Coordinates: 53°08′37″N 1°11′47″W / 53.1435°N 1.1963°W / 53.1435; -1.1963
Mansfield is a town in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the main town in the Mansfield local government district. Mansfield is a part of the Mansfield Urban Area. The town is surrounded by a pocket of steep hills within the Maun Valley, and has a population of 67,885, with the entire of Mansfield district being 98,181.[1]
Mansfield is thought to date back at least to Roman times, with coins from those times having been found there, as well as a villa. Later the early English royalty are said to have stayed there, the Mercian Kings having used it as a base for hunting in the nearby Sherwood Forest.[2]
Mansfield has a large market square and around the market a large commercial centre including a museum, the Palace Theatre and numerous pubs, bars and night clubs. It has also a new indoor market which is nearing completion.
Mansfield was originally the home of Mansfield Brewery, once the largest independent brewer in the UK.[3] The brewery was acquired by Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries for £253m in October 1999, with production of the Mansfield range of ales moving to other parts of the country. The brewery's assets were later sold to Pubmaster Ltd and the former site of the brewery is due for redevelopment. In the 1980s, Mansfield Bitter was advertised with a photograph of then US president Ronald Reagan and the tagline "He may be president of the most powerful nation on Earth but he's never had a pint of Mansfield"; "Not much matches Mansfield" was also used. Mansfield was also the location of an Irn-Bru factory, owned by the Scottish drinks company A. G. Barr, production ceased in January 2011 when A. G. Barr decided to close the factory. The brewery was demolished in late 2008 and the land is for sale.
Many of the areas adjacent to the town and it's surrounding countryside still bear the markers Mansfield and district's vibrant mining history. The headstocks which stand close to the village of Clipstone are considered an important landmark to the people of the area, and lots of community groups are working to preserve these headstocks as a reminder of the area's once very busy mining history. Lots of land around the town was once used for coal mining, but as the demand for coal fell, Mansfield's many pits wound down and mine workers moved into other types of employment. Mining subsidance has caused some problems with properties around Mansfield. Lots of the streets in and around the town are long rows of terraced houses, reminiscent of the affordable housing provided for mine workers in the hight of the mining industry.
The Coal Authority is based in the town.
Mansfield has many retailing outlets and the Four Seasons shopping Centre contains many popular national UK shops such as Primark, HMV and the bookstore W.H. Smith. Costa Coffee has recently opened a shop in Mansfield, bringing a wide array of different coffee based drinks to the town. The economic crisis has led to many Mansfield shops closing and being boarded up, or their windows covered with high resolution digital images resembling library, cafe, pub or other shop scenes. There was once a Woolworths store in the town, which closed as Woolworths went into administration nationwide. The store was very popular with Mansfield residents, and provided entertainment and children's items at competitive prices. A small shop called 'Who's Toys' has recently opened in the town, generating lots of interest from the area's Dr Who fan community. The shop sells various Dr Who items, memorabilia and posters.
Several urban regeneration projects are underway in Mansfield, including reconstruction of the nearby Kings Mill Hospital and the MARR (Mansfield and Ashfield Regeneration Route) which was completed 3 months early; it is basically a bypass route round the town designed to reduce traffic flow and improve public transport.
In 2009 Mansfield made a bid for city status and many more redevelopment plans were unveiled to fit with this, such as retail & residential developments, leisure facilities and road improvements, which are underway around the town.[4] However the Town was Absent from the 2012 short list.
Mansfield is a market town and has a 700-year old town centre market that operates various stalls on various days of the week. In the centre of the market square there is a buttercross. Due partly to economic struggles and thefts, the market has lost some traders. There are however still many interesting stalls on Mansfield Market, which sell a variety of items such as electronics, household items, entertainment items like music and games, clothing and a couple of greengrocer stalls selling a wide array of fresh produce from the local area. On Tuesdays the market takes on the tone of a flea market selling second hand items and antiques. The flea market is very popular among locals. On the third Tuesday of each month, the market is host to a special farmers market, which sells a wide variety of locally produced produce, such as a large variety of cheeses, cakes, fresh vegetables and fruits grown on local farmland, eggs produced by local farmers and many other farmer's market themed products. On the second Tuesday of each month, there is a charity market, which donates revenue to various charities. Mansfield District Council have created a variety of different markets to provide variety and interest for the town and to draw in visitors from other areas to boost the local economy.
The television presenter Adam Kingswood (from BBC TV's The Truth About Property), Richard Bacon and professional golfers Oliver Wilson and Greg Owen come from Mansfield. The singer Alvin Stardust lived there as a child. Radio, Television and West End actor Stephen Critchlow was raised and schooled in Mansfield and pianist John Ogdon was born in the suburb of Mansfield Woodhouse in 1937. Mark Holmes, lead singer of the Canadian New Wave/stadium rock group Platinum Blonde, was born and partly raised there.[5] Mansfield is also the home of the Cantamus Girls Choir, World Choir Olympics champions. As well as this it also features a thriving music scene with many promising up and coming young artists.
The ancestral home of Lord Byron, Newstead Abbey, is located not far away in Ravenshead.
- Liam Lawrence - Former Mansfield Town footballer, now playing for Portsmouth FC in the Championship.
- Robert Dodsley - Playwright, Poet and bookseller. Wrote The King and The Miller of Mansfield and it's sequel, Sir John Cockle, both of which appeared at Drury Lane in 1736 and 1737 respectively.
- William Martin, naturalist, was born in Mansfield in 1767.[7]
Buses in Mansfield are primarily operated by Stagecoach, with Trent Barton, K&H Doyles and National Express also operating in the area. All the operators are investing in transport, with leather seats and air con now becoming a familiar sight. Planning permission has been given to develop a new bus station on the station road car park which is estimated to cost £7 million.[8][9] The bus station, built in 1977, handles around 1,500 buses and 16,000 passenger arrivals a day. It is the busiest bus station in the county[citation needed] but does not offer an attractive waiting environment and has poor pedestrian links to the town centre. Also, the turning area where busses have to turn to enter and exit the station is outdated and there have been some accidents due to busses backing into one another as they attempt to leave and enter the bays. The new bus station will combat this problem.
The new bus station is currently under construction in Mansfield, which will provide a new location for the town's main bus terminus, and will become part of a regeneration scheme known as the 'Gateway To Mansfield', which will give visitors to the town a clean, tidy first impression. These schemes are underway to help improve facilities for locals, boost visitors to the town and help boost the local economy. The new bus station will increase bus and passenger safety, as well as providing a more welcoming scene for visitors from outside the area arriving by bus.
The new bus station is an attempt for redevelopment of the old bus station site to enhance Mansfield town centre and to regenerate the whole of the Stockwell Gate area. Potential improvements could include a fully enclosed waiting area; automatic doors for comfort and safety, a tourist information centre, electronic bus and rail departure information, toilets and baby changing facilities, tower with lift and stairs to an elevated walkway connecting to the rail station and bus driver's facilities.
The town is the northern terminus of the A38, which runs from Bodmin in Cornwall and is the longest 'A' road entirely within England. Mansfield can be reached in around 10 min from junctions 27, 28 and 29 of the M1 and is around 18 mi from the A1 at neighbouring Newark-on-Trent.
Mansfield railway station is a stop on the Robin Hood Line, a rail link connecting the town with Nottingham and Worksop. From 1964 until the opening of the line in 1995, Mansfield was, by some definitions, the largest town in Britain without a railway station,[10] all the more remarkable because the town pioneered the railway in the East Midlands. From 1973 to 1995 the nearby station at Alfreton was named 'Alfreton and Mansfield Parkway' to encourage its use as a railhead for Mansfield. A Sunday rail service was restored to Mansfield in December 2008 - the town having been one of the largest on the rail network without one.
The town was originally the terminus of the Mansfield and Pinxton Railway, built as a horse-drawn plateway in 1819 and one of the first acquisitions of the newly-formed Midland Railway.[10] The Midland used the final section to extend its new Leen 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 of Mansfield to Worksop in 1875, opened a link from Mansfield Woodhouse to Westhouses & Blackwell in 1886, and completed another link from Pleasley through Bolsover to Barrow Hill in 1890. Mansfield had become a railway centre of some importance, but it was a Midland Railway centre.
The Midland Railway monopoly was broken by the locally promoted Mansfield Railway between Kirkby South Junction and Clipstone Junctions 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. Although nominally independent, the Mansfield Railway connected with the Great Central Railway at both ends and trains were worked by the Great Central. [11]
Thus Mansfield had two railway stations: Mansfield Town, the former Midland station on Station Road, near Belvedere Street and Mansfield Central, the former Mansfield Railway station on Great Central Road, near Ratcliffe Gate. Central station lost its scheduled passenger services at the beginning of 1956 and Town station closed to passengers in 1964 leaving Mansfield without any passenger trains until the Robin Hood line restored the service in 1995.
A tram service operated between 1905 and 1932, run by Mansfield & District Light Railways.
Mansfield is home to Mansfield Town F.C., known as the Stags. They were relegated to the Conference National after 77 years in the Football League at the end of the 2007–08 season. The team's traditional rival is the nearby town of Chesterfield in Derbyshire. The rivalry between the two clubs is considered among the fiercest in the lower leagues. Some Yorkshire (and Derbyshire) folk still associate Mansfield with failure to support the UK miners' strike (1984–1985); football matches between Mansfield Town: Barnsley, Rotherham United, Doncaster Rovers and Chesterfield and have seen fans of the latter chant "scab". Before the strike, Mansfield Town and Chesterfield FC fans could stand in relative harmony on the terraces (this is no-longer the case).
Mansfield Giants are Mansfield’s Premier Basketball Club, and have a 3 star Accreditation and Club Mark from the English Sports Council. Giants play in the England Basketball (EB2)
Angling is well supported in the Mansfield district, where ponds remain from the former textile milling industry. Tennis there is Mansfield Lawn Tennis Club. It has 4 grass courts and 5 hard courts.
Mansfield is one of the three outlets of the Nottinghamshire County Council Swim Squad, who compete as Nova Centurion. The Sherwood Swimming Baths in Mansfield Woodhouse are, as of 2008, being refurbished and likely to re-open in 2009 as the Rebecca Adlington Swimming Centre in September 2009.
During the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, a Mansfield local called Rebecca Adlington won two gold medels for 800 meter freestyle swimming. Rebecca's record breaking success in Beijing lead to her being welcomed home to Mansfield in an open top bus parade. Thousands of people took to the streets around the town to welcome her home. Her success has boosted interest in swimming in the area, leading to many more swimming schemes being set up in the Mansfield area to encourage young people to begin swimming. The Sherwood Baths swimming baths has since been renamed and reopened as the Rebecca Adlington Swimming Center.
Mansfield is home to the Water Meadows swimming complex, situated on Bath Lane, which hosts a gym alongside two swimming pools. It has the very popular wave machine, which operates in the shallow pool and gives the swimmers the experience of waves, similar to swimming in an ocean. Water Meadows is extremely popular as a school swimming baths, many schools, both from inside and outside the Mansfield area regularly come to the town to access the facilities offered at Water Meadows.
Mansfield has many parks and areas of green land. Titchfield Park, located on the same site as the Water Meadows swimming complex, is home to a large grassy area which covers two sides of the river Maun, joined by two bridges in the park. The park boasts a bowls green, basketball court, children's play area and many flowerbeds which are filled with blooms during the summer months.
Fisher Lane Park, located at the top of Littleworth outside the town, is an area of green land that is popular with dog walkers, kite flyers and skaters. Mansfield District Council installed a concrete skate plaza on Fisher Lane Park, causing some controversy with locals. However, the skate plaza has proven to be very popular with local youths, who access it daily. During the summer months, small fairs use Fisher Lane Park to set up some rides and stalls for local children.
Carr Bank Park is another park close to the town, which has a rocky 'grotto', bandstand and many flower beds, which are filled with blooms during the summer.
The Palace Theatre is located on Leeming Street and is the town's primary entertainment venues. Built as a cinema in 1910, it was originally known as the Palace Electric Theatre and was later adapted to a proscenium arch theatre presenting live shows. It has also been known as the Civic Hall and Civic Theatre before the current name was revived in the 1990s. With a seating capacity of 534, the theatre is a mid scale touring venue presenting a programme of both professional and amateur productions.It features lots of productions such as pantomimes,dance shows,plays and award ceremoneys.
Mansfield is also home to multi-award winning theatre company 'Shadow Syndicate'. 'Shadow Syndicate' is a contemporary theatre group situated in Nottinghamshire, based at the Manor Academy. Founded in 2009, Shadow Syndicate have performed many shows and have performed at a variety of locations and performance spaces. Shadow Syndicate work alongside scripted and self-devised material. The company have been regulars at the Buxton Festival Fringe since their beginning in 2009 resulting in 5 award nominations including, Best Young drama production and Best Young actor. The cast of Shadow Syndicate alternates between productions giving various individuals the opportunity to perform on a professional stage. The company have had the honour of working with various professional writers, actors and the National Theatre.
Mansfield Museum is situated alongside the Palace Theatre on Leeming Street. It opened in 1904 and has been based on Leeming Street from 1938. There is no entry fee for this museum and the museum attracts around 40,000 visitors each year. This museum has won a number of awards including the Guardian Family-friendly Museum of the Year Award in recent years.[citation needed]
The Old library Venue & Media Centre is a multi-media centre located in the centre of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. It houses a state of the art recording studio along with a 100 seat Studio Theatre, Cafe/Bar and other working spaces.
The Intake Club is a music venue located on Kirkland Avenue in Mansfield town centre. The venue has a public bar, function room and a gig room with a stage and capacity for 450 patrons. The full capacity of the Venue is 700. A number of leading bands have played at the club including Deathstars, Fightstar, Witchfynde, Hayseed Dixie, Hardcore Superstar, Wishbone Ash, The Hamsters, John Parr, Ade Edmondson, Tygers of Pan Tang and Vampires Rock. The club also caters for more local bands. The club also hosted the annual CAMRA Mansfield Beer Festival.
The Town Mill was a Mansfield music venue that was converted from the original mill of Mansfield. The Town Mill re-opened its doors on July 5, 2002 with the UK Subs being the first band on the opening night. Leading bands that have played the venue include Jamie T, INME, Wheatus, cide project The Levellers, The Bluetones, B-Movie, Dr Feelgood, The Futureheads, The Wildhearts, Midge Ure, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Hadouken! The Wombats, The Species, RockMelon and Battlecat!, in the seven years it was open. The venue also had local, unsigned bands playing regularly and hosted an annual "Battle of the Bands". The Town Mill closed on 4 December 2010. A failed attempt was made to reopen The Town Mill by a community interest company consisting of former patrons. So far the venue remains closed.
Just a few miles outside of Mansfield lies Sherwood Forest. Mansfield had an Oak Tree and a plaque to mark what was the centre of Sherwood Forest on West Gate. Now the trees have been taken down and a giant metallic feather has replaced them as a marker. Some residents of the town feel this is an eyesore, and the feather sculpture has been plagued by health and safety problems.
Every year between the months of June & August, Mansfield District Council hosts an event called Summer In The Streets. This festival consists of various public events held all over the town over many days, such as children's entertainment, fairground rides in the market square, hands on workshops for things like crafts & circus skills. The highlight of the festival is an event held in the town's Titchfield park, called 'Party In The Park'. This hosts a wide range of entertainment, such as live music acts by local bands, performances from local dance groups and activities such as face painting.
On August the 21st 2010 as a part of various summer entertainment set on by Mansfield District Council, the popular Irish boyband Westlife played a live concert at Mansfield's Field Mill Stadium, home to the town's football team, the Stags. This is the first big name to visit the town, and it is suggested the act brought a lot of visitors and financial benefits to Mansfield.
Mansfield has a large cinema run by Odeon Cinemas. The theatre screens most new release films, and hosts special days for children, older people and the hearing/visually impaired.
Venue 44 was a nightclub that had various names prior to being renamed 44 in 1992. It was organised by Geoff Oakes and Hacienda based DJ Sasha to become a 'new Rave/Dance club'. They named it Renaissance which was to become a worldwide superclub until the Renaissance name went into administration in 2010. With its capacity of around 1000 on two floors, it quickly became the top Dance Club in the UK, with clubbers attending from every part of the UK. Many top DJ's played sets there and they could often be seen drinking in pubs and bars in the town beforehand. Venue 44, was also home to Vibealite, Hot To Trot and Arcana. The building itself stood empty for years after the club nights moved elsewhere and was eventually demolished in 2011.
The Making It Discovery Centre is situated on Littleworth. It provides an array of science and technology activities and experiences aimed at primary age schoolchildren. Making It is popular as a school trip destination, with many schools travelling in from outside the area to access this facility. The Making It Discovery Centre is housed in what was the main entrance for the former Mansfield Brewery. Making It also hosts a small cafe which sells drinks and snacks.
Rush is one of Mansfield's existing nightspots, catering for pop, rave, dance, house, trance and other urban music styles. The club has two resident DJs, DJ Ratus and DJ O.B.
The local newspaper is the Chad (Formerly Chronicle Advertiser). Mansfield is home to one radio station, Mansfield 103.2 broadcast from the Fishpond Hill transmitting station on Skegby Lane which also broadcasts Mansfield versions of the Nottingham stations Radio Nottingham and Capital FM on 95.5 and 96.5 FM respectively.
DAB broadcasts from Fishpond's Hill began on 21 July 2006 with the NOW Nottingham multiplex, subsequently the Digital One and BBC National muxes were also added (during 2006-07) to give excellent digital radio reception across the town.
Television reception in Mansfield however is a different story. Television reception has often been poor due to the location of the town being between regions. Historically Mansfield has been part of the BBC North and Yorkshire Television region. Between 20 December 1965 and 30 July 1974 some homes in Mansfield received Anglia Television (until Belmont began transmitting Yorkshire Television).
Since the arrival of Diamond Cable (formerly ntl, and now Virgin Media) in 1995, BBC East Midlands and Central East were provided and since regionalisation of SKY digital, Mansfield is classified as 'North Midlands', meaning many residents can now watch BBC East Midlands which is the default region for this area and appears on channel 101. Channel 103 shows ITV Yorkshire East.
The Belmont transmitter provides the best reception to most of the town offering analogue and digital TV and is the most frequently used transmitter in the town providing BBC East Yorkshire & Lincolnshire and ITV Yorkshire (East)
Emley Moor is also receivable and in some areas of the town offers better reception than Belmont, providing BBC Yorkshire & North Midlands and Yorkshire Television (West).
While Yorkshire Television's news programme "Calendar" still covers Mansfield, BBC Look North has for many years refused to cover the town, insisting that Mansfield belongs in the BBC East Midlands region (though few homes get acceptable terrestrial reception of BBC East Midlands). This was highlighted when the celebrations for Rebecca Adlington's success at the Beijing olympics, although recorded by East Midlands Today, were shown on both East Midlands Today and Look North so that all Mansfield residents could see them.
Many homes have dual aerials with one pointing at Belmont (or in some places Emley Moor) and the other at Waltham (East Midlands), the latter which usually gives a far inferior picture quality but was often used in the days when ITV had more regional variations so that Mansfield folk could keep up with local news and sport. Dual aerial systems are being removed as they will not work for reception of digital terrestrial TV (until after switchover in 2011), in addition to the East Midlands variations being available through cable and satellite but many still remain from the 1990s and late 1980s.
Other transmitters serving Mansfield include:
Emley Moor- BBC Yorkshire & Yorkshire (West)
Sutton Coldfield- BBC Midlands & Central (West) and
Bilsdale- BBC North East & Tyne Tees (South)
All three transmitters provide good signals across the town, in many cases providing superior reception to Waltham. With the correct aerial it is also possible to pick up Granada Television from Winter Hill, though the picture is usually very poor quality.
During an episode of CBBC's 'Dick n Dom in Da Bungalow', one of their games which consisted of sticking pictures of themselves on the backs of members of the public, was broadcast from West Gate in Mansfield.
Mansfield is notable for being one of the few towns in the United Kingdom with a directly-elected Mayor. Tony Egginton has been the Mayor of Mansfield since 17 October 2002
Alan Meale (born Joseph Alan Meale) has been the Labour constituent Member of Parliament since 1987. Prior to this, Mr. Meale had been a member of the Socialist Campaign Group.
D. H. Lawrence, in Lady Chatterley's Lover, described Mansfield as "that once romantic now utterly disheartening colliery town".[12]
The 2005 and 2007 editions of Channel 4's programme The Best and Worst Places to Live in the UK named Mansfield as the sixth and ninth worst place to live in Britain, largely due to the poor performance of schools in the area at the time.[13]
Destinations from Mansfield
 |
Sheffield, Chesterfield, Bolsover, Glapwell, Pleasley |
Worksop, Shirebrook, Warsop, Mansfield Woodhouse |
Gainsborough, Retford, Ollerton, Clipstone, Edwinstowe |
|
| Matlock, Teversal, Skegby |
 |
Rainworth, Bilsthorpe, Lincoln |
 Mansfield East |
 |
| Sutton-in-Ashfield, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Eastwood, Heanor, Derby |
Ravenshead, Newstead, Hucknall, Nottingham |
Blidworth, Southwell, Newark-on-Trent, Grantham |
Mansfield experiences a maritime climatic regime, as is typical for all parts of the British Isles. This results in a narrow temperature range, evenly spread rainfall, low levels of sunshine, and often breezy conditions throughout the year. The closest weather station to Mansfield for which records are available is Warsop, approximately 4 miles to the North of Mansfield town centre.
The absolute maximum temperature record for the area stands at 34.6c(94.3f),[14] recorded in August 1990. In a typical year the warmest day should reach 28.9c(84.0f),[15] and 12.72 days[16] should reach 25.1c(77.2f) or higher.
The absolute minimum temperature record for the area is -19.1c(-2.4f),[17] recorded during January 1987. 59.0 nights of the year report an air frost on average.
Rainfall averages 634mm[18] annually, with 113 days[19] reporting in excess of 1mm of rain. All averages refer to the observation period 1971-2000.
| Climate data for Warsop, elevation 46m, 1971-2000, extremes 1960-2005 |
| 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) |
| Average high °C (°F) |
6.7
(44.1) |
7.1
(44.8) |
9.9
(49.8) |
12.2
(54.0) |
16.0
(60.8) |
18.9
(66.0) |
21.7
(71.1) |
21.2
(70.2) |
17.9
(64.2) |
13.7
(56.7) |
9.4
(48.9) |
7.4
(45.3) |
13.5
(56.3) |
| Average low °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) |
4.93
(40.88) |
| 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) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) |
56.19
(2.2122) |
42.46
(1.6717) |
48.56
(1.9118) |
53.27
(2.0972) |
48.60
(1.9134) |
60.82
(2.3945) |
43.90
(1.7283) |
48.57
(1.9122) |
54.10
(2.1299) |
56.24
(2.2142) |
51.82
(2.0402) |
63.03
(2.4815) |
633.88
(24.9559) |
| Source: KNMI[20] |
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