Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for WORKSOP

WORKSOP, a town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district, in Notts. The town stands on the river Ryton, the Chesterfield canal, and the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire railway, 23 miles N of Nottingham; was known, at the Norman conquest, as Wirchesop; is a seat of petty sessions and county-courts, and a polling place; comprises a long principal street crossed by a smaller one; was sewered and drained in 1860, at a cost of £6,000; carries on a large trade in flour, timber, railway-sleepers, and Windsor chairs; and has a head post-office,‡ a r. station with telegraph, two banking offices, two chief inns, a police station, a corn exchange and assembly-room in the Venetian style, built in 1854, a Norman church, originally the church of an Augustinian priory, and recently restored at a cost of more than £8,000, ruined remains of an ancient chapel, a church of 1869, called St. John's, an Independent chapel of 1830, Wesleyan chapels of 1837 and 1863, a Primitive Methodist chapel of 1832, a Roman Catholic chapel of 1840, a mechanics' institute, national and denominational schools, a workhouse of 1837, with capacity for 240 inmates, built at a cost of £4,400, brass and iron foundries, chemical works, saw-mills, agricultural-implement factories, malt kilns, a weekly corn market on Wednesday, a weekly fat stock market on Monday, and a cattle and horse market twice a year. Pop. in 1861, 7,112. Houses, 1,546.

The parish includes several hamlets, and comprises 18,220 acres. Real property, £34,317; of which £91 are in quarries, £520 in mines, and £525 in gasworks. Pop. in 1851, 7,215; in 1861, 8,361. Houses, 1,776. The increase of pop. arose from the extension of the malting and timber trades, and from the opening of a coal mine. The surface is so enriched with splendid mansions and high embellishments as to be popularly called the Dukery. The manor belonged to Elsi the Saxon; went, at the Norman conquest, to Roger de Buisli; passed to the Lovetots, the Nevills, the Furnivals, the Talbots, and the Howards; and belongs now to the Duke of Newcastle. The mansion on it was built, in the time of Henry V., by the first Earl of Shrewsbury; was the prison of Mary Queen of Scots, in the 16th year of her detention; was visited by James I. in 1603, when on his way to assume the English crown; was destroyed by fire in 1761; was splendidly rebuilt, soon afterwards, by the Duke of Norfolk; has a frontage 318 feet long, surmounted by a balustrade; and stands in a fine park about 8 miles in circuit. Welbeck Abbey is the seat of the Duke of Portland; Thoresby Park, of Earl Manvers; Worksop Manor, of Lord Foley; and Osberton Hall, of G. S. Foljambe, Esq. The head living and that of St. John are vicarages in the diocese of Lincoln. Value of the former, £388;* of the latter, £200. Patron of the former, the Duke of Newcastle; of the latter, G. S. Foljambe, Esq. The p. curacies of Scofton and Shireoaks are separate benefices.

The sub-district includes Welbeck extra-parochial tract, and comprises 20,630 acres. Pop., 8,373. Houses, 1,777.—The district comprehends also Carlton, Anston, and Carburton sub-districts; and comprises 80,850 acres. Poor rates in 1863, £8,740. Pop. in 1851, 19,153; in 1861, 20,704. Houses, 4,339. Marriages in 1866, 137; births, 729,-of which 49 were illegitimate; deaths, 437, -of which 172 were at ages under 5 years, and 13 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1,419; births, 6,465; deaths, 3,888. The places of worship, in 1851, were 27 of the Church of England , with 5,796 sittings; 2 of Independents, with 355 s.; 1 of Quakers, with 140 s.; 13 of Wesleyans, with 1,745 s.; 3 of Primitive Methodists, with 312 s.; 10 of the Wesleyan Association, with 965 s.; 1 undefined, with 60 s.; 1 of Roman Catholics, with 266 s.; and 1 of Latter Day Saints, with 14 attendants. The schools were 21 public day-schools, with 2,031 scholars; 46 private day-schools, with 1,031 s.; and 30 Sunday schools, with 225 s.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Worksop CP/AP       Worksop SubD       Worksop RegD/PLU       Nottinghamshire AncC
Place: Worksop

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