Mansfield

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.

History
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.

Economy
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. 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.

The Coal Authority is based in the town.

Mansfield has many retail outlets and the Four Seasons shopping Centre contains many popular shops such as Primark, HMV and the bookstore W.H. Smith.

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. However the Town was Absent from the 2012 short list.

Notable people
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. 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.
 * Richard Bacon - TV Presenter
 * Alvin Lee - Ten Years After guitarist
 * Robert Kozluk - Barnsley F.C. footballer
 * James Perch - Newcastle United F.C. footballer
 * Kris Commons - Celtic F.C. footballer
 * Craig Disley - Shrewsbury Town F.C. footballer
 * Rebecca Adlington - 2008 Olympic swimming gold medalist, 400 m and 800m freestyle, the latter in a new world record time.
 * Joe Mills - Green Date singer/guitarist
 * John Balance - Coil singer/musician
 * Wes Dolan - Actor and Singer/Songwriter
 * Sam Hynd - Paralympic Gold medalist 400 m freestyle and Bronze medalist in the 200 m Individual Medley
 * John Bainbridge Webster - Chair of Systematic Theology at King's College, University of Aberdeen
 * William Martin, naturalist, was born in Mansfield in 1767.

Buses
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. The town's bus station is often cited as one of the worst places in England to spend time waiting for transport. Planning permission has been given to develop a new bus station on the station road car park which is estimated to cost £7 million. 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 but does not offer an attractive waiting environment and has poor pedestrian links to the town centre.

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.

Road
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.

Railway
Mansfield railway station is a stop on the Robin Hood Line, a rail link connecting the town with Nottingham and Worksop. Before the introduction of the Robin Hood Line in the 1990s, Mansfield was the largest town in Britain without a railway station, all the more remarkable because the town pioneered the railway in the East Midlands. A Sunday rail service began in December 2008 after it was previously one of the largest towns without it.

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. The Midland used the final section to extend its new Leen Valley line to the present station in 1849.

Thus, prior to the 1970s, the town had two railway stations: the LNER (former GCR) line on Great Central Road, near Ratcliffe Gate, and the LMSR (Former Midland) line on Station Road, near Belvedere Street. From the early 1950s, however, the LNER line ceased carrying passengers and remained as a freight-only line; and in the 1970s the former LMSR line ceased to travel via Mansfield.

A tram service operated between 1905 and 1932, run by Mansfield & District Light Railways.

Sport
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.

Palace Theatre
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 Museum
Mansfield Museum is situated alongside the Palace Theatre on Leeming Street. This museum has won a number of awards in recent years.

Intake Club
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, Green Date, 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, including Sherwood and The Species. The club also hosted the annual CAMRA Mansfield Beer Festival.

Town Mill
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.

Sherwood Forest
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.

Summer In The Streets
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.

Odeon Cinema
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.

Media
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 96 Trent 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 30th 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 many residents can now watch BBC East Midlands which is the default region for this area and appears on channel 101. Channel 103 is still showing 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.

Politics
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.

Criticisms
D. H. Lawrence, in Lady Chatterley's Lover, described Mansfield as "that once romantic now utterly disheartening colliery town".

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.

Twin towns

 * Flag of the United States.svg Mansfield, Ohio, United States
 * Flag of the United States.svg Mansfield, Massachusetts, United States
 * Flag of Ireland.svg Mansfieldtown, Ireland
 * Flag of Germany.svg Heiligenhaus, Germany
 * Flag of Russia.svg Reutov, Russia
 * Flag of Ukraine.svg Stryi, Ukraine

Climate
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), recorded in August 1990. In a typical year the warmest day should reach 28.9c(84.0f), and 12.72 days should reach 25.1c(77.2f) or higher.

The absolute minimum temperature record for the area is -19.1c(-2.4f), recorded during January 1987. 59.0 nights of the year report an air frost on average.

Rainfall averages 634mm annually, with 113 days reporting in excess of 1mm of rain. All averages refer to the observation period 1971-2000.