Exploring Nottingham’s Caves

Towards the end of 2018 I was contacted by Nottingham City Council’s Heritage team to document two sites within the city’s vast caves network for an exhibition within the upcoming CaveCity Festival. The exhibition will take place within the Festival’s main hub at 38 Carrington Street , from the 4th to 6th of April 2019.

The first site I visited was the former Rouse’s Sand Mine , carved out within the 18th Century to provide sand and silica for the production of glass in the city. This site lies within Nottingham City Centre itself , accessed via Peel Street – and lies beneath one of the major routes into the city centre. Blast walls were built within the sand mine along with corrugated roofing as the site was converted into a blast shelter during the Second World War. (1st – 6th image from top). The site was opened up in 2018 to tours with the City Archaeologist Scott Lomax.

I also got to visit a series of catacombs (7th – 10th image from top) with long passages running beneath the Rock Cemetery further along Mansfield Road. This site is being newly opened for the first time to the general public in 2019 having been prepared with extensive work.

The images were used additionally within press releases which were picked up by local news media , as well as print marketing materials.

A testimonial from the Project Officer , Faye Sadler :

Lamar has produced some stunning photographs for us, which we will be using to promote the 2019 Cave City Festival. We wanted some images which really captured the beauty and atmosphere of these wonderful spaces beneath our feet, and we are so happy with Lamar’s reaction to our brief. His use of lighting and eye for unusual detail has created some truly unique and captivating photographs. Friendly and efficient, we’ll definitely be working with Lamar in the future.

Faye Sadler , Project Officer , Nottingham City Council