Description
Mansfield, a market-town, a municipal borough, and a parish in Notts. The town stands on the river Mann, at the terminus of the Nottingham and Mansfield railway, near Sherwood Forest and the " Dukeries," 2 3/4 miles SE of the boundary with Derbyshire, and 17 1/2 N by W of Nottingham. A Roman station probably was here, and many Roman coins and other Roman relics have been found. 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 Hastings 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 Eobin Hood in Sherwood Forest, and he is said, in Percy's " Eeliques," to have given entertainment to Henry IL A mill still standing is believed to occupy the site of the ancient miller's mill. W. Mansfield, a learned friar, Eidley the physician, Dodsley the author of the " Toy Shop " and " Economy of Human Life," Bishop Chappell, and Archbishop Sterne were natives; Eoberts, 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 dark-coloured 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; It was erected in 1850 at a cost of £1000, has the form of a market-cross in the Early English style, and is 24 feet square and 50 high. The 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. A county police station and court is in Commercial Strept. Public baths were erected in 1853 at a cost of about £1500. There are also a mechanics' institute, with library, reading, lecture, and billiard rooms (science and art classes are held here); a Conservative club opened in 1887, an accident hospital opened in 1881 and rebuilt in 1890, several almshouses, and a workhouse. 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, was thoroughly restored in 1870-71, and reseated in 1884. St John's Church was built in 1855 at a cost of about £7000, and is a handsome stone edifice in the Early Decorated style. There are Congregational, Baptist, Wesleyan, Primitive Methodist, United Free Methodist, and Unitarian chapels, a Roman Catholic church, and meeting-rooms for Friends and Plymouth Brethren. The Wesleyan chapel was rebuilt in 1865 at a cost of £2500, 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 gateway, two very handsome chapels, similar in design. The grammar school was founded by Queen Elizabeth, and improved by Archbishop Sterne, is governed by trustees, and has about £1200 a year from endowment, and several scholarships. The present building was erected in 1875, when the school was reconstituted. There is also a grammar school for girls, founded in 1885 under the above scheme and under the same management, with the addition of three ladies. A fine building was erected for the purpose in 1891-92. Clerkson's Boys' Charity School was founded in 1731, rebuilt in 1849, and enlarged in 1879. Thompson's Charity School was founded in 1786, and endowed with £600. Brunt's charity consists of houses and lands in Nottingham and other places; yields about £2000 a year, which is distributed yearly among upwards of 400 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 £400. There are several other charities.
The town has a head post office, a station on the M.E., three banks, and several good inns, and publishes two weekly newspapers. Markets for corn and provisions are held on Thursdays and Saturdays. A market for stock is held every Monday. Fairs for cattle are held on 10 July and first Friday in November, and a hiring fair is held on the first Friday of November. Stocking-frame knitting was formerly carried on extensively, and still employs a number of the inhabitants, but has been gradually superseded by the use of power looms. Lace-thread mills, both in the town and in the neighbourhood, shoe factories, engine and machine factories, and iron foundries 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 Head Lane to Pinxton on the Cromford Canal, a distance of 7 1/2 miles to the SW, with a branch to Codnor Park Ironworks, was long of great advantage to the local trade, but 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. The town received a charter of incorporation in 1891, and is divided into three wards-East, North, and South. The population is 16,925.
The parish contains also the hamlets of Pleasley Hill, Eadmanthwaite, Moorhaigh, Penniment Houses, Dalestorth, Bleak Hills, and Oakham. Acreage, 7252; population, 15,925. The ecclesiastical parish of St Peter's has a population of 5695. A section of the parish, forming (he chapelry of St John, was constituted a separate charge in 1857, and has a population of 6410; the ecclesiastical parish of St Mark's has a population of 3820. The living of St Peter's is a vicarage, and that of St John's, united with the chapelry of Pleasley Hill, is a perpetual curacy, and that of St Mark's a vicarage in the diocese of Southwell; net value of St Peter's and St John's, £218 and £298-with residences ; net value of St Mark's, £160. Patron of all, the Bishop.
Mansfield Parliamentary Division of Nottinghamshire was formed under the Eedistribution of Seats Act of 1885, and returns one member to the House of Commons. Population, 65,736. The division includes the following:-Mansfield (part of)-Blidworth, Fulwood, Heywood Oaks, Hucknall-under-Huthwaite, Kirkby, Lyndhurst, Mansfield, Mansfield Woodhouse, Selston, Skegby, Sutton-in-Ashfield, Teversall; Nottingham (part of)-Annesley, Eastwood, Felley, Greasley.
