Worksop

Not to be confused with workshop.

Worksop
Worksop  Worksop shown within Nottinghamshire
Population	39,072
OS grid reference	SK585795
District	Bassetlaw
Shire county	Nottinghamshire
Region	East Midlands
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	WORKSOP
Postcode district	S80/S81
Dialling code	01909
Police	Nottinghamshire
Fire	Nottinghamshire
Ambulance	East Midlands
EU Parliament	East Midlands
UK Parliament	Bassetlaw
List of places: UK • England • Nottinghamshire

Worksop is the largest town in the Bassetlaw district of Nottinghamshire, England, on the River Ryton at the northern edge of Sherwood Forest. It is about 19 miles (31 km) 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.

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."

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.

A small skirmish occurred around Worksop during the Wars of the Roses on 16 December 1460, commonly known as the Battle of Worksop.

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 sizeable coal seams further increased interest in the area.

The area is becoming increasingly popular with commuters owing to its relative proximity to the nearby cities of Sheffield, Lincoln and Nottingham.

The nearby Welbeck Estate has recently announced the launch of the School of Artisan Food, an independent not-for-profit organisation offering diplomas in artisan food production.

Unemployment levels in the area are lower than the national average, due to large number of distribution and local manufacturing companies, including Premier Foods and Wilkinsons Wilkinson RDS Transport, GD Engineering and Laing O'Rourke.

Transport

Worksop lies on the A57 with close connections to the A1 and the M1 as well as the A60, this allowing goods to be easily transported in and out of the area, explaining why Wilkinson and B&Q both have distribution centres in the area.

The rail links in the area are also good, Worksop lies on the Sheffield-Lincoln line, this takes travelers to places such as Sheffield, Doncaster, Meadowhall, Lincoln, Retford, Gainsborough and Shireoaks. This service is run by Northern Rail. Worksop is also the end point of the Robin Hood line, this takes travelers to areas such as Nottingham and Mansfield. This service is run by East Midlands trains. On weekends trains also run to Cleethorpes and Bridlington from Worksop, these services are run by Northern Rail.

Worksop has a bus network which runs throughout the town as well as to Doncaster, Shireoaks, Langold, Harworth, Misson, Bawtry, Everton, Mattersey, Retford, Blyth, Bircotes, Clowne, Tickhill, Rossington, Chesterfield, Misterton, Beckingham, Gainsbourgh, Kiveton Park, Killamarsh, Sheffield - Crystal Peaks, Ollerton, and Robin Hood airport. These services are run by Stagecoach Nottinghamshire and Veolia transport.

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.

• North Notts College is on Carlton Road (A60).
• Outwood Acedemy Portland is on Sparken Hill near the A57/B6034 roundabout. It is a very impressive new build. The school achieved its best ever GCSE results in 2010 and is on course to do even better in 2011.
• Outwood Academy Valley is on Valley Road next to the new leisure centre and these are also impressive new builds.
• Worksop Post-16 Centre offers a wide range of AS/A level courses and other qualifications. This replaces the former sixth forms at Portland and Valley schools. This opened on 3 September 2007. The centre runs in partnership with the two schools and North Notts College.
• Both secondary schools in Worksop have undergone major redevelopment, the old buildings being demolished and rebuilt.
• Redlands primary is a school on Crown Street. It was the first school in Worksop to be redeveloped.
• Norbridge is a primary school on Stanley Street near Outwood Academy Valley.
• St. Johns primary is a school on Raymouth Lane at the end of Valley Road, also near Outwood Academy Valley.
• Sir Edmund Hillary Primary School is on Kingsway off Kilton Hill (B6041).
• Prospect Hill Junior School and Prospect Hill Infant and Nursery School are based on the same site on Maple Drive in the North East of Worksop.
• Holy Family Catholic Primary School is a Catholic School on Netherton Road, next to Portland School.
• Gateford Park Primary School
• Worksop Priory Primary School is a primary school on Holles Street, opened in 1990.
• St. Annes Primary is on Harrington Street off Newcastle Street (B6024)
• The town is also home to Worksop College, a coeducational day and boarding school.

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.

Local economy

Since the collapse of the coal mining industry in the 1980s, the local economy has been through difficult times as it re-orientates to service industries and manufacturing.

Local unemployment is high, and since the early 1990s there has been a widespread problem in the area with heroin abuse. In early 2004, MP John Mann revealed that some 1,200 (more than 1%) of the 104,000-strong population in the area were drug addicts.

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. Greencore Sandwiches also have a production facility. The Wilkinson UK headquarters are at JK House, Manton Wood, south of the town on the A57. Their distribution centre is an important employer. RDS Transport(known as the Flying Fridge) based at claylands avenue is a major employer of HGV/Van Drivers. There is also a B&Q distribution centre and a liquid chocolate manufacturing plant owned by OCG Cacao, part of Cargill.

Worksop has benefited from a large amount of new housing recently with a similar increase in businesses locating to the Worksop area, increasing the amount of jobs in the local economy.

Places of interest

Worksop Priory

Main article: Worksop Priory

Officially titled The Priory Church of Saint Mary and Saint Cuthbert, Worksop is today a Church of England parish church usually known as Worksop Priory. It commenced life as an Augustinian Priory founded in 1103. Services are held daily throughout the year. The church has a magnifcent nave and detached gatehouse.Monks at the Priory made the Tickhill Psalter, one of the finest British illuminated manuscripts of the medieval period, now held in New York Public Library. After the dissolution of the Monasteries the East end of the church fell into disrepair, but the local townspeople were granted the nave as a parish church. The eastern parts of the building have been restored in several phases, the most recent being in the 1970s when the architect Lawrence King rebuilt the crossing.

Clumber Park

Main article: 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.

Acorn Theatre

The Acorn Theatre is a 200 seat performing arts venue in Worksop town centre, providing a full programme of professional and amateur live theatre and folk music. It is a registered charity managed and run by volunteers,and the building has become the home of several community performing groups and a youth theatre.

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.

Notable people from Worksop

• Maurice Bembridge, golfer
• Ian Bennett, goalkeeper, currently at Huddersfield Town
• George Best, former goalkeeper with Blackpool
• Basil Boothroyd, Humorous writer
• Bruce Dickinson, Iron Maiden singer, author, screenwriter, radio DJ, commercial pilot and former marketing director of Astraeus Airlines
• Craig Disley, Footballer, currently playing for Bristol Rovers
• Neil Entwistle, Convicted murderer who shot dead his wife Rachel and their nine-month-old daughter Lillian at their home in Massachusetts in January 2006
• Mark Foster, golfer
• Anne Foy, Former BBC Children's Tv Presenter
• Gwen Grant, writer
• Sarah-Jane Honeywell, BBC Children's TV presenter
• Mick Jones, Leeds United striker of 1960s and 70s
• Chris Marsden, radio presenter, currently at Minster FM, York
• Liam Palmer, Sheffield Wednesday Footballer
• John Parr, musician
• Donald Pleasence, actor
• Graham Taylor, former England manager
• Danny Thomas, footballer, played for Coventry City F.C. & Tottenham Hotspur
• Darren Ward, former football goalkeeper
• Lee Westwood, golfer (reached world number one in 2010, 2011)
• Chris Wood, footballer, recently signed for Worksop Town

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
• Worksop Rural District, a former rural district
• Worksop Manor
• Creswell
• Chesterfield Canal
• Maid Marian and her Merry Men, a BBC children's television series partially set in Worksop

External links

• Worksop, The Dukery and Sherwood Forest, by Robert White (1875)
• Worksop Guardian