St Ann's, Nottingham

St Ann's is an area of Nottingham, England, with a population that was around 15,000 people according to 2005 figures, increasing to 19,316 at the 2011 UK Census.HistoryThe Oswell was a cold water well with alleged magical powers that could cure sore eyes. In 1500, the name changed to honour St Ann, whose cult was ascendant at the time. St Ann was the patron saint of lacemakers, pregnancy and women who had difficulty in conceiving. Water from the well fed a beck (stream) that ran through "The Spring" to the river. There are several ancient names attached to area Peas Hill (1230), Hunger Hills (1304) and Clay Fields.In the 1750s Charles Morley started manufacturing brown earthenware, specialising in beer mugs.In the 1830s Clay fields was divided into plots. With The Enclosure Act of 1845 allowed the city to take 1068acre of the Clay fields. It was used for housing, and by 1880 the build of 'New Town' was complete. It was specifically built for the working poor. They were very basic cottages, with a butcher, a baker, a large number of public houses, a market place and, for the first time in Britain, allotments where the poor could grow their vegetables. The Public Health Act 1875 enabled local authorities to make byelaws to regulate such building. Here all the houses were pre-Public Health Act terraced houses, on a gridiron plan arranged around courts of ten houses. These were later demolished under slum-clearance legislation of the 1960s.