New campaign launched to save 500-year-old city steps

The Long Stairs have been closed since 1933

A historian has launched a fresh fundraising bid to save a medieval stairway.

Janine Tanner said the Long Stairs, in the Lace Market in Nottingham, linked the upper and lower parts of the city, but had been closed since 1933.

She said the council estimated £36,000 worth of repairs were needed to make the 500-year-old steps safe.

Ms Tanner, who runs Notts History - Honour Our Heritage, said it was important to hang on to history.

She and volunteers from the group previously raised funds for a blue plaque and street sign for the steps, which are both in place.

Janine Tanner on the steps in 2018 before her and volunteers began maintaining them

She said the stairs were made of an upper flight of approximately 32 steps, a flat recess in the middle with a cave, which was bricked up in the 1870s, and a lower flight that originally had 36 steps.

However, she said some of the bottom steps were broken during the demolition of a slum called the Narrow Marsh, and others had eroded, so approximately 12 steps were left on the lower flight.

She said: "They are the only original steps going from the lower part of the city to the upper part of the city.

"There has been a lot lost in Nottingham. I am trying to salvage one of the original walkways."

She added: "We have proof they are at least 500 years old."

Ms Tanner, from Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, said she had been trying to raise money for the steps for the past five years, but progress had been "slow", with £4,000 made so far, so she had launched a fundraising page online.

The Long Stairs in 2018 before they were cleaned up by volunteers