Worksop
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Worksop Town Sign
Worksop is the biggest town in the Bassetlaw world of Nottinghamshire, England on the River Ryton at the northern edge of Sherwood Forest. It is about 19 miles East South East of the City of Sheffield and its population is estimated (mid-2004) to be 39,800. It is twinned with the German town Garbsen.
Worksop is known as the "Gateway to the Dukeries", so called for the number of ducal residences in the area. An important manufacturer in the town is Premier Foods UK, which produces products such as Batchelor's Soups and Super Noodles and Oxo. Oxo is solely produced in Worksop. Wilkinson's Distribution Centre is also an important employer as well as the recently opened B&Q Distribution Centre. The Wilkinson UK headquarters are at JK House, south of the town near the A60. The town is also home to Worksop College a co-educational day and boarding school. The local football team, Worksop Town F.C., relegated from the Conference North in 2007 and no longer play in the town.
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[edit] History
Evidence that Worksop existed before the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 is provided by the Domesday Book of 1086:
- "In Werchesope, (Worksop) Elsi (son of Caschin) had three carucates of land to be taxed. Land to eight ploughs. Roger has one plough in the demesne there, and twenty-two sokemen who hold twelve oxgangs of this land, and twenty-four villanes and eight bordars having twenty-two ploughs, and seven acres of meadow. Wood pasture two miles long, and three quarentens broad."[1]
This early period of the town's history was humorously depicted in the children's television show, Maid Marian and her Merry Men, where it was largely portrayed as a mass of mud.
After the conquest, in about 1103, William de Lovetot established a castle and Augustinian priory at Worksop. Subsequently Worksop grew into a market town. The building of the Chesterfield Canal in 1777, and the subsequent construction of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway in 1849, both of which passed through the settlement, led to a degree of growth. Discovery of sizable coal seams further increased interest in the area. In recent years Worksop has been recognised as having a serious drugs problem attributed to the decline of coal mining in the early 1990s during the government of John Major. The member of parliament for Bassetlaw, John Mann, has fought a high-profile campaign to tackle the problem, once described as being at levels seen in inner cities.In July 2007 Worksop was hit by one of its worst floods for a hundred years, along with the rest of the near by villages.
[edit] Education
[edit] Health
Worksop is served by the Bassetlaw District General Hospital, part of the Doncaster and Bassetlaw NHS Foundation Trust. It is a large hospital, treating 33,000 people in year in addition to 38,000 emergencies at the A&E department. It is also used as a Teaching hospital by the University of Sheffield Medical School.
[edit] Local economy
Coal mining was an important source of employment. Manton Wood had a large colliery until 1994. This site has now been redeveloped as the main distribution centre for Wilkinson's in England, just off the A57. It is the home of the Manton Wood Enterprise Zone. Greencore sandwiches (formerly Hazelwood Foods) and OCG Cacao, and Solway Foods (now part of Northern Foods and make pre-packed sandwiches) are based there. Major retail sites are Tesco, on Gateford Road, near the town centre and Sainsburys, on Highground Farm Road in Rhodesia, next to the A57 roundabout with Sandy Lane (A60).
Worksop has two radio stations: Trax FM, which is broadcast mainly from Doncaster and has taken much criticism for this factor over recent years.[neutrality disputed] It broadcasts from studios on Bridge Street on 107.9. The other radio station is Trust AM which is the Bassetlaw Hospital Radio station which can be found on 1278MW around the Hospital grounds.
The town is connected by rail to Nottingham and Mansfield by the Robin Hood Line, which follows the A60. The Sheffield to Lincoln/Cleethorpes rail line also passes through the town and Robin Hood Airport is close by and provides employment for many locals . The A57 connects the town to the M1 with the A1 and the M18 also nearby. This good motorway access probably explains why Worksop has attracted several distribution centres. Netherthorpe Airfield, 2 miles west of Worksop, provides facilities for general aviation and pilot training.
[edit] Places of Interest
[edit] Worksop Priory
[edit] Clumber Park
Clumber Park, just south of Worksop is a country park owned by the National Trust and is open to the public.
[edit] Mr Straw's House
Worksop is home to Mr Straw's House, the family home of the Straw family, which was left by the Straw brothers, William and Walter Straw when their parents died in the 1930s. The house remained unaltered until the National Trust acquired the house in the 1990s and opened it to the public.[2]
[edit] The Worksop Regal
Young Potential have taken over the former Circle Arts and provide theatre and recording studio facilities in the heart of Worksop including professional live music and arts performances and a range of arts training courses and social support services. It is managed and run mainly by volunteers who believe that involvement with the arts is vital for individual and community health.
[edit] Notable people from Worksop
[edit] See also
[edit] References and notes
[edit] External links
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