Mansfield railway station (England)

Mansfield
The station building from platform 2
Location	Station Road Mansfield England
Grid reference	SK536608
Managed by	East Midlands Railway
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	MFT
Classification	DfT category F1
History
Original company	Midland Railway
Pre-grouping	Midland Railway
Post-grouping	London, Midland and Scottish Railway
Key dates
9 October 1849 (1849-10-09)	Opened as Mansfield
1872-75	Station buildings rebuilt
11 August 1952	Renamed Mansfield Town
12 October 1964	Closed
10 November 1995	Reopened as Mansfield
Passengers
2015/16	0.395 million
2016/17	0.399 million
2017/18	0.409 million
2018/19	0.402 million
2019/20	0.396 million
Listed Building – Grade II
Feature	Mansfield Railway Station
Designated	17 Mar 1978
Reference no.	1288236[1]
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Mansfield railway station is a Grade II listed railway station,^[1] which serves the large town of Mansfield in Nottinghamshire, England. Alternatively it is named Mansfield Town, to distinguish itself from the GCR's former Mansfield Central and Mansfield Woodhouse's station. The station is 17 miles (27 km) north of Nottingham on the Robin Hood Line, and is managed by East Midlands Railway.

History

Sign for Mansfield Town station at the Midland Railway Centre, Swanwick

The town was originally the terminus of the Mansfield and Pinxton Railway, built in 1819. It was bought by the Midland Railway, which used the final section to extend its new Leen Valley line to the present station in 1849. The station opened for passenger traffic without ceremony on Tuesday 9 October 1849.^[2] The line suffered from some teething problems in its early days. The Derby Mercury of 24 October 1849 criticised the quality of construction noting that:

engines have been off the line in the station yard at Mansfield several times since the opening on Tuesday week. The curves here are so sharp that a small engine can scarcely pull a train of four or five carriages out of the year. On Sunday [21 October 1849] morning last as the train due in at nine a.m. was coming in, the engine went off the rails, and it took upwards of half an hour to get it on again; so that the train, which ought to have quitted Mansfield at 9.15 a.m. did not leave until 10 min. to 10 a.m. Surely some alterations will be made to prevent future accidents of this description.^[3]

In September 1850 the fares on the line to Nottingham were halved, and the number of passenger doubled.^[4]

The present station building was constructed by the Midland Railway in 1872;^[1] to the designs of the architect John Holloway Sanders.^[5] The contractor was C. Humphreys. The new station was opened on Friday 1 March 1872.^[6] The principal entrance was from Queen Street, by a path parallel with the viaduct. The station now comprised two platforms. The down platform had the main station building with a booking hall with oak floors, Ladies’ first class waiting room, Gentlemen's first class waiting room, Ladies’ second class waiting room, and booking and parcel offices. On one side of the building was the porters’ room and the lamp room, and at the other end there was a fish house, and carriage and horse dock. On the up platform there was a boiler room to provide hot water for foot warmers, a Ladies’ waiting room, and the office of the stationmaster. The down line platform was 105 yards (96 m) and the up line platform was 67 yards (61 m) longer to accommodate Southwell trains. The platforms were equipped with pedants and pedestals for illumination at night.

This improvement to the station took place at the same time as the engineer to the Midland Railway company, John Crossley, implemented a deviation of the railway between Sutton and Mansfield of around 1.25 miles (2.01 km) avoiding three sharp curves, the worst at King's mill. The new line included four bridges and a viaduct over the Hermitage reservoir.^[6]

The station building acquired listed status in 1978,^[1] and was renovated and opened as a cafe-bar in 1986.^[7] The site of the old goods yard at Station Street, known as Portland Wharf, was converted into a large Co-Op foodstore in 1984.^[7] The former Portland Sidings site at Wharf Road was converted into a bulky goods retail Park from 2000.^[8][9]

Mansfield District Council started refurbishment work on the station buildings and site in February 1994.^[10] Mansfield pioneered railway in the East Midlands. Following passenger service closure in 1964, Mansfield remained isolated from the rail system until 1995, when the Robin Hood Line was reopened connecting to Nottingham. Before 1995, the town was the largest in the United Kingdom without a passenger service. The then-nearest railway service was at Alfreton, known as Alfreton and Mansfield Parkway.

Stationmasters

• Mr. Halford ca. 1860 (afterwards station master at Bellville on the Wellington Railway, South Africa)^[11]
• Mr. Cursham ca. 1866
• Joseph Somers, ca. 1867 until 1876 (afterwards station master at Lincoln)
• William Henry King 1876-1909^[12]
• George Lockwood 1909-1924^[13]
• T.W. Leech 1925-1932 (afterwards station master at Burton-on-Trent)
• Joseph Henry Wildgoose 1932^[14]-1938 (formerly station master at Longton, Staffordshire)
• Arthur J Owen ca. 1939
• J. Ridley ca. 1946

Services

Monday to Saturday daytimes there is a half-hourly service from Mansfield to Nottingham (southbound), and one to Mansfield Woodhouse (northbound) with an hourly service onwards to Worksop. There is an hourly service during the evenings between Nottingham and Worksop. There is also one daily service Mondays to Fridays from Mansfield Woodhouse directly to Norwich; however, there is no corresponding service in the opposite direction.

On Sundays an irregular service (nine trains each way) runs between Nottingham and Mansfield Woodhouse only.^[15]

The station has the PlusBus scheme, where train and bus tickets can be bought together at a saving. It is connected via skybridge to Mansfield bus station.

Mansfield was also once served by services to Rolleston via stations at Blidworth and Rainworth, Farnsfield, Kirklington and Edingley and Southwell. There was also services to Chesterfield over the Doe Lea Branch and Clowne Branch lines via the towns of Clowne, Bolsover and Staveley. These lines were closed in the 1930s and 1950s to passengers. Mansfield also had services along the original Robin Hood alignment to stations at Kirkby East and Sutton Junction which also closed when Mansfield did. These were replaced by the modern day Kirkby station and Sutton station, although opened a distance from their original sites.

Notes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mansfield railway station.

• Train times and station information for Mansfield railway station (England) from National Rail

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
[[Mansfield Woodhouse station|Mansfield Woodhouse]]		East Midlands Railway Robin Hood Line		[[Sutton Parkway station|Sutton Parkway]]

This page was last edited on 11 April 2021, at 10:59