WORKSOP

'Worksop' is a town in the Bassetlaw district of Nottinghamshire, England on the River Ryton at the northern edge of Sherwood Forest. It is about 19 miles ESE 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 Campbells Soup 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. were recently relegated from the Conference North.

Contents

History

Education

Local economy

Places of Interest

Worksop Priory

Clumber Park

Mr Straw's House

Circle Arts Centre

Famous people from Worksop

See also

References and notes

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.

Education

Welbeck College, a sixth-form college for potential army officers was based near Worksop from 1953 until 2005, and has now moved to Woodhouse in Leicestershire. The Portland School is on Sparken Hill near the A57/B6034 roundabout. Valley Comprehensive School is on Baulk Lane near the leisure centre in the town centre. Both schools have sixth forms which work as a consortium. North Notts College is on Carlton Road (A60) in the town centre. Valley School achieves higher results at GCSE.

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 Wilkinsons in England, just off the A57. It is the home of the Manton Wood Enterprise Zone. Greencore sandwiches (formerly Hazelwood Foods) and OCG Cacoa, 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 from mainly Doncaster and has taken much criticism for this factor over recent years. It broadcasts from studios on Bridge Street on 107.9. The other radio station is TrustAM 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 A57 connects the town to the M1 and the nearby A1. Netherthorpe Airfield, 2 miles west of Worksop, provides facilities for general aviation and pilot training.

Places of Interest

Worksop Priory

Main articles: Worksop Priory

Clumber Park

Main articles: Clumber Park

Clumber Park, just south of Worksop is a country park owned by the National Trust and is open to the public.

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]

Circle Arts Centre

The Circle Arts Company 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.

Famous people from Worksop

Famous people born in Worksop include Bruce Dickinson (singer in the heavy metal band Iron Maiden), John Parr, who wrote the rock anthem ''St Elmo's Fire'', Donald Pleasence (actor), Graham Taylor (football manager), Lee Westwood (golfer) and Dave Bishop (comedian). Also born in Worksop was Neil Entwistle, a computer engineer accused of shooting dead his wife Rachel and their nine-month-old daughter Lillian at their home in Massachusetts in January 2006. Former footballer Tony Currie lives in Worksop.

★ Mick Jones, Leeds United striker of 1960s and 70s

★ Sarah-Jane Honeywell, BBC Children's TV presenter

★ Anne Foy, BBC Children's TV presenter

★ John Parr, who wrote the rock anthem St Elmo's Fire

★ Danny Fowler, Ex professional snooker player

★ Donald Pleasence OBE, actor

★ Len Bratley (radio presenter)

See also

★ Worksop College, a public school

★ Worksop Priory, the Church of England parish church

★ Worksop railway station, the railway station that serves the town

★ Worksop Town F.C., the local football team

References and notes

1. White, Robert (1875) ''Worksop, The Dukery, and Sherwood Forest''. Transcription at Nicholson, AP: ''Nottinghamshire History (Accessed 24 December 2005).
2. Mr Straw's House by The National Trust, accessed May 28, 2006.