| Mansfield | |
|---|---|
| Town | |
 Market Place and Cavendish Monument _-_geograph.org.uk_-_3044970.jpg) Church Street | |
 Coat of arms | |
  Mansfield Location withinNottinghamshire | |
| Population | 97,831 (2021 Census)[1] |
| OS grid reference | SK 53745 61114 |
| • London | 140.9 miles[2] |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Areas of the town | List
|
| Post town | Mansfield |
| Postcode district | NG18, NG19 |
| Dialling code | 01623 |
| Police | Nottinghamshire |
| Fire | Nottinghamshire |
| Ambulance | East Midlands |
| UK Parliament | |
| Website | www |
| |
Mansfield/ˈmænzfiːld/ is amarket town and the administrative centre of theMansfield District inNottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the widerMansfield Urban Area[3] and the second largest settlement in Nottinghamshire (following the city ofNottingham).Henry III granted Mansfield theRoyal Charter of a market town in 1227. The town lies in theMaun Valley, 12 miles (19 km) north of Nottingham. The district had a population of 110,500 at the2021 census.[4] Mansfield is the one local authority in Nottinghamshire with a publiclyelected mayor, theMayor of Mansfield. Mansfield in ancient times became the pre-eminent in importance amongst the towns ofSherwood Forest.[5]
According to historian William Horner Dove (1894) there is dispute to the origins of the name. Three conjectures have been considered: the name may have been given to the noble family of Mansfield who came over withWilliam the Conqueror, other sources suggest that the name came from Manson, anAnglo-Saxon word for traffic and a field meaning a place of trade, while others claim the town is named after theRiver Maun which runs through Mansfield, the town being built around the river.[6]
Settlement dates toRoman Britain times between AD 43 to AD 410.Hayman Rooke in 1787 discovered twoRoman villas betweenMansfield Woodhouse andPleasley; a cache ofdenarii (300-400 Roman Silver Coins were found near King's Mill in 1849).[7][8][9] A Roman tessellated pavement was found in one of the villas nearMansfield Woodhouse.[10]
In AD 868 theDanes came into the county and by AD 877 they had complete control over the county. Their occupation left names on the town such as Skerry Hill, Ratcliffe Gate and Carr Bank.[11]
The Royal Manor of Mansfield was held by the King. In 1042,Edward the Confessor possessed a manor in Mansfield. During theNorman Conquest in 1066,William the Conqueror madeSherwood Forest aRoyal Forest for hunting.[12]
Mansfield was recorded as beingMammesfeld in the Wapentake of Broxtowe and the land of William the Conqueror in theDomesday Book of 1086. William ownedtwo 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.[13][14][15]
In the time ofHenry 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 inSherwood Forest. Sir John Cockle was later known as the Miller of Mansfield.[16][17] In 1199 the Manor was owned byKing John. King John used to visit Mansfield frequently between 1200 and 1216, that he built a residence here. Later,Edward I held a Royal Council in the town. The Manor, then owned byHenry III, subsequently passed toHenry de Hastings. In 1329Queen Isabella, mother ofEdward III, was the Lady of the Manor of Mansfield.[18]
Market-petition documents of 1227 spelt MansfieldMaunnesfeld.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 toMannesfeld.[7] Mansfield, Skegby and Sutton in Ashfield were the land of the king in 1086 as stated in theDomesday Book.[19] There are remains of the 12th-centuryKing John's Palace inKings Clipstone, between Mansfield andEdwinstowe, and it was an area of retreat for royal families and dignitaries through to the 15th century. It was here thatWilliam the Lion of Scotland metRichard I of England (Richard the Lionheart) to congratulate him on his return from the crusades. It was also whereQueen Eleanor the first wife ofEdward I was taken ill and moved toHarby.[20] King John and Edward I are reputed to have had impromptu parliaments at theParliament Oak nearMarket Warsop.[21]
St Peter and St Paul's Church is mentioned in the 1086 Doomsday Book and in 1092 it was passed byWilliam II toRobert Bloet the bishop ofLincoln andLord Chancellor of England.[22][19][23]
Access to the town was by road from the city ofNottingham, on the way toSheffield. 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.[24][25][26]
In 1516, during the reign ofHenry VIII, an act of parliament settled the Manor toThomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk.[27]
Dame Cecily Flogan 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 ofEdward VI.[27][28]
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, which survives and has a 1490 dating stone; the Talbot; the White Bear; the Ram, with timber from before 1500; and the White Lion. Several timber-framedcruck 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.[29]
The Manor was passed toGeorge Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury the husband ofBess of Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury in 1589, who then passed it toGilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury (the 6th Earls son) until his death in 1616. Bess's daughterMary Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury the wife of Gilbert Talbot became the owner.[30] Finally the Manor was passed to theDukes of Newcastle andPortland.[27]
Mansfield and surrounding areas in Nottinghamshire became a centre forNonconformism, separating from theChurch of England.
In 1647,George Fox who was originally fromFenny Drayton inLeicestershire lived in Mansfield and worked as a shoemaker for 4 years. George lived in a cottage at the site ofSt Phillip Neri Catholic Church and ground on Chesterfield Road.[31][32][33][34] It was at this time he started his ministry. George Fox in 1649 was imprisoned inNottingham for interrupting the service at the church in Mansfield Woodhouse. He became the founder of the (Religious Society of Friends)Quakers. Mansfield became the birth place of the Quaker religion after Fox had a revelation walking pastSt Peter and St Paul's Church and felt compelled to preach to others. The revelation is mentioned in his journal to which he states 'and as I was walking by the steeplehouse side, in the town of Mansfield the Lord said unto me, that which people do trample upon must be thy food. And as the Lord spoke he opened it to me how that people and professors did trample upon the life, even the life of Christ was trampled upon…'. The 'steeplhouses' meaning the church of St Peter and St Pauls Church.[35] This was during the time of theEnglish Civil War.
There is a Quaker Heritage Trail in the town. The former meeting house was on the site of the bus station.[36][37][38] Fox metElizabeth Hooton at her home Quaker House in nearbySkegby; she is usually considered to be the first person to accept the doctrines of Quakerism.[39][40]
.jpg)
The Old Meeting House (Unitarian church) on Stockwell Gate was built in 1702 and is the oldest nonconformist place of worship in Nottinghamshire. The history of the church is traced back to 1666. During the persecution of Presbyterian ministers (at the time of theNonconformists Act 1665), eight ministers sought refuge in Mansfield under the protection of Reverend John Firth.[41]
In 1690, during the reign ofWilliam III and QueenMary, Daniel Clay was put in thepillory in Mansfield for disloyalty, for speaking these words: "God dam King William and Queen Mary and yt King James both should and would come again."[42]
.jpg)
Elizabeth Heath founded the almshouses for the poor in 1691. Six were to house Quakers and six members of the established church.[36][43][44]
In 1709,Samuel Brunt left £436.15 to the relief of the poor inhabitants of Mansfield. Faith Clerkson in 1725 and Charles Thompson in 1784 both donated money to educating children in Mansfield. This formulated the beginning of the Brunt's Charity.[45][46]
.jpg)
Robert Dodsley, who wroteThe King and the Miller of Mansfield, was a stocking weaver in the town. His writings were set in the town also. He became one of the foremost publishers of that day, publishing DrSamual Johnson’s 'London' in 1738. Later, he suggested and helped finance Johnson'sDictionary of the English Language.[47]
In 1750,George Whitefield, one of the founders ofMethodism) came to preach in the town.[48][49] TheMoot Hall in the Mansfield Market Place was erected in 1752 byHenrietta Harley, Countess of Oxford and Countess Mortimer.[50]
It was recorded that the MansfieldWorkhouse was originally based on Nottingham Road in 1777, housing 56 inmates. It later moved to Stockwell Gate, where the Mansfield Union Workhouse was designed to house 300 people under the Mansfield Poor Law.[51][52]
In 1790, John Throsby described Mansfield as 'a flourishing and genteel market town, general well built.....and is certainly an ancient place, and some think of high antiquity'.[53]
_(1).jpg)
In 1851,Lord George Bentinck was commemorated in the Cavendish Monument (Bentinck Memorial) in the Market Place in Mansfield., paid for bypublic subscription.[54] The monument has a square base and three steps, and the style isGothic revival It was originally intended to include a figure of Lord George, but there were insufficient funds.[55]
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"[18]
The Carnegie Old Library on Leeming Street was funded and erected in 1905 by theindustrialist andphilanthropistAndrew Carnegie.[56][57] 1905 was also the year that theMansfield and District Light Railways tram system was opened; it closed in 1932.[58]
Elizabeth II and her husbandPrince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visited Mansfield in 1977, to mark herSilver Jubilee.[59]
Mansfield is amarket town with a 700-year-old market tradition; aroyal charter was issued in 1227. The present market square was created after demolition under the Mansfield Improvement Act 1823(4 Geo. 4. c. xcii).[7] In the centre is the Bentinck Memorial, built in 1849, which commemoratesLord George Bentinck (1802–1848), son of theWilliam Bentinck, 4th Duke of Portland, a local landowner.[60]
The nearby Buttercross Market in West Gate, site of an old cattle market and named for thebuttercross, has a centrepiece of local sandstone dating from the 16th century.[24] Mansfield District Council closed this section in 2015.[61][62] Adjacent is Mansfield Library, officially opened byQueen Elizabeth II in 1977 and refurbished in 2012.[63] The West Gate Pump commemorates John Adams bringing the firstMethodist service to Mansfield in 1788.[64]
Mansfield has a largemarket place within its commercial and retail centre.
Until 2016, there was also market trading at the old Buttercross Market.[65][66][67][68] Among Mansfield's retail outlets is the Four Seasonsshopping centre created in 1973–1976, with over 50 units occupied by national chains and phone shops.[69][70][71]
Close to the Market Place is Leeming Street, which housesMansfield Museum,The Palace Theatre, restaurants, public houses, bars and night clubs.
There are also three outdoor retail parks, two with adjacent branded fast-food outlets.[72][73][74]
Since 2010, there has been a town-centreBusiness Improvement District (BID), financed by 2 per cent extra on the rateable value of nearby businesses.[75][76][77][78] Initially, the BID had offices in theOld Town Hall, before moving in 2015 to allow structural repairs.[79]
The BID also offers events to attract visitors and raise awareness, provides security including banning orders and improved shop frontages,[80][81] Other BID moves have been "gating off"alleyways blighted by anti-social behaviour, improving signage, and enhancing cleansing operations.[82][83][84][85] and in 2013 installed acrowd-funded town centreWi-Fi internet installation costing £37,000.[86]
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.[87]
Mansfield is going through a period ofurban regeneration, with new homes being built for a growing demand. Data collated by theOffice for National Statistics in 2020 advised that more people are moving from London to Mansfield than any other part of Nottinghamshire.[88]
Mansfield District Council received £25 million from the UK Government's Levelling Up Fund in 2023 for the Mansfield Connect project, which aims to regenerate the formerCo-operative department store (taken over byBeales in 2011)[89] into a multi-agency and community hub for the NHS, the Department of Work and Pensions, Nottinghamshire County Council, Vision West Nottinghamshire College and Mansfield CVS.[90]
In February 2022Severn Trent Water shared its £76 million Green Recovery Project for flood alleviation investment for the town, including rain garden areas around the Market Place, a memorial garden at the back of the Old Town Hall and apocket park on the corner of Walkden Street/Quaker Way.[91] Some of the £76 million was spent on the memorial garden on Exchange Row, landscaped areas in Mansfield Market Place and Market House Place as part of the Sustainable Urban Drainage System programme to prevent flooding.[92]
Also in 2023, the council purchased White Hart Street in the town centre and announced plans for its redevelopment[93] — a mixed-use development of commercial premises and affordable homes was given the green light in 2025, and the scheme is scheduled for completion in 2028.[94] This is part of the Mansfield Town Centre Masterplan.[95]
A significant number of new homes and developments have been built or are planned in Mansfield, including High Oakham Park[96] and the Lindhurst development, which is to include 1700 homes, a hotel, health centre, primary school, care home and offices.[97]
Rosemary Centre, built as a largeweaving shed in 1907 by John Harwood Cash and converted to retail in 1984,[98] is a pedestrianised area off the town centre with a covered streetside parade. In April 2023, a planning application to demolish the Rosemary Centre to build a Lidl supermarket and another retail unit was approved.[99][100] The adjacent Walkden Street Car Park's top floor collapsed, and Mansfield District Council have decided for the car park to be demolished also.[101] This again forms part of the town centre Masterplan.[102]
A new hotel is expected to be built on the former bus station as planned from 2020 at the cost of £12 million. Planning permission has been granted but due to the rising costs of inflation the plans are being revised to be cost effective.[103]
The headquarters of theMansfield District Council at Chesterfield Road South were purpose-built in 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.[104] It was opened in 1987 byPrincess Anne.[105] In-house catering facilities are run by outside contractors.[106] The civic centre includes Job Centre Plus, an agency within theDepartment for Work and Pensions.[107]
Mansfield Community Partnership at the Civic Centre is 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.[108][109][110][111]
In 2021, the council proposed a new community hub at theold town hall in the town centre, intending to relocate staff together with other parties having vested interests in the present building and area.[112] By 2023 the council's priorities had changed, having acquired a £20 million grant from central government towards the cost of converting the nearby oldArt Deco-styled former Co-Operative store, closed since 2020.[113] NamedMansfield Connect, a multi-agency hub is planned with space sub-let to partner organisations such as police, social care andJobcentre Plus.[114]
Reconstruction ofKing's Mill Hospital, part of which was completed by 2009, is near the MARR road (Mansfield and Ashfield Regeneration Route) which opened in 2004,[115] a bypass route around the town designed to reduce traffic through-flow and improve public access by connecting the A617 atPleasley to theA617 atRainworth. In 2009 Mansfield made an unsuccessful bid for city status, appending redevelopment plans for retail, residential and leisure facilities with road improvements gradually being made.[116]
Several regeneration projects planned for Mansfield involved mass demolition, but the2008 financial crisis and subsequent central-government funding cuts and escalatingausterity measures deferred them. Mansfield District Council promoted two new developments: Arrival Square, opened 2008,[117] an office block occupied by theProbation Service by the rail station;[118] and Queen's Place—completed 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 newtransport interchange and the market square.[119]
Although Mansfield itself does not show signs of coal mining, a few areas near the town still do. Coal mining was the main industry for most of the 20th century. A violent episode in theUK miners' strike (1984–1985) occurred in Mansfield onMay Day 1984.[120] Most of the area's miners had voted against a strike, but the localunion 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.[120] Mansfield later hosted a breakaway union, theUnion of Democratic Mineworkers, which recruited many who had opposed the 1984–1985 strike.[121] TheCoal Authority is based in Mansfield, and the larger than lifesize statueTribute to the British Miner by Nikolaos Kotziamanis was erected in 2003 to honour the town's mining heritage.[122]
As demand for coal fell, Mansfield's pits wound down and miners had to find other work. Theheadstocks close to the village ofClipstone are an important local landmark and said to be the highest in Europe.[123] Community groups are trying to preserve them as a reminder of the area's mining history.[123][124][125]
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. New houses have been built since in this area of Pleasley Hill.[126]
Mansfield Brewery was best known for Mansfield Bitter, and its advertising slogan "not much matches Mansfield", which was later used as the title of a play byKevin Fegan set in the town.[127] In the 1980s, the brewery ran adverts referencing the achievements of contemporary world figures such as Ronald Reagan with the slogan "but he's never had a pint of Mansfield".[128][129] The brewery was acquired in 1999 byWolverhampton & Dudley Breweries,[130] and closed in 2002. Most of the site was redeveloped as housing,[131] while the ornate office building 'Chadburn House' is now office space for businesses, including the local newspaper,[132] and amicro brewery with a cafe and bar.[133]
Mansfield's old-established soft drink manufacturer, R. L. Jones, with brand namesSunecta andMandora, was bought by Mansfield Brewery in 1977.[105] A move to a modern factory in Bellamy Road in 1975 released land projected for a high-density housing development known as Layton Burroughs.[105] Mansfield Brewery sold the business in 1988 for £21.5 million to the Scottish drinks companyA. G. Barr plc, producer ofIrn-Bru,Tizer, and Mandora.[105] At the time the firm employed 400 people. Production ceased there in January 2011 when A. G. Barr moved production to other sites.[134][135]
.jpg)
Mansfield railway station is on theRobin Hood Line, which connects the town withNottingham andWorksop; the line was opened in 1995. Trains run generally at hourly intervals each way.[136]
The town was originally the terminus of theMansfield and Pinxton Railway, a horse-drawnplateway built in 1819 and one of the first acquisitions of the newly formedMidland Railway.[137] The Midland used the final section to extend its newLeen Valley line to the present station in 1849.
The Midland Railway extended its Rolleston Junction–Southwell branch to Mansfield in 1871; continued the line north to Worksop in 1875; opened a link fromMansfield Woodhouse toWesthouses 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, forNottingham Victoria–Ollerton passenger trains, calling at a second Mansfield passenger station. Though nominally independent, the Mansfield Railway connected at both ends with theGreat Central Railway, which worked the trains.[138] Mansfield had two railway stations:Mansfield Town, the former Midland station on Station Road; andMansfield Central, the former Mansfield Railway station in Great Central Road, near Ratcliffe Gate.Mansfield & District Light Railways ran a tram service between 1905 and 1932.
Mansfield Central station lost its scheduled passenger services at the beginning of 1956 and Mansfield Town station closed to passengers in 1964, leaving Mansfield without passenger railway service until 1995. During this period, Mansfield was, by some definitions, the largest town in Britain without a railway station.[137] The closest station wasAlfreton; between 1973 and 1995, it was named 'Alfreton and Mansfield Parkway' to encourage use as a railhead for Mansfield.
The Midland Railway's 1875viaduct in White Hart Street is a Grade II listed building.[139]
TheM1 motorway lies west of Mansfield. It is 6.8 miles (10.9 km) from junction 29 atHeath, Derbyshire for traffic from the north andChesterfield, and 7.7 miles (12.4 km) from junction 27 atAnnesley for traffic from the south.
.jpg)
TheA60 road runs north–south through Mansfield, betweenNottingham andWorksop. TheA617 road skirts around the town, providing a road link eastwards towardsNewark-on-Trent as well as westwards towards Chesterfield and the M1.
TheA38 road, the longest 2-digit A-road in Great Britain, terminates at Mansfield, and provides the town with a direct link toDerby.
Buses in Mansfield are operated mainly byStagecoach fromMansfield bus station, withTrent Barton andNational Express also working the area.
The bus station opened in 2013 near the railway station as part of theGateway to Mansfield scheme,[140][141] replacing a 1977 bus station closer to the town centre.
Mansfield is inMansfield parliamentary constituency, which also includes neighbouringWarsop.Steve Yemm (Labour) has been the Member of Parliament since 2024.
Mansfield has a directly elected mayor, theMayor of Mansfield, which since 2019 has been Andy Abrahams.[142]
In April 2017, Sophie Whitby was elected to the Mansfield district as aMember of Youth Parliament, on a manifesto that included promoting equality for theLGBT community.[143]
Mansfield Museum, is situated on Leeming Street. The museum opened in 1904.[144] and has been based on its present site since 1938. The museum wonThe Guardian Family-Friendly Museum of the Year Award in 2011.[145]
The Quaker Heritage Trail, starts fromMansfield Bus Station. A map and audio guide is found on the Nottinghamshire County Council website.[146][147]
The Mansfield Heritage Trail starts from the museum and this comes with a map and audio guide.[148][149]
St Peter and St Paul's Church is aGrade I listed building. The church is mentioned in the Doomsday Book.[23]
The viaduct was built in 1875.[150] And it is grade II listed.[151]
The Old Meeting House built in 1702.
Titchfield Park, on the same site as the Water Meadows swimming complex, offers large grassy areas on both sides of theRiver Maun, crossed by two footbridges. It has a bowls green, hard tennis courts, a basketball court, a children's play area, and many flowerbeds.
Fisher Lane Park stretches from the top of Littleworth to Rock Hill. It is popular with dog walkers and kite flyers, and since the installation of a concrete skate plaza, with skaters. In the summer, children's rides and stalls are set up in the park.
.jpg)
Carr Bank Park has a rocky grotto, a bandstand and summer flower beds. It has a war memorial built of localsandstone, dedicated to soldiers killed in action since the end of theSecond World War, to complement the original setting unveiled after theFirst World War in 1921.[152]
Other parks in Mansfield are Berry Hill and King George V Parks.
Mansfield is a few miles fromSherwood Forest, a Royal Forest famous for its links withRobin Hood. Mansfield used to have a tree and a plaque mounted on a plinth in West Gate to mark what was the centre of Sherwood Forest. Nearby was a giant metallic feather sculpture dating from 2007. This was namedA Spire for Mansfield.
_(2).jpg)
ThePalace Theatre in Leeming St is the town's prime entertainment venue. Built as a cinema in 1910 and originally known as the Palace Electric Theatre, it was adapted into a live theatre with aproscenium arch.[153] It was known as the Civic Hall and Civic Theatre before the current name was revived in 1995.[105] With aseating capacity of 534, the theatre is a mid-scale touring venue.[154][155] It presents a programme of professional and amateur productions and a yearlypantomime.[156][157][158]
Mansfield Super Bowl, a 28-lane alley with hospitality, opened in 1991. Facing closure in 2014, it was sold and refurbished in 2015.[159]
The oldCarnegie library, founded in 1905 in Leeming Street, became an arts and performance centre in 1976.[160] It houses a recording studio, meeting room and 100-seat Studio Theatre.[161]
Mansfield also has a largeOdeon Cinemas on a new retail and entertainment park outside the town centre.[162] The previousABC town-centre cinema was used as asnooker centre until closure in 2012;[163] late in 2013 it was converted into a church.[164]
Every year between June and August, Mansfield District Council hosts aSummer 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.[165][166]
Mansfield was home to Venue 44,[167] a nightclub that gave birth to the superclubRenaissance which was operated there in 1992–1994 by Geoff Oakes[168] and launched the DJ'sSasha,John Digweed, Nigel Dawson[169] and Ian Ossia to global fame.[170] The building was demolished in 2010.
The Intake, a live-music venue in Kirkland Avenue, closed in 2016.[171] TheTown Mill, a former waterside mill on the banks of the Maun at the edge of the town centre, was turned into a pub and live music venue in 2002, but closed in 2010, citing the smoking ban, rising beer prices and recession among its reasons for failure.[172]
On 21 August 2010, the Irish boy bandWestlife performed live atField Mill stadium, home to Mansfield's football team, the Stags.[citation needed]
St Peter and St Paul's Church is aGrade I listed building. It is mentioned in theDomesday Book in 1086 and was mostly built by theNormans.[23]
St Johns Church, a Grade II listed building, was built in 1854 and designed byHenry Isaac Stevens.[173][174]St Mark's Church was built in 1897; the church building is Grade II listed.[175] St Lawrence the Martyr Church on Skerry Hill was built in 1909 and is Grade II listed.[176][177][178][179]
St Philip Neri Church is a Roman Catholic Church on Chesterfield Road South.[180]
AQuaker Meeting House of theReligious Society of Friends is on Rosemary Street.[181][182]
Mansfield is home toMansfield Town FC, known as the Stags or yellows. Relegated to theConference National after 77 years in theFootball League at the end of the 2007–2008 season, Mansfield Town returned to the Football League after winning the 2012–2013 Conference National title. They were promoted to League One (Third Tier) for the first time in 22 years in April 2024.[183]Non-League clubAFC Mansfield plays in theForest Town area of Mansfield.
Mansfield Rugby Club is arugby union club based at Eakring Road and currently plays inMidlands 1 East, a sixth-tier league in theEnglish rugby union system. It won the Notts Cup for five years in succession and for a record 18 times.
Mansfield Giants is Mansfield's Premier Basketball Club, and has a three-star Accreditation and Club Mark from the English Sports Council. The team plays in theEngland Basketball (EB2).
Mansfield hosted an annualhalf marathon for more than 30 years until 2011.
Angling is well supported in the Mansfield district, where ponds remain from the former textile milling industry.
Tennis is catered for by Mansfield Lawn Tennis Club located at the same site since 1883, with two grass courts and fourasphalt courts, three of them floodlit.[184] Further hard-surface courts are found in the district at six Mansfield District Council park locations.[185]
Mansfield is home to Mansfield Roller Derby, Mansfield's premier Flat TrackRoller Derby league.[186]
.jpg)
Mansfield has two indoor swimming centres and a third, smaller pool attached to a school.[187] These facilities give Mansfield the largest square meterage of indoor water-sports facilities per capita of any town in the United Kingdom with less than 100,000 inhabitants.[citation needed] The town is one of three outlets for theNottinghamshire County Council Swim Squad, which competes as Nova Centurion. The Rebecca Adlington Swimming Centre at Sherwood Swimming Baths includes a 25-metre pool and an endless stroke-improvement training pool with variable-resistance water flow. The complex uses a ground-source heat pump backed by a biomass boiler burning wood pellets prepared from waste by a local wood yard.[188][189]
At theBeijing 2008 Olympic Games, a Mansfield contestant,Rebecca Adlington, won two gold medals, for 400 and 800-metre freestyle swimming. After her record-breaking success, Adlington was welcomed home to Mansfield by thousands lining the streets to applaud as she passed in an open top bus. This culminated in an appearance at theold Town Hall in the Market Square. Her success boosted swimming interest in the area, leading to expansion of swimming classes to encourage young people to begin swimming. At the2012 Olympic Games in and around London, Adlington won two Bronze medals again for 400 and 800 metres, the best performance of a generally disappointingTeam GB swimming squad. She retired from competitive swimming in February 2013.[190]
Water Meadows swimming complex in Bath Street, on the site of the former Mansfield Baths, has a gym and a soft-play area for children with an adjoining café, as well as one 25-metre competition pool, two other pools, and a small teaching pool. The leisure lagoon pool has anartificial wave machine operating periodically, and also a slide and a shallow area like a beach. The complex is popular with family groups, and many surrounding schools make use of its facilities.
Mansfield Bowling Club is reputed to have origins in the 1700s. The club played at abowling green to the rear of the Bowl in Hand pub in the town centre, until relocating into the grounds ofQueen Elizabeth's Academy, with a new facility including pavilion opening in 2009.[191][192]
The main cemetery and crematorium occupy a 10 acres (4.0 hectares) site accessed from Derby Road, on the southern edge of town near the boundary with Ashfield.[193] They share a car park. In late 2015, Mansfield District Council recognised the need for additional spaces and planning consent was obtained.[194] The older part of the cemetery, fronting Nottingham Road and Forest Hill (the old Derby Road) has on-street parking. Site access on foot can be hard due to the steep slope.[193]
The cemetery was opened in 1857 due to insufficient church graveyard space,[193] the mid-to-late Victorian population growth and several then-new churches built with little or no dedicated graveyard areas.[195][196][197] A 10-acre extension was made in 1898.[193] Registered by theCommonwealth War Graves Commission as 'Nottingham Road Cemetery', this cemetery contains the war graves of 51 Commonwealth service personnel of World War I and 45 from World War II.[198]
The adjacentMansfield and District Crematorium, with two chapels seating 35 and up to 80, was set up in 1960.[199] and is a responsibility shared betweenMansfield District Council,Ashfield District Council andNewark and Sherwood District Council.[200]
There are other cemeteries on theA60 atMansfield Woodhouse and atWarsop, and off theA617 atPleasley Hill.[193]
The local newspapers are theChad[201] (formerlyChronicle Advertiser) andMansfield and Ashfield News Journal, a community newspaper.
Radio stations includeMansfield 103.2,BBC Radio Nottingham andCapital Midlands.
Local television coverage is provided byBBC East Midlands Today andITV News Central.
Mansfield istwinned with:
Mansfield has atemperate oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb), with a narrow temperature range, an even spread of rainfall, low levels of sunshine and often breezy conditions throughout the year. The closest weather-station records for Mansfield come from Warsop inMeden Vale, seven miles to the north.
The absolute maximum temperature record for the area stands at 34.6 °C (94.3 °F), recorded in August 1990.[212] In a typical year the warmest day should reach 28.9 °C (84.0 °F) and 12.72 days should reach 25.1 °C (77.2 °F) or higher.[213][214]
The absolute minimum temperature record for the area is −19.1 °C (−2.4 °F), recorded in January 1987. There is air frost on an average of 59 nights a year.[215]
Rainfall averages 634 mm a year, with 113 days reporting in excess of 1 mm of rain (observation period 1971–2000).[216][217]
| Climate data for Warsop,[a] elevation: 46 m (151 ft), 1971–2000 normals, extremes 1960–2006 | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 14.4 (57.9) | 17.7 (63.9) | 22.2 (72.0) | 25.3 (77.5) | 27.0 (80.6) | 31.6 (88.9) | 32.5 (90.5) | 34.6 (94.3) | 27.9 (82.2) | 23.9 (75.0) | 18.0 (64.4) | 15.0 (59.0) | 34.6 (94.3) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 7.2 (45.0) | 7.1 (44.8) | 10.0 (50.0) | 12.4 (54.3) | 16.2 (61.2) | 19.1 (66.4) | 21.8 (71.2) | 21.3 (70.3) | 18.0 (64.4) | 13.8 (56.8) | 9.4 (48.9) | 7.9 (46.2) | 13.7 (56.7) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 3.8 (38.8) | 3.9 (39.0) | 6.1 (43.0) | 7.8 (46.0) | 10.9 (51.6) | 13.8 (56.8) | 16.1 (61.0) | 15.7 (60.3) | 13.2 (55.8) | 9.8 (49.6) | 6.1 (43.0) | 4.6 (40.3) | 9.3 (48.7) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 0.4 (32.7) | 0.6 (33.1) | 2.2 (36.0) | 3.2 (37.8) | 5.6 (42.1) | 8.4 (47.1) | 10.4 (50.7) | 10.1 (50.2) | 8.4 (47.1) | 5.8 (42.4) | 2.8 (37.0) | 1.3 (34.3) | 4.9 (40.8) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −19.1 (−2.4) | −15.6 (3.9) | −13.9 (7.0) | −6.7 (19.9) | −3.9 (25.0) | −1.7 (28.9) | 1.4 (34.5) | −0.1 (31.8) | −3.2 (26.2) | −6.6 (20.1) | −8.4 (16.9) | −15.2 (4.6) | −19.1 (−2.4) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 56.2 (2.21) | 42.5 (1.67) | 48.6 (1.91) | 53.3 (2.10) | 48.6 (1.91) | 60.8 (2.39) | 43.9 (1.73) | 48.6 (1.91) | 54.1 (2.13) | 56.2 (2.21) | 51.8 (2.04) | 63.1 (2.48) | 633.9 (24.96) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 1.0 mm) | 10.7 | 8.7 | 10.6 | 9.4 | 8.7 | 9.2 | 7.2 | 8.3 | 8.2 | 9.8 | 10.0 | 11.5 | 113.0 |
| Source:KNMI[218] | |||||||||||||
Give the gift of choice... with a Four Seasons Gift Card. Accepted in most of the 55 Four Seasons stores.
After strong lobbying of Notts County Council, they have committed to change, refresh and re-install all directional signage into Mansfield, including better signage for all Car Parks
Opinion is still divided over whether the historic headstocks at the former Clipstone Colliery site should be preserved or demolished
Drinks maker A.G. Barr has announced it is to close its Mansfield site in early 2011
Mansfield mayor Tony Egginton has made it a priority to oversee the redevelopment of the town's Stockwell Gate area before he retires from office in 18 months' time. And he has moved to reassure the public that the new car park located on the old bus station, which opened last Wednesday, is only intended to be temporary.... Patrick Slack, who owns Slack's news kiosk on Rosemary Street, said: "I lost around 20 per cent of my business when the old bus station shut down and I know others were similarly affected, so anything that brings people this way has to be a good thing."
The eye catching new state of the art bus station opened for business on 31 March 2013 and offers better bus, road and rail links. It is just a three-minute walk from both the old bus station and Mansfield market place.... The bus station is a fully enclosed building offering protection from the weather, with comfortable seating and 24 hour CCTV, providing a relaxed, safe waiting environment... and for customer safety and comfort, boarding will be controlled by automatic doors that only open when the bus has arrived[permanent dead link]
'Coronation Street' star Vicky Entwistle has been confirmed as the headline name in this year's Christmas pantomime at Mansfield Palace Theatre
Arena Church's plans for the old ABC Cinema and Riley's snooker hall in Leeming Street include community support groups and cinema screenings
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Geographic | |
| Other | |
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
