Coordinates: 53°05′49″N 1°22′48″W / 53.097°N 1.380°W / 53.097; -1.380

Alfreton
Alfreton High Street in 2007
Alfreton  Alfreton shown within Derbyshire
Population	22,302
OS grid reference	SK414558
District	Amber Valley
Shire county	Derbyshire
Region	East Midlands
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	ALFRETON
Postcode district	DE55
Dialling code	01773
Police	Derbyshire
Fire	Derbyshire
Ambulance	East Midlands
EU Parliament	East Midlands
UK Parliament	Amber Valley
List of places: UK • England • Derbyshire

Alfreton is a town and civil parish in Amber Valley, Derbyshire, England, adjoining the Bolsover and North East Derbyshire districts. It was formerly a Norman Manor and later an Urban District. The population of the Alfreton Ward was 7,928 at the 2001 Census.^[1] The villages of Ironville, Riddings, Somercotes and Swanwick were historically part of the Manor and Urban District, and the population including these was 24,476 in 2001.

Local economy[link]

The main industry of Alfreton was historically coal mining but after the mines closed in the 1960s it changed to light industry, warehousing, retailing and the service sector. A substantial proportion of local jobs are in the latter, such as health, education and leisure. A significant but declining proportion of the area is still agricultural. Alfreton town is a busy urban centre with a number of national chain stores, along with independents and charity shops, but is dominated by a large branch of Tesco. There are several banks, building societies, estate agents and other services. There is an indoor market, library, two post offices, job centre and numerous pubs and food outlets. There is a health centre, a leisure centre, swimming pool and park at the west end of the town, and a golf course outside the town to the west.

Transport[link]

The area has a heavily used and extensive road network, in particular the arterial A61 and A38, the latter linking to the nearby junction 28 of the M1 motorway. The town grew as a centre for bus transport throughout the 20th century and still has extensive bus services. Alfreton's railway station, sited to the north-east of the town, was closed in the 1960s as part of the Beeching Axe, but on 7 May 1973 a station was opened on the same site called Alfreton and Mansfield Parkway. When Mansfield regained its own station as part of the Robin Hood Line re-openings, the name was changed to Alfreton. Services run to London St Pancras in the morning and evening peaks with an hourly service also running to Liverpool and Norwich. A new hourly service has also been introduced and serves the Leeds to Nottingham route.

Geography[link]

Alfreton is located at 53°06′00″N 01°23′00″W / 53.1°N 1.3833333°W / 53.1; -1.3833333 (53.1000, -1.3833)¹.

Nearby Places

	Bakewell	Clay Cross, Chesterfield, Sheffield	Mansfield
	Matlock		South Normanton, Pinxton, Sutton in Ashfield,
		Alfreton    East
	Belper, Derby	Ripley, Derbyshire	Heanor, Nottingham

Politics[link]

Alfreton is part of the Amber Valley constituency, the MP is Nigel Mills (Conservative). The local council for Alfreton is Amber Valley Borough Council.

Notable residents[link]

• Benjamin Outram, civil engineer was born here in 1764.^[2]
• 

  

  Watchorn School and Church
  Robert Watchorn emigrated to America through Castle Garden. He served as the US Commissioner of Immigration at Ellis Island, between 1905 and 1909. He later worked as vice president of the Union Oil Company. Robert Watchorn was a benefactor of Alfreton after the first world war. In 1927, the Watchorn Memorial Primitive Church was founded and later a school, a manse and cottages, all in memory of his mother. A sports ground and pavilion were given in remembrance of his son. He also had the Lincoln Library built, now a Masonic Hall.^[3]
• James Young patented a process to obtain oil from coal whilst working in Alfreton in 1848.
• Tom Fox recently received an MBE from the Queen for his outstanding contribution to the youth in the Amber Valley area. He joined Derbyshire County Council over 30 years ago in 1972 and started working at Alfreton's Polygon Youth Centre. Although he retired from his youth worker job in 2006, he still helps out one night a week. The emphasis of the award was for his work with children with special needs.^[4]
• Sally Pepper who presents the weather on the BBC's local evening news programme East Midlands Today.^{[citation needed]}
• Norman Whitehead^[5] (1915–1983) was born and painted actively in the area during the 1930s.
• William Mugliston (died 1788), born locally, was an eighteenth-century poet. His works are now largely forgotten, but reference to him can be found in an early history of Alfreton held at the Derbyshire County Archives in Matlock, Derbyshire. His most notable work is "A Contemplative Walk with the Author's Wife and Children in the Park of George Moorewood Esq at Alfreton" (c 1782). He was featured in the Lady's Magazine' (sic). Other works include "The Cruelty of Removing the Poor".

Education[link]

The local secondary school is Alfreton Grange Arts College^[6] (ages 11–18) on Grange Street. The school was recently renamed, having previously been known as the Mortimer Wilson School for many decades.

Sport[link]

The local football club is Alfreton Town, who play in the Conference National division.

Alfreton Cricket Club currently play in the Derbyshire Premier League and run four senior teams on Saturdays. They play on the picturesque Alfreton Park.^[7]

Alfreton has an active cycling club, organising a full programme of Audax events. They meet at Rodgers Lane car park on Sundays and Tuesdays at 9.00am and Wednesday evenings at 6.30pm. Beginners rides run through the summer months on Thursday evenings.

Professional wrestling shows were often shown in Alfreton, with the likes of British legends as Big Daddy, Jackie Pallo and Blackjack Mulligan performing.

There is also a snooker club situated on High Street, as well as Alfreton Golf Club on Wingfield Road close to the cricket club.

Alfreton Leisure Centre was re-opened in May 2008. The centre offers brand-new top-class equipment, including a 60-station gym, sauna, dance studio, swimming pool, badminton and squash courts.

Alfreton is home to 1401 (Alfreton and Ripley) Squadron of the Air Training Corps.

Alfreton's rugby club (Amber Valley Rugby Club) is based at Somercotes, and as of 2010/11 season play in RFU Midlands 3 East (North).

History[link]

Information for this section has been mainly taken from Reginald Johnson's A History of Alfreton (1968).

The historian C. Bateman wrote in 1812, "Alfreton is said by immemorial tradition to have been founded by King Alfred and to have derived its name from him."^[8] In a similar vein the historian Glover wrote in 1829, "There is a traditional account that this town was built by the renowned King Alfred, from whom it took its name; and that the royal founder had a palace here."^[9] The placename appears in different forms throughout the ages, such as 'Elstretune' in Domesday, but the earliest appears to be in AD1004 in the will of Wulfric Spott, the founder of Burton Abbey. Amongst his bequests was 'Aelfredingtune', or 'Alfred's farmstead', which is believed to relate to Alfreton. However there is no evidence that this Alfred was the famous king, and it does seem rather far-fetched that the king would 'found' a small settlement here unless there was some military purpose. At that time it was not even a significant communications hub. To the south-west near Pentrich was a Roman fortlet on the major road known as Ryknield Street. Another Roman road known as Lilley Street ran from here to the southern end of Alfreton, suggesting that settlement in the area predated the time of King Alfred by several centuries. Johnson suggests that Angles would likely have settled in the area long before the Norman conquest, although a lack of Danish and Norwegian placenames suggests the latter had no significant presence in the immediate locality.

The initial settlement was centred at the top of the modern King Street hill, where the original market place developed. On the hilltop there was also an ancient meeting hall (the 'Moot Hall') until 1914, and several inns became established over the centuries, some of which survive to this day. To the west was a manor house where the lord of the manor resided, and the nearby Church of St. Martin, parts of which date back to 1200. The manor of Alfreton spread over lands to the south and east, including the parishes of Somercotes, Swanwick, Riddings and Ironville. The first Lord of the Manor was Earl Roger de Busli, who delegated the position to Baron Ralf Ingram. The position was passed down variously through heredity, gift and sale over the centuries up until William Palmer-Morewood, the last Lord of Alfreton, who died in 1957.

In common with most inland settlements, the economy during the medieval period was centred on agriculture and associated crafts. However, the presence of readily accessible and extensive deposits of coal and ironstone in the area meant that mining and iron-working grew in importance. In some parts of the manor coal seams were so close to the surface they were often ploughed up, and numerous small workings developed. Pits developed throughout the Manor, with those in Swanwick and Alfreton being the most productive. Alfreton colliery was sited to the north-east of the town. Rope-making was allied to this industry, and the locality became famous for the quality of its ropes. In the 18th century Alfreton was the chief coal-mining centre in Derbyshire, and the third-largest town in the county. The pits closed in the late 1960s and their sites have been reclaimed for other development.

Local iron working began in the low-lying land to the south of the current town in the vicinity of the A61, where a dam was made to power a water mill. This would have been quite a small operation, along with another at Lower Birchwood, and it was not until the 18th century that iron working was expanded into major enterprises, centred on Riddings and Butterley in the south and south-east of the manor.

The growth of these industries formed the basis of the area's prosperity, and attracted huge numbers of workers in the 19th century, rapidly swelling the local population. The extensive brick terraced housing in the area dates to this period, and brick-making and tile-making were significant local industries. Boot-making and repairing, and tanning of leather, were also substantial employers due to the need for footwear for these heavy industries. According to Census figures, in 1801 the population of the area that would become the Urban District stood at 2,301, rising to 21,232 in 1931. It has remained within about 3,000 of that number ever since.

After the closure of the pits and Riddings Ironworks in the 1960s, local employment shifted to factory, retail and service-based enterprises, many of which grew up on industrial estates occupying formerly despoiled colliery lands. Initially only a few major employers were present, such as Aertex and English Rose, but this was to change with the development of several industrial estates to the east of the town.

Communications in the area developed much as elsewhere in England; initially basic trackways which were gradually improved as roads, some by the Romans, then vastly improved and extended by turnpikes in the late 18th century; the advent of canals around the same time to serve the coal and iron industries towards the southern and eastern parts of the manor, supplanted by railways in the mid-19th century. The Cromford Canal at the southern end of the Manor was built in 1793, and had a 3,000-yard long tunnel. Turnpike Acts affecting the area were obtained in 1759, 1764 (amended in 1790 and 1812), 1786 and 1802. These provided Alfreton with good road links to Derby, Nottingham, Mansfield, Chesterfield and the High Peak. The town became a coaching centre, which accounts for the inordinate number of inns that were formerly in the vicinity of the market place. A legal requirement on turnpike companies to provide milestones resulted in a local curiosity, a cast-iron marker on the town cross-roads with the notation 'Alfreton 0 Miles'. In the 19th century, coaching and canal transport were rendered increasingly obsolete by railways built to the east of the town and along the eastern and southern boundaries of the former manor. The canals fell into disuse, and road and rail transport burgeoned. Rail underwent a temporary decline in the 1960s due to the Beeching cuts, which included the Alfreton station.

Alfreton and the former manor have several historic buildings of note. The local Lords and wealthy industrialists invariably had significant houses. Alfreton Hall was the successor to the original manor house, and was built c.1750, with an additional wing added c.1850; it is now a conference centre and restaurant. Alfreton House just off the High Street dates from c.1650 and is now occupied by the Town Council. The former George Inn at the top of King Street dates back to the 18th century, and was used as the meeting place for the local Turnpike Trust and local Assizes. On the west side of the southern approach to Alfreton is a small and distinctive stone-roofed building known as the 'House of Confinement'. This was built in the 1820s and was the local jail. There are also several churches, the oldest of which is St. Martin's at the west end of the town, part of which dates back to 1200. Beyond the town but within the ancient Manor are Carnfield Hall (15th century, now a private residence and events venue), Riddings House (now a nursing home), Swanwick Hall (c.1690, now a school), Swanwick Old Hall (1675, private residence), The Hayes (c.1860, now a conference centre), Newlands House (19th century, now flats) and the Jessop Monument (1854) at Ironville.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alfreton

• Alfreton in the Domesday Book
• Alfreton weather
• Amber Valley Borough Council
• BBC Guide
• Alfreton Male Voice Choir
• Derbyshire Times
• Alfreton Hall
• Alfreton Cyclists Touring Club
• Alfreton Local History Website
• Thisisderbyshire.co.uk/alfreton

This article's lead section may not adequately summarize its contents. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of the article's key points. (January 2012)

Andy Morrell

Morrell pictured in 2009
Personal information
Full name	Andrew Jonathan Morrell
Date of birth	(1974-09-28) 28 September 1974 (age 37)
Place of birth	Doncaster, England
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Wrexham (player-manager)
Number	11
Youth career
	Nuneaton Borough
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
000?–1997	Nuneaton Borough	?	(?)
1997–1998	Newcastle Blue Star	31	(25)
1998–2003	Wrexham	109	(40)
2003–2006	Coventry City	98	(17)
2006–2008	Blackpool	78	(21)
2008–2010	Bury	73	(18)
2010–	Wrexham	83	(20)
Teams managed
2011–	Wrexham
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 14:56, 28 April 2012 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals).

Andrew Jonathan "Andy" Morrell (born 28 September 1974) is an English footballer who is currently player-manager of Wrexham. Initially handed the role on an interim basis after Dean Saunders left to manage Doncaster Rovers, Morrell was given the job until the end of the season after a run of seven wins in nine games.

Career[link]

Born in Doncaster, South Yorkshire and brought up in Market Bosworth, and attending Twycross House School, he played for the Leicestershire County Cricket Club from under-15 to under-19 level. He started his football career as a youth team player at Nuneaton Borough, before deciding to make the move north to Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne to study Sports science. It was then that he started playing for Newcastle Blue Star.

Morrell playing for Wrexham in 2011

Morrell's first big break came when he started talking to Sky Sports presenter Rob McCaffrey, and it turned out that Rob was helping to write the autobiography of Joey Jones, who was then Wrexham's first-team coach, and so Rob arranged for him to have a trial at the club.

After a week's trial he was kept on at Wrexham and was coached by their striking coach Ian Rush, from whom he learnt a great deal. With his new strike partner Lee Trundle he scored 34 league goals in only 45 games in the 2002–03 season, making him top scorer in all four divisions that year, having only scored two goals the entire previous season. This caught the eye of Coventry City manager Gary McAllister, who signed him on a free transfer that summer.

Morrell scored nine goals in 19 starts in his first season with Coventry; however, this decreased to six goals the following season following a transition to a wide midfield position.

Morrell signed for Blackpool on a free transfer on 15 August 2006, after failing to make an appearance for Coventry during the first three games of the 2006–07 season.

On 5 May 2007, he scored four goals in Blackpool's 6–3 victory at Swansea City.^[1] He also scored against Oldham Athletic in the second leg of the play-off semi-final, which put his league goals in his nine months with Blackpool at 17, which was the total he scored in three years with Coventry. He finished the 2006–07 season as Blackpool's top scorer with 20 goals in all competitions.

On 7 May 2008, Morrell was offered a new contract by Blackpool.^[2] On 9 August, he signed a two-year contract with League Two club Bury.^[3]

On 28 June 2010, he signed a two-year contract with his former club Wrexham,^[4] scoring the winning goal on his debut, a 1–0 win over Cambridge United in the first game of the season. On 23 September 2011, he took over as caretaker player-manager at Wrexham, following the departure of Dean Saunders to Donaster Rovers.^[5] After leading Wrexham to seven wins in nine games, he was appointed player-manager on a permanent basis on a contract until the end of the 2011–12 season on 29 October.^[6]

Career statistics[link]

As of 25 September 2010.

Managerial statistics[link]

As of 29th April 2012.^[8]

Team	Nation	From	To	Record
G	W	D	L	Win %
Wrexham	Wales	23 September 2011	Present	&1000000000000004300000043	&1000000000000002700000027	&100000000000000090000009	&100000000000000070000007	&1000000000000006278999962.79
Total				43	27	9	7	62.79

Honours[link]

Blackpool

• League One play-off final winner: 2006–07

Wrexham

• Conference National Manager of the Month: October 2011

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Andy Morrell

• Andy Morrell profile at blackpoolfc.co.uk
• Andy Morrell career stats at Soccerbase