Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for MANSFIELD

MANSFIELD, a town, a parish, a district-district, and a district in Notts. The town stands on the river Maun, at the terminus of the Nottingham and Mansfield railway, near Ryknield-street and Sherwood-forest, 2¾ miles SE of the boundary with Derbyshire, and 17¼ N by W of Nottingham. A Roma n station probably was here: and many Roman coins and other Roman relics have been found. Even an ancient British settlement is supposed, by some antiquaries, to have preceded the Roman station. The manor was a hunting-seat of the Mercian and the Norman kings; went to the Earls of Chester; and passed, through the Hastingses and others, to the Dukes of Newcastle, and from them to the Duke of Portland. "The miller of Mansfield ''is familiar to most readers acquainted with the exploits of Robin Hood in Sherwood-forest; and he is said, in Percy's "Reliques, "to have given entertainment to Henry II. A mill still standing is believed to occupy the site of the ancient miller's mill. W. Mansfield, a learned friar, Ridley, the physician, Dodsley, the author of the "Economy of Human Life, ''Bishop Chappell, and Archbishop Sterne, were natives; Roberts, the first worker of double-point net lace in frames, and Murray, the inventor of the circular saw, were residents; and the family of Murray take from Mansfield the title of Earl.

The town consists chiefly of five principal streets, radiating from a central market-place; is built of a darkcoloured stone, quarried in the neighbourhood; and has undergone considerable improvement. A handsome monument to Lord George Bentinck stands in the centre of the market-place; was erected in 1850, at a cost of £1,000; has the form of a market-cross, in the early English style; and is 24 feet square, and 50 feet highThe old moot-hall stands on the N side of the marketplace; was erected in 1752, by the Countess of Oxford: contained apartments for public business, and a fine assembly-room; and, though still the place of nomination for the N Notts members of parliament, has been converted into a shop. The new town hall stands on the S side of the market-place; was built in 1836, by a company of shareholders; has a handsome illuminated clock; contains a subscription library and news-room, and a spacious assembly-room; and is a place of petty-sessions and county-courts. A police station is in Market-street, and adjoins the town hall. Public baths were erected in 1853, at a cost of about £1,500. The parish church, or church of St. Peter, shows traces of Norman and early English; was partly burned in 1304; is chiefly later English, with tower and spire; and was proposed to be restored in 1869. St. John's church was built in 1855, at a cost of about £7,000; and is a handsome stone edifice. There are chapels for Independents, Baptists, Quakers, Wesleyans, Primitive Methodists, United Free Methodists, and Unitarians. The Wesleyan chapel was rebuilt in 1865, at a cost of £2,500; and is in the Italian Corinthian style. The public cemetery occupies a pleasant spot on the Nottingham-road, about a mile from the town; comprises about 10 acres; is entered through a tower gateway, surmounted by a neat octagonal spire; and has, at the sides of the gate way, two very handsome chapels, mutually similar in design. The free grammar school was founded by Queen Elizabeth, and improved by Archbishop Sterne; and has about £450 a year from endowment, and four scholarships at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Clerkson's boys' charity school was founded in 1731, and rebuilt in 1849; and has £332 ayear from endowment. Thompson's charity school was founded in 1786, and has £45 a year from endowment. There are also schools connected with St. John's church, a British school in Stockwell-gate, and a mechanics' institute. Brunt's charity consists of houses and lands in Nottingham and other places: yields about £1,800 a year; and distributes that amount yearly among upwards of 300 persons. Mrs. Heath's alms houses were founded in 1693; were originally twelve, but were recently increased to eighteen; and have an endowed income of about £360. There are other charities with about £1,290 a year.

The town has a head post office,‡ a railway station with telegraph, three banking offices, and seVeral good inns; and publishes a weekly newspaper. A weekly market, for corn and provisions, is held on Thursday. A market for stock is held once a month on Thursday. Fairs for stock and horses are held on the second Thursday of April and 10 July; a fair for cheese, and for stock and horses, is held on the second Thursday of October; and a hiring-fair is held on the first Friday of November. Races are held, on a course within Sherwood forest, in July. Stocking-frame knitting was formerly extensive; and still employs a number of the inhabitants, but has been gradually superseded by the use of power looms. Lacethread mills, both in the town and in the neighbourhood, and iron-foundries of large and increasing extent, now afford the chief employment. Excellent limestone and sandstone, and a very superior kind of moulding sand, are largely worked in the vicinity; and the last contributes much to the success and increase of the iron foundries. A double tram railway, from Bull's Headlane to Pinxton on the Cromford canal, a distance of 7¾ miles to the SW, with a branch to Codnor-park ironworks, was long of great advantage to the local trade; and this is now superseded by a locomotive line, partly identical with the terminal portion of the Nottingham and Mansfield railway, and partly a branch thence going into junction with the Erewash Valley and Chesterfield railway. Pop. of the town in 1861,8,346. Houses, 1,866.

The parish contains also the hamlets of Pleasley-Hill, Radmanthwaite, Moorhaigh, Penniment-Houses, Dalestorth, Bleak-Hills, and Oakham. Acres, 9,070. Real property, £32,798; of which £293 are in quarries, and £600 in gas-works. Pop. in 1851,10,667; in 1861, 10,225. Houses, 2,248. A section of the parish, forming the chapelry of St. John, was constituted a separate charge in 1857, and had a pop. of 4,192 in 1861. The living of St. Peter is a vicarage, and that of St. John is a Vicarage, united with the chapelry of Pleasley-Hill, in the diocese of Lincoln. Valne of St. Peter, £250;* of St. John-with-Pleasley-Hill, £300.* Patron, of both, the Bishop of Lincoln.—The sub-district is conterminate with the parish.—The district contains also the sub-district of Blidworth, containing the parish of Blidworth and the extra-parochial tracts of Haywood-Oaks and Lyndhurst; the sub-district of Sutton-in-Ashfield, containing the parishes of Sutton-in-Ashfield and Skegby, and the extra-parochial tract of Fulwood; the sub-district of Warsop, containing the parishes of Warsop and Mansfield-Woodhouse; the sub-district of Pleasley, containing the parishes of Teversall, Pleasley, Upper Langwith, and Scarcliff, and the township of Glapwell,-all, except Teversall, electorally in Derby; and the sub-district of Blackwell, containing the parishes of Blackwell, Tibshelf, Pinxton, and South Normanton,-all electorally in Derby-Acres, 55,960. Poor rates in 1863, £13,211. Pop. in 1851,30,146; in 1861,30,593. Houses, 6,444. Marriages in 1863,267; births, 1,066,-of which 121 were illegitimate; deaths, 684,-of which 298 were at ages under 5 years, and 15 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60,2,316; births, 10,881; deaths, 6,464. The places of worship, in 1851, were 17 of the Church of England, with 6,594 sittings; 3 of Independents, with 1,239 s.; 6 of Baptists, with 1,240 s.; 1 of Quakers, with 400 s.; 1 of Unitarians, with 240 s.; 14 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 2,630 s.; 3 of New Connexion Methodists, with 527 s.; 14 of Primitive Methodists with 1,348 s.; 3 of Wesleyan Reformers, with 620 s.; 2 undefined, with 631 attendants; and 4 of Latter Day Saints, with 320 s. The schools were 23 public day-schools, with 1,758 scholars; 49 private dayschools, with 1,413 s.; 48 Sunday schools, with 5,284 s.; and 6 evening schools for adults with 120 s. The work house is in Stockwell-gate, Mansfield; and, at the census of 1861, had 144 inmates..


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, a parish, a district-district, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Mansfield CP/AP       Mansfield RegD/PLU       Nottinghamshire AncC
Place: Mansfield

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