Mansfield

Settlement dates to the Roman period. Major Hayman Rooke in 1787 discovered a villa between Mansfield Woodhouse and Pleasley; a cache of denarii (300-400 Roman Silver Coins were found near King's Mill in 1849.[5][6]

King William I the Conqueror in 1066 made Sherwood Forest a Royal Forest for hunting which was frequently visited by the Mercian (between 586 A.D. and 874 A.D.) and later Kings.[7][8][9]

The Royal Manor of Mansfield was held by the King. In 1042, King Edward the Confessor possessed a manor in Mansfield. King William the Conqueror later owned two carucates, five sochmans, and thirty-five villains; twenty borders, with nineteen carucates and a half in demesne, a mill, piscary, twenty-four acres of meadow and pasture' in Mansfield.

In the time of Henry II of England, the king visited what is now known as Kings Mill, staying at the home of Sir John Cockle for a night having been hunting in Sherwood Forest. Sir John Cockle was later known as the Miller of Mansfield.[10][11] In 1199 the Manor was owned by King John. King John used to visit Mansfield frequently between 1200-1216, that he built a residence here. Later, King Edward I held a Royal Council in the town. The Manor, then owned by King Henry III, subsequently passed to Henry de Hastings. In 1329 Queen Isabella, mother of Edward III, was the Lady of the Manor of Mansfield.[12]

The Domesday Book (1086) recorded the settlement as Mammesfeld and market-petition documents of 1227 spelt it Maunnesfeld. King Richard II signed a warrant in November 1377 to grant tenants the right to hold a four-day fair each year; the spelling had changed to Mannesfeld.[5] Mansfield, Skegby and Sutton in Ashfield were the land of the king in 1086 as stated in the Doomsday Book.[13] There are remains of the 12th-Century King John's Palace in Clipstone, between Mansfield and Edwinstowe, and it was an area of retreat for royal families and dignitaries through to the 15th Century. It was here where King William the Lion of Scotland met King Richard I of England (Richard the Lionheart) to congratulate him on his return from the crusades.[14]

St Peter and St Paul's Church is mentioned in the Doomsday Book in (1086). In (1092) the church was passed by King William II to Robert Bloet the bishop of Lincoln and Lord Chancellor of England.[15][13][16]

Access to the town was by road from the city of Nottingham, on the way to Sheffield. In the town centre, a commemorative plaque was erected in 1988 together with a nearby tree to mark the point thought once to be the centre of Sherwood Forest. The plaque was refurbished in 2005 and moved to a ground-plinth.[17][18][19]

In 1516, during the reign of King Henry VIII, an act of parliament settled the Manor to Thomas, Duke of Norfolk. The Manor was then passed to the Dukes of Newcastle and Portland.[12]

Dame Cecily Fogan in 1521, gave extensive land to the parish church and community in Mansfield in her will. The church at the time was in the hands of King Edward VI.[20][21]

Travellers in the 16th and 17th centuries had several inns and stable yards dating from the medieval period to stop at:

the Harte; the Swan, with 1490 dating stone; the Talbot; the White Bear; the Ram, with timber from before 1500; and the White Lion.. Several timber-framed cruck buildings were demolished in 1929; and in 1973 a local historical society documented another during demolition dated to 1400 or earlier. Other Tudor houses in Stockwell Gate, Bridge Street, and Lime Tree Place were also demolished to make way for development before they could be viewed for listing. Most remaining buildings are from the 17th century. The Swan was rebuilt in 1584, and became a coaching inn in the 1820’s/30s.[22]

In the 1640s George Fox lived in Mansfield and worked as a shoemaker. Mansfield became the birth place of the Quakers religion, after George had a revelation walking past St Peter and St Paul's Church, Mansfield. George felt compelled to preach to others as a result of this revelation. This was during the time of the English Civil War. There is a Quakers Heritage Trail in the town for those who want to learn about the Quakers origin. George was later imprisoned for the first time in Nottingham in 1649.[23][24][25] George met Elizabeth Hooton at her home in nearby Skegby, she is usually considered to be the first person to accept the doctrines of Quakerism.[26]

The Old Meeting House (Unitarian church) on Stockwell Gate was built in 1702. The church being the oldest non conformist place of worship in Nottinghamshire. The history of the church is traced back to 1666. During the persecution of Presbyterian ministers, eight ministers sought refuge in Mansfield under the protection of Reverend John Firth (at the time of the Oxford Act of 1666).[27]

In 1690, during the reign of King William III of England and Queen Mary II of England Daniel Clay was put in the Pillory in Mansfield for speaking these words "God dam King William and Queen Mary and yt King James both should and would come again." His words meant he was disloyal to the King and Queen.[28]

Elizabeth Heath in 1691 founded the Almshouses for the poor. Six of the Almshouses housed Quakers, and six for the established members of the church. [29][30][31]

In 1709 Samuel Brunt left £436.15 to the relief of the poor inhabitants. Faith Clerkson in 1725, Charles Thompson in 1784 both donated money to educating children in Mansfield. This formulated the beginning of the Brunt's Charity.[32][33]

Robert Dodsley who wrote book of ‘The King and the Miller of Mansfield’ was a stocking weaver in the town. Robert became one of the foremost publishers of that day. He published Dr Samuel Johnson’s London in 1738. Later, Robert suggested and helped finance Johnson’s dictionary of the English Language.[34]

The Moot Hall in the Mansfield Market Place was erected in 1752 by Henrietta Harley, Countess of Oxford and Countess Mortimer.[35]

It was recorded that the Mansfield Workhouse was originally based on Nottingham Road in 1777 housing 56 inmates, but later recorded on Stockwell Gate intended to house 300 people named the Mansfield Union Workhouse under the Mansfield Poor Law.[36][37]

John Throsby in 1790 described Mansfield as ‘a flourishing and genteel market town, general well built.....and is certainly an ancient place, and some think of high antiquity’.[38]

In 1851, Lord George Bentinck by subscription erected the Bentinck memorial (Cavendish Monument) in the Market place in Mansfield.[39]

In 1894 William Horner Groves described Mansfield as 'one of the quaintest and most healthy of the towns in the Midland counties, is the market town for an agricultural district of eight miles around it. It is the capital of the Broxtowe Hundred of Nottinghamshire, and gives its name to a Parliamentary Division of the county'[12]

The Carnegie Old library on Leeming Street was funded and erected by Andrew Carnegie industrialist and philanthropist in 1905. Andrew was one of the richest men in the United States at the time.[40][41] 1905 was also the year that the Mansfield and District Light Railways Tram system was opened but later closed in 1932.[42]

Mansfield is a market town with a 700-year-old market tradition; a Royal charter was issued in 1227. The present market square was created after demolition under the Improvement Act of 1823.[5] In the centre is the Bentinck Memorial, built in 1849, which commemorates Lord George Bentinck (1802–1848), son of the William Bentinck, 4th Duke of Portland, a local landowner.[43]

A nearby area called Buttercross Market in West Gate, the site of an old cattle market, has a centrepiece of local stone dating from the 16th century.[17] Mansfield District Council closed this section in 2015.[44][45] Adjacent is Mansfield Library, officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1977 and refurbished in 2012.[46] The old Carnegie Library, founded in 1905 in Leeming Street, was used from 1976 as an arts and performance centre.[47]

Mansfield has a large market place within its commercial and retail centre. The main market area was re-surfaced in 2005.[55] In 2016 the council moved all market stalls from the old Buttercross Market in Westgate to join those sited in the main market area.[56][57][58][59] Surroundings includes a museum, the Palace Theatre, restaurants, fast-food outlets, pubs, bars and night clubs.

In January 2022, the council announced an intention to purchase and redevelop the old Beale's town-centre store and to relocate all existing staff along with external partnerships and new participants, swelling the daily footfall which would bolster existing retail traders. Funding for the scheme, named Mansfield Connect, will be determined by a Levelling Up grant.[60][61][62] In January 2023, the levelling up funding of 20 million pounds for the project had been agreed by the UK government.[63]

Also in February 2022 Severn Trent Water shared its £76 million Green Recovery Project for flood alleviation investment for the town. This includes rain garden areas around the Market Place, a memorial garden at the back of the Old Town Hall and a pocket park with a slide for children in the existing green space on the corner of Walkden Street/Quaker Way.[64]

On 6 April 2010 a town-centre Business Improvement District (BID) was founded with offices in the Old Town Hall, financed by 2 per cent extra on the rateable value of nearby businesses.[65][66][67][68]

The BID operates on a five-year basis, with a rolling yearly operational plan.[69] Before its tenure ended in 2015, over 560 shops and other town-centre businesses were canvassed in late 2014 to vote on the first continuation period. Mansfield District Council contracted out of the procedure at a projected cost to council taxpayers of £8,000.[67][70][71] On a 55 per cent turnout, 77 per cent voted to extend the BID for another five years.[72]

The BID's additional services (beyond the council's baseline statutory services) and delivery of projects enhance the town's shopping centre. It offers events to attract visitors and raise awareness and security for the town centre, including banning orders and improved shop frontages.[71][73]

Records show the first yearly income to have been £294,697, with an operating surplus of £151,610.[65] One achievement in 2012–2013 was a crowd-funded town centre Wi-Fi internet installation costing £37,000,[74] and completed by June 2013,[75] using a network of AP nodes requiring registration for free use,[76] and dedicated optional BID local information "App" for Android and iPhone available for download.[77] The intentions were to encourage shoppers and visitors to linger in the town centre for longer, to offer internet access to small businesses, and to provide market traders with a means of accepting non-cash payments.[78]

Other BID moves have been "gating off" alleyways blighted by anti-social behaviour, improving signage, and enhancing cleansing operations.[79][80][81][82] Several shopkeepers complained in 2011 that the BID was "not doing enough to boost town trade."[83] In 2012, Mansfield Constituency Labour Party criticised the BID for receiving almost a million pounds in its first three years, with little to show for it.[84]

In 2015 Mansfield BID moved out of its offices in the old Town Hall to allow structural repairs, relocating nearby.[85] A mandatory ballot, required every five years, occurred in late 2014,[86] and again in late 2019, resulting in a decision to renew the organisation.[87]

Among Mansfield's retail outlets is the Four Seasons shopping centre created in 1973–1976, with over 50 units occupied by national chains and phone shops.[88][89][90] Primark nationally took over the former Littlewoods premises, closing the Mansfield store and its associated in-house business Index) in 2005.[91] The Primark premises underwent a refit in 2017.[92] Other stores and a coffee chain have traded in West Gate since 2011, along with existing similar cafés.[93]

BHS closed in 2016 and Beales in 2020.[94][95][96][97] Debenhams' closure, part of a national sequence due to the Arcadia Group's financial failure, was announced in late 2020,[98] followed by Burtons, Topman and Topshop.[99][100]

Rosemary Centre, built as a large weaving shed in 1907 by John Harwood Cash and converted to retail in 1984,[101] is a pedestrianised area off the town centre with a covered streetside parade. Argos relocated in 2017 to new owner Sainsbury's store.[102][103] There are also three outdoor retail parks, two with adjacent branded fast-food outlets.[104][105][106] As of April 2023, it was announced that a planning application to demolish the Rosemary Centre to build a Lidl supermarket and another retail unit had been passed with the planning committee chairman's casting vote decisive.[107][108][109]

The site of the old bus station on Rosemary Street is now home to three fast food outlets, Taco Bell, Tim Hortons and Domino's Pizza.[110]

The headquarters of Mansfield District Council were relocated to a new-build occupying part of a former recreation ground at Chesterfield Road South from August 1986, bringing together workers from 12 offices across the district. The project took two years and over-ran the anticipated cost by £1 million, totalling £6.7 million, then the council's biggest spending scheme.[111] it was opened in 1987 by Princess Anne.[112] Catering facilities are run by outside contractors.[113]

From 2012, surplus office space was rented to outside concerns. Working with Ashfield District Council to cut costs, the legal services of both authorities were combined in existing ADC offices at Kirkby in Ashfield. Their joint regeneration service began earlier.[114][115] The council decided in 2014 to close the Civic Centre counter-payments facility.[116][117]

Job Centre Plus, an agency within the Department for Work and Pensions, moved in 2018 from two town-centre venues to the re-modelled Civic Centre interior ground floor. The vacated offices were intended for redevelopment as housing and retail.[118][119][120][121][122]

Mansfield Community Partnership was created at the Civic Centre as a centralised hub for law and order, with police, street wardens, housing, domestic abuse and anti social behaviour officers in a dedicated town-centre unit.[123][122][124][125]

In October 2021, the council announced a plan to create a new community hub at the old town hall in the town centre, intending to relocate staff together with other parties having vested interests in the present building and area. The project will be subject to a successful bid for funding from central government under the Levelling up scheme announced in 2021. The Civic Centre is proposed to be redeveloped.[126]

New data collated by the Office of National Statistics advised that more people are moving from London to Mansfield than any other part of Nottinghamshire.[127]

There has been a significant number of new homes and developments being built or planned in Mansfield such as those of the Berry Hill development to name one which includes 1700 homes, a hotel, health centre, Primary School, care home and offices.[128] Other exclusive housing developments are being built such as those of High Oakham Park.[129]

In 2019 the UK government set up the Towns Fund, which aimed to regenerate areas in need of regeneration. Mansfield was one of these places with the aim of receiving £25 million for its regeneration and development. This is to part with The Mansfield Townscape Heritage Project, which provided grants by the National Lottery to renovate parts of the town centre.[130]

Several urban regeneration projects planned for Mansfield involved large-scale demolition, but the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and subsequent central-government funding cuts and escalating austerity measures deferred them. Mansfield District Council promoted two new developments: Arrival Square, opened 2008,[131] an office block occupied by the Probation Service by the rail station;[132] and Queen's Place—completed and opened by the mayor, Tony Egginton, in late 2013—which cost the council £2.4 million. It offered two new ground-floor retail units and six offices in Queen Street between the new transport interchange and the market square.[133]

Reconstruction of the nearby King's Mill Hospital, part of which was completed by 2009, is near to the MARR road (Mansfield and Ashfield Regeneration Route) which opened in 2004,[134] a bypass route around the town designed to reduce traffic through-flow and improve public access by connecting the A617 at Pleasley to the A617 at Rainworth.

In 2009 Mansfield made a bid for city status, appending redevelopment plans for retail, residential and leisure facilities with road improvements gradually being made; still pending as of August 2020.[135]

Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries in October 1999 acquired Mansfield Brewery, once the United Kingdom's largest independent brewery, for £253 million.[136] Production ceased in 2002,[137] and the Mansfield range of ales moved to manufacturing facilities around the country; the site was later sold to Pubmaster Ltd, and from the 2020s is being redeveloped as housing.[138][139]

In the 1980s, Mansfield Bitter was advertised with a photograph of then US President Ronald Reagan and the tagline: "He might be president of the most powerful nation on earth... but he's never had a pint of Mansfield."[140][141] "Not much matches Mansfield" was also used and became the title for a play set in the town, written by Kevin Fegan for the Mansfield Arts Festival.[142][143][144] A similar 1989 advert contained the wording "He might be the life and soul of the Party...But he's never had a pint of Mansfield." featured Mikhail Gorbachev, then president of the Soviet Union.[145]

Mansfield's old-established soft drink manufacturer, R. L. Jones, with brand names Sunecta and Mandora, was bought by Mansfield Brewery in 1977.[112] A move to a modern factory in Bellamy Road in 1975 released land projected for a high-density housing development known as Layton Burroughs.[112] Mansfield Brewery sold the business in 1988 for £21.5 million to the Scottish drinks company A. G. Barr plc, producer of Irn-Bru, Tizer, and Mandora.[112] At the time the firm employed 400 people. Production ceased there in January 2011 when A. G. Barr moved production to other sites.[146][147]

After demolition of the brewery production buildings in 2008, the site remained unsold,[148][149] with various projected uses mooted. Used temporarily since February 2015 as a trailer park, Mansfield planning department refused further consent in October 2015.[150] One local councillor suggested it could be turned into a town farm,[137] but instead a rented housing development was completed by 2021.[151]

The older ornate office building 'Chadburn House' initially housed an interactive learning centre from 2002.[152][153][154] It closed in April 2015,[155] and was turned into office space for businesses, including the local newspaper,[156] and a micro brewery with a cafe and bar.[157][158][159]

Although Mansfield itself doesn’t show signs of coal mining many areas near the town still do. Coal mining was the main industry for most of the 20th century. A violent episode in the UK miners' strike (1984–1985) occurred in Mansfield on May Day 1984.[160] Most of the area's miners had voted against a strike, but the local union initially maintained that the strike was official to show solidarity with strikers in other areas. When the coal board granted an extra day of leave after the bank holiday, a group of working miners confronted union officials and violence broke out with striking miners.[160] Mansfield later hosted a breakaway union, the Union of Democratic Mineworkers, which recruited many who had opposed the 1984–1985 strike.[161]

The head stocks close to the village of Clipstone are an important local landmark and community groups are trying to preserve them as a reminder of the area's mining history.[162][163][164] As demand for coal fell, Mansfield's pits wound down and miners had to find other work.

Mining subsidence causes problems for properties around Mansfield. A few streets in and around the town form long rows of terraced houses reminiscent of the affordable housing provided for mine workers in the prime of the industry. Many were demolished in 2012 in Pleasley Hill, Market Warsop and elsewhere. The Coal Authority is based in the town.

Mansfield railway station is on the Robin Hood Line, which connects the town with Nottingham and Worksop; the line was opened in 1995. Trains run generally at hourly intervals each way.[165]

The town was originally the terminus of the Mansfield and Pinxton Railway, a horse-drawn plateway built in 1819 and one of the first acquisitions of the newly formed Midland Railway.[166] The Midland used the final section to extend its new Leen Valley line to the present station in 1849.

Mansfield had two railway stations: Mansfield Town, the former Midland station on Station Road; and Mansfield Central, the former Mansfield Railway station in Great Central Road, near Ratcliffe Gate.

The Midland Railway extended its Rolleston Junction–Southwell branch to Mansfield in 1871; continued the line north to Worksop in 1875; opened a link from Mansfield Woodhouse to Westhouses and Blackwell in 1886; and completed another link from Pleasley through Bolsover to Barrow Hill in 1890. The locally promoted Mansfield Railway, between Kirkby South Junction and Clipstone Junction, broke the Midland Railway monopoly; it was opened in stages between 1913 and 1916 for goods trains and, in 1917, for Nottingham–Ollerton passenger trains, calling at a second Mansfield passenger station. Though nominally independent, the Mansfield Railway connected at both ends with the Great Central Railway, which worked the trains.[167]

Central station lost its scheduled passenger services at the beginning of 1956 and Town station closed to passengers in 1964, leaving Mansfield without a passenger railway service until 1995. During this period, Mansfield was, by some definitions, the largest town in Britain without a railway station.[166] The closest station was located at Alfreton; between 1973 and 1995, it was named Alfreton and Mansfield Parkway to encourage use as a railhead for Mansfield.

In 1995, the Robin Hood line restored passenger services and was officially reopened by Secretary of State for Transport, Sir George Young.[168][169] A Sunday service was restored to Mansfield in December 2008.

Mansfield & District Light Railways ran a tram service between 1905 and 1932.

The M1 motorway lies west of Mansfield. It is 6.8 miles (10.9 km) from junction 29 at Heath, Derbyshire for traffic from the north and Chesterfield, and 7.7 miles (12.4 km) from junction 27 at Annesley for traffic from the south.

The A60 road runs north–south through Mansfield, between Nottingham and Worksop. The A617 road skirts around the town, providing a road link eastwards towards Newark-on-Trent as well as westwards towards Chesterfield and the M1.

The A38 road, the longest 2-digit A-road in Great Britain, terminates at Mansfield, and provides the town with a direct link to Derby.

Buses in Mansfield are operated mainly by Stagecoach, with Trent Barton and National Express also working the area. The council granted planning permission for a new bus station on the former Station Road car park, expected to cost £7 million, in 2006.[170][171] The old bus station, built in 1977, handled around 1,500 buses and 16,000 passenger arrivals a day; however, it had an outdated design and appearance, and poor outdoor waiting facilities.

There were good pedestrian links to the pedestrianised town-centre shopping streets; however, the railway station was several hundred yards away. The new bus station addressed the problem, but proved unpopular with shopkeepers near the old facility, with several claiming marked reductions in trade.[172][173]

The new bus station and transport interchange opened on 31 March 2013 in a location on a former car park, close to the railway station.[174] It is part of a regeneration scheme known as Gateway to Mansfield,[172] which aims to give visitors a clean and tidy first impression, including buildings with a themed use of local sandstone. The scheme also aims to improve facilities for locals, boost visitors to the town and help step up the local economy.

The new bus station increased passenger safety and provides a more welcoming scene for arriving visitors. Improvements have included an enclosed waiting area, automatic doors for fume reduction and safety, a tourist information centre, electronic bus and rail departure information, toilets and baby-changing facilities. A tower with lift and stairs to an elevated walkway connects it to the railway station.[174]

The closest airport to Mansfield is East Midlands Airport followed by Birmingham Airport.[175][176]

|A Spire for Mansfield, Westgate]] A few miles outside Mansfield lies Sherwood Forest, a Royal Forest famous for its links with Robin Hood. Mansfield has a tree and a plaque mounted on a plinth in West Gate to mark what was the centre of Sherwood Forest. Nearby is a giant metallic feather sculpture dating from 2007. This has been named A Spire for Mansfield.

Every year between June and August, Mansfield District Council hosts a Summer in the Streets festival. This consists of various public events held all across the town over many days, such as children's entertainment, fairground rides in the market square, and hands-on workshops for things like crafts and circus skills.

The festival highlight is a final event in Titchfield Park called Party in the Park. Its range of entertainment includes live music acts by local bands, performances from local dance groups, and activities such as face painting. For 2012 and 2013, this culminating event was cancelled for austerity reasons.[218][219]

On 21 August 2010 the various summer entertainment arranged by Mansfield District Council included the Irish boy band Westlife in a live concert at Field Mill stadium, home to the town's football team, the Stags. This was the first big-name act to visit the town.

Mansfield has a directly elected mayor, as one of only 16 places with one in the United Kingdom. Tony Egginton was Mayor of Mansfield from October 2002 until retirement in May 2015, being replaced at scheduled elections by a fellow candidate for the Mansfield Independent Forum political party, Kate Allsop. Much was said of the first Executive Mayor, but during his time in office, Mansfield struggled with local land development and many projects across the region faltered.[223][224][225][226][227][228][229][230]

Egginton (in office 2002–2015) was criticised by some councillors and residents for placing too much focus on self-publicity,[231][232][233][234] as opposed to publicity for the town. The issue was raised again after his prominent role in Olympic swimmer Rebecca Adlington's homecoming ceremony, after her Gold Medal successes at the 2008 Beijing Olympic games.[235]

In April 2017, Sophie Whitby was elected to the Mansfield district as a Member of Youth Parliament, on a manifesto that included promoting equality for the LGBT community.[236]