghamshire town of Newark on the River Trent that, in 1111, John Uskglass gained a decisive victory over the forces of King Henry I [45]. In 1817 it is in a Nottinghamshire country house that Joseph Abney, with no previous magical training, performs two difficult spells which until then had been inoperative for centuries: this event is cited by John Childermass as among the earliest signs that English Magic is reawakening[61].

Last but not least, Miss Clarke, the renowned chronicler of the Revival of English Magic, was born in Nottinghamshire.