From medieval tanneries and breweries to the overcrowded slums and makeshift air-raid shelters of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, local people have sought everything from refuge to recreation below ground, leaving behind traces of their lives that survive in the University of Nottingham’s collections. These stories, whether legends of Robin Hood or adventures of latter-day urban explorers, are now brought together for the first time.

Image: Caves under 57 Hounds Gate, Nottingham from the annual report of Peverel Archaeological Group, 1951. University of Nottingham Manuscripts and Special Collections Periodicals:Not/Thor Soc.