Mansfield  is a market town and the administrative centre of the Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area and the second largest settlement in Nottinghamshire (following the city of Nottingham). It gained the Royal Charter of a market town in 1227. The town lies in the Maun Valley,  north of Nottingham. It had a population of 110,500 at the 2021 census, according to the Office for National Statistics. Mansfield is the one local authority in Nottinghamshire with a publicly elected mayor.

Toponymy
According to William Horner Dove (1894) there is dispute to the origins of the name. Three conjectures have been considered, either the name was given to the nobel family of Mansfield who came over with King William the Conqueror, others indicate the name came from Manson, an Anglo Saxon word for traffic and a field meaning a place of trade, or named after the river Maun which runs through Mansfield, the town being built around the river.

History

Roman to Medieval Period
Settlement dates to the Roman period. Major Hayman Rooke in 1787 discovered a villa between Mansfield Woodhouse and Pleasley; a cache of denarii (300-400 Roman Silver Coins were found near King's Mill in 1849.

King William I the Conqueror in 1066 made Sherwood Forest a Royal Forest for hunting which was frequently visited by the Mercian (between 586 A.D. and 874 A.D.) and later Kings.

The Royal Manor of Mansfield was held by the King. In 1042, King Edward the Confessor possessed a manor in Mansfield. King William the Conqueror later owned two carucates, five sochmans, and thirty-five villains; twenty borders, with nineteen carucates and a half in demesne, a mill, piscary, twenty-four acres of meadow and pasture in Mansfield.

In the time of Henry II of England, the king visited what is now known as Kings Mill, staying at the home of Sir John Cockle for a night having been hunting in Sherwood Forest. Sir John Cockle was later known as the Miller of Mansfield.William Horner Groves, The History of Mansfield, (1894) retrieved on the 13 February 2023. In 1199 the Manor was owned by King John. King John used to visit Mansfield frequently between 1200-1216, that he built a residence here. Later,  King Edward I held a Royal Council in the town. The Manor, then owned by King Henry III, subsequently passed to Henry de Hastings. In 1329 Queen Isabella, mother of Edward III, was the Lady of the Manor of Mansfield.

The Domesday Book (1086) recorded the settlement as Mammesfeld and market-petition documents of 1227 spelt it Maunnesfeld. King Richard II signed a warrant in November 1377 to grant tenants the right to hold a four-day fair each year; the spelling had changed to Mannesfeld. Mansfield, Skegby and Sutton in Ashfield were the land of the king in 1086 as stated in the Doomsday Book. There are remains of the 12th-Century King John's Palace in Clipstone, between Mansfield and Edwinstowe, and it was an area of retreat for royal families and dignitaries through to the 15th Century. It was here where King William the Lion of Scotland met King Richard I of England (Richard the Lionheart) to congratulate him on his return from the crusades.

St Peter and St Paul's Church is mentioned in the Doomsday Book in (1086). In (1092) the church was passed by King William II to Robert Bloet the bishop of Lincoln and Lord Chancellor of England.

Access to the town was by road from the city of Nottingham, on the way to Sheffield. In the town centre, a commemorative plaque was erected in 1988 together with a nearby tree to mark the point thought once to be the centre of Sherwood Forest. The plaque was refurbished in 2005 and moved to a ground-plinth.Town stakes a claim to Robin Hood BBC News, 19 July 2005, Retrieved 9 November 2020.

Tudor and Stuart Periods
In 1516, during the reign of King Henry VIII, an act of parliament settled the Manor to Thomas, Duke of Norfolk. The Manor was then passed to the Dukes of Newcastle and Portland.

Dame Cecily Fogan in 1521, gave extensive land to the parish church and community in Mansfield in her will. The church at the time was in the hands of King Edward VI.W Harrod, The History of Mansfield and its Environs, 1801 retrieved on the 1st April 2023

Travellers in the 16th and 17th centuries had several inns and stable yards dating from the medieval period to stop at:

the Harte; the Swan, with 1490 dating stone; the Talbot; the White Bear; the Ram, with timber from before 1500; and the White Lion.. Several timber-framed cruck buildings were demolished in 1929; and in 1973 a local historical society documented another during demolition dated to 1400 or earlier. Other Tudor houses in Stockwell Gate, Bridge Street, and Lime Tree Place were also demolished to make way for development before they could be viewed for listing. Most remaining buildings are from the 17th century. The Swan was rebuilt in 1584, and became a coaching inn in the 1820's/30s.

In the 1640s George Fox lived in Mansfield and worked as a shoemaker. Mansfield became the birth place of the Quakers religion, after George had a revelation walking past St Peter and St Paul's Church, Mansfield. George felt compelled to preach to others as a result of this revelation. This was during the time of the English Civil War. There is a Quakers Heritage Trail in the town for those who want to learn about the Quakers origin. George was later imprisoned for the first time in Nottingham in 1649.cite Web https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-32381926 BBC News British Broadcasting Commission - Quakers - The Faith Forgotten in its hometown, 2015 accessed on the 6th February 2023 George met Elizabeth Hooton at her home in nearby Skegby, she is usually considered to be the first person to accept the doctrines of Quakerism.

The Old Meeting House (Unitarian church) on Stockwell Gate was built in 1702. The church being the oldest non conformist place of worship in Nottinghamshire. The history of the church is traced back to 1666. During the persecution of Presbyterian ministers, eight ministers sought refuge in Mansfield under the protection of Reverend John Firth (at the time of the Oxford Act of 1666).

In 1690, during the reign of King William III of England and Queen Mary II of England Daniel Clay was put in the Pillory in Mansfield for speaking these words "God dam King William and Queen Mary and yt King James both should and would come again." His words meant he was disloyal to the King and Queen.

Elizabeth Heath in 1691 founded the Almshouses for the poor. Six of the Almshouses housed Quakers, and six for the established members of the church.
Robert Mellors, Men of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire (1924) retrieved on the 7th April 2023

18th Century
In 1709 Samuel Brunt left £436.15 to the relief of the poor inhabitants. Faith Clerkson in 1725, Charles Thompson in 1784 both donated money to educating children in Mansfield. This formulated the beginning of the Brunt's Charity.Arthur Mee, The King's England: Nottinghamshire, Hodder & Stoughton, 1938 retrieved on the 7th April 2023

Robert Dodsley who wrote book of 'The King and the Miller of Mansfield' was a stocking weaver in the town. Robert became one of the foremost publishers of that day. He published Dr Samuel Johnson's London in 1738. Later, Robert suggested and helped finance Johnson's dictionary of the English Language.

The Moot Hall in the Mansfield Market Place was erected in 1752 by Henrietta Harley, Countess of Oxford and Countess Mortimer.

It was recorded that the Mansfield Workhouse was originally based on Nottingham Road in 1777 housing 56 inmates, but later recorded on Stockwell Gate intended to house 300 people named the Mansfield Union Workhouse under the Mansfield Poor Law.Caplan, M (1984) In the Shadow of the Workhouse retrieved on the 1st April 2023

John Throsby in 1790 described Mansfield as 'a flourishing and genteel market town, general well built.....and is certainly an ancient place, and some think of high antiquity'.

19th century
In 1851, Lord George Bentinck by subscription erected the Bentinck memorial (Cavendish Monument) in the Market place in Mansfield.

In 1894 William Horner Groves described Mansfield as one of the quaintest and most healthy of the towns in the Midland counties, is the market town for an agricultural district of eight miles around it. It is the capital of the Broxtowe Hundred of Nottinghamshire, and gives its name to a Parliamentary Division of the county'

20th Century
The Carnegie Old library on Leeming Street was funded and erected by Andrew Carnegie industrialist and philanthropist in 1905. Andrew was one of the richest men in the United States at the time. 1905 was also the year that the Mansfield and District Light Railways Tram system was opened but later closed in 1932.

Ancient markets
Mansfield is a market town with a 700-year-old market tradition; a Royal charter was issued in 1227. The present market square was created after demolition under the Improvement Act of 1823. In the centre is the Bentinck Memorial, built in 1849, which commemorates Lord George Bentinck (1802–1848), son of the William Bentinck, 4th Duke of Portland, a local landowner.

A nearby area called Buttercross Market in West Gate, the site of an old cattle market, has a centrepiece of local stone dating from the 16th century. Mansfield District Council closed this section in 2015. Adjacent is Mansfield Library, officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1977 and refurbished in 2012. The old Carnegie Library, founded in 1905 in Leeming Street, was used from 1976 as an arts and performance centre.

Churches
St Peter and St Paul's Church  is a Grade I listed building. Most of the church was built by the Norman's. The church was mentioned in the Doomsday Book in 1086. St Johns Church is a grade II listed building. The church was built in 1854 and designed by Henry Isaac Stevens. St Mark's Church was built in 1897; the church building is Grade II listed. St Lawrence The Martyr Church is located on Skerry Hill.

St Philip Neri Church is a Roman Catholic Church on Chesterfield Road South.

A Quaker Meeting House of the Religious Society of Friends is on Rosemary Street.

Economy

Town centre
Mansfield has a large market place within its commercial and retail centre. The main market area was re-surfaced in 2005. In 2016 the council moved all market stalls from the old Buttercross Market in Westgate to join those sited in the main market area.
Surroundings includes a museum, the Palace Theatre, restaurants, fast-food outlets, pubs, bars and night clubs.

In January 2022, the council announced an intention to purchase and redevelop the old Beale's town-centre store and to relocate all existing staff along with external partnerships and new participants, swelling the daily footfall which would bolster existing retail traders. Funding for the scheme, named Mansfield Connect, will be determined by a Levelling Up grant. In January 2023, the levelling up funding of 20 million pounds for the project had been agreed by the UK government.

Also in February 2022 Severn Trent Water shared its £76 million Green Recovery Project for flood alleviation investment for the town. This includes rain garden areas around the Market Place, a memorial garden at the back of the Old Town Hall and a pocket park with a slide for children in the existing green space on the corner of Walkden Street/Quaker Way.

On 6 April 2010 a town-centre Business Improvement District (BID) was founded with offices in the Old Town Hall, financed by 2 per cent extra on the rateable value of nearby businesses.

The BID operates on a five-year basis, with a rolling yearly operational plan. Before its tenure ended in 2015, over 560 shops and other town-centre businesses were canvassed in late 2014 to vote on the first continuation period. Mansfield District Council contracted out of the procedure at a projected cost to council taxpayers of £8,000. On a 55 per cent turnout, 77 per cent voted to extend the BID for another five years.

The BID's additional services (beyond the council's baseline statutory services) and delivery of projects enhance the town's shopping centre. It offers events to attract visitors and raise awareness and security for the town centre, including banning orders and improved shop frontages.

Records show the first yearly income to have been £294,697, with an operating surplus of £151,610. One achievement in 2012–2013 was a crowd-funded town centre Wi-Fi internet installation costing £37,000, and completed by June 2013, using a network of AP nodes requiring registration for free use, and dedicated optional BID local information "App" for Android and iPhone available for download. The intentions were to encourage shoppers and visitors to linger in the town centre for longer, to offer internet access to small businesses, and to provide market traders with a means of accepting non-cash payments.

Other BID moves have been "gating off" alleyways blighted by anti-social behaviour, improving signage, and enhancing cleansing operations. Several shopkeepers complained in 2011 that the BID was "not doing enough to boost town trade." In 2012, Mansfield Constituency Labour Party criticised the BID for receiving almost a million pounds in its first three years, with little to show for it.

In 2015 Mansfield BID moved out of its offices in the old Town Hall to allow structural repairs, relocating nearby. A mandatory ballot, required every five years, occurred in late 2014, and again in late 2019, resulting in a decision to renew the organisation.

Retail
Among Mansfield's retail outlets is the Four Seasons shopping centre created in 1973–1976, with over 50 units occupied by national chains and phone shops. Primark nationally took over the former Littlewoods premises, closing the Mansfield store and its associated in-house business Index) in 2005. The Primark premises underwent a refit in 2017. Other stores and a coffee chain have traded in West Gate since 2011, along with existing similar cafés.

BHS closed in 2016 and Beales in 2020. Debenhams' closure, part of a national sequence due to the Arcadia Group's financial failure, was announced in late 2020, followed by Burtons, Topman and Topshop.

Rosemary Centre, built as a large weaving shed in 1907 by John Harwood Cash and converted to retail in 1984, is a pedestrianised area off the town centre with a covered streetside parade. Argos relocated in 2017 to new owner Sainsbury's store. There are also three outdoor retail parks, two with adjacent branded fast-food outlets. As of April 2023, it was announced that a planning application to demolish the Rosemary Centre to build a Lidl supermarket and another retail unit had been passed with the planning committee chairman's casting vote decisive.

The site of the old bus station on Rosemary Street is now home to three fast food outlets, Taco Bell, Tim Hortons and Domino's Pizza.

Civic Centre
The headquarters of Mansfield District Council were relocated to a new-build occupying part of a former recreation ground at Chesterfield Road South from August 1986, bringing together workers from 12 offices across the district. The project took two years and over-ran the anticipated cost by £1 million, totalling £6.7 million, then the council's biggest spending scheme. it was opened in 1987 by Princess Anne. Catering facilities are run by outside contractors.

From 2012, surplus office space was rented to outside concerns. Working with Ashfield District Council to cut costs, the legal services of both authorities were combined in existing ADC offices at Kirkby in Ashfield. Their joint regeneration service began earlier. The council decided in 2014 to close the Civic Centre counter-payments facility.

Job Centre Plus, an agency within the Department for Work and Pensions, moved in 2018 from two town-centre venues to the re-modelled Civic Centre interior ground floor. The vacated offices were intended for redevelopment as housing and retail.

Mansfield Community Partnership was created at the Civic Centre as a centralised hub for law and order, with police, street wardens, housing, domestic abuse and anti social behaviour officers in a dedicated town-centre unit.

In October 2021, the council announced a plan to create a new community hub at the old town hall in the town centre, intending to relocate staff together with other parties having vested interests in the present building and area. The project will be subject to a successful bid for funding from central government under the Levelling up scheme announced in 2021. The Civic Centre is proposed to be redeveloped.

Regeneration and history
New data collated by the Office of National Statistics advised that more people are moving from London to Mansfield than any other part of Nottinghamshire.

There has been a significant number of new homes and developments being built or planned in Mansfield such as those of the Berry Hill development to name one which includes 1700 homes, a hotel, health centre, Primary School, care home and offices. Other exclusive housing developments are being built such as those of High Oakham Park.

In 2019 the UK government set up the Towns Fund, which aimed to regenerate areas in need of regeneration. Mansfield was one of these places with the aim of receiving £25 million for its regeneration and development. This is to part with The Mansfield Townscape Heritage Project, which provided grants by the National Lottery to renovate parts of the town centre.

Several urban regeneration projects planned for Mansfield involved large-scale demolition, but the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and subsequent central-government funding cuts and escalating austerity measures deferred them. Mansfield District Council promoted two new developments: Arrival Square, opened 2008, an office block occupied by the Probation Service by the rail station; and Queen's Place—completed and opened by the mayor, Tony Egginton, in late 2013—which cost the council £2.4 million. It offered two new ground-floor retail units and six offices in Queen Street between the new transport interchange and the market square.

Reconstruction of the nearby King's Mill Hospital, part of which was completed by 2009, is near to the MARR road (Mansfield and Ashfield Regeneration Route) which opened in 2004, a bypass route around the town designed to reduce traffic through-flow and improve public access by connecting the A617 at Pleasley to the A617 at Rainworth.

In 2009 Mansfield made a bid for city status, appending redevelopment plans for retail, residential and leisure facilities with road improvements gradually being made; still pending as of August 2020.

Former employment and industry
Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries in October 1999 acquired Mansfield Brewery, once the United Kingdom's largest independent brewery, for £253 million. Production ceased in 2002, and the Mansfield range of ales moved to manufacturing facilities around the country; the site was later sold to Pubmaster Ltd, and from the 2020s is being redeveloped as housing.

In the 1980s, Mansfield Bitter was advertised with a photograph of then US President Ronald Reagan and the tagline: "He might be president of the most powerful nation on earth... but he's never had a pint of Mansfield." "Not much matches Mansfield" was also used and became the title for a play set in the town, written by Kevin Fegan for the Mansfield Arts Festival. A similar 1989 advert contained the wording "He might be the life and soul of the Party...But he's never had a pint of Mansfield." featured Mikhail Gorbachev, then president of the Soviet Union.

Mansfield's old-established soft drink manufacturer, R. L. Jones, with brand names Sunecta and Mandora, was bought by Mansfield Brewery in 1977. A move to a modern factory in Bellamy Road in 1975 released land projected for a high-density housing development known as Layton Burroughs. Mansfield Brewery sold the business in 1988 for £21.5 million to the Scottish drinks company A. G. Barr plc, producer of Irn-Bru, Tizer, and Mandora. At the time the firm employed 400 people. Production ceased there in January 2011 when A. G. Barr moved production to other sites.

After demolition of the brewery production buildings in 2008, the site remained unsold, with various projected uses mooted. Used temporarily since February 2015 as a trailer park, Mansfield planning department refused further consent in October 2015. One local councillor suggested it could be turned into a town farm, but instead a rented housing development was completed by 2021.

The older ornate office building 'Chadburn House' initially housed an interactive learning centre from 2002. It closed in April 2015, and was turned into office space for businesses, including the local newspaper, and a micro brewery with a cafe and bar.

Although Mansfield itself doesn't show signs of coal mining many areas near the town still do. Coal mining was the main industry for most of the 20th century. A violent episode in the UK miners' strike (1984–1985) occurred in Mansfield on May Day 1984. Most of the area's miners had voted against a strike, but the local union initially maintained that the strike was official to show solidarity with strikers in other areas. When the coal board granted an extra day of leave after the bank holiday, a group of working miners confronted union officials and violence broke out with striking miners. Mansfield later hosted a breakaway union, the Union of Democratic Mineworkers, which recruited many who had opposed the 1984–1985 strike.

The head stocks close to the village of Clipstone are an important local landmark and community groups are trying to preserve them as a reminder of the area's mining history. As demand for coal fell, Mansfield's pits wound down and miners had to find other work.

Mining subsidence causes problems for properties around Mansfield. A few streets in and around the town form long rows of terraced houses reminiscent of the affordable housing provided for mine workers in the prime of the industry. Many were demolished in 2012 in Pleasley Hill, Market Warsop and elsewhere. The Coal Authority is based in the town.

Transport

Railway

Mansfield railway station is on the Robin Hood Line, which connects the town with Nottingham and Worksop; the line was opened in 1995. Trains run generally at hourly intervals each way.

History
The town was originally the terminus of the Mansfield and Pinxton Railway, a horse-drawn plateway built in 1819 and one of the first acquisitions of the newly formed Midland Railway. The Midland used the final section to extend its new Leen Valley line to the present station in 1849.

Mansfield had two railway stations: Mansfield Town, the former Midland station on Station Road; and Mansfield Central, the former Mansfield Railway station in Great Central Road, near Ratcliffe Gate.

The Midland Railway extended its Rolleston Junction–Southwell branch to Mansfield in 1871; continued the line north to Worksop in 1875; opened a link from Mansfield Woodhouse to Westhouses and Blackwell in 1886; and completed another link from Pleasley through Bolsover to Barrow Hill in 1890. The locally promoted Mansfield Railway, between Kirkby South Junction and Clipstone Junction, broke the Midland Railway monopoly; it was opened in stages between 1913 and 1916 for goods trains and, in 1917, for Nottingham–Ollerton passenger trains, calling at a second Mansfield passenger station. Though nominally independent, the Mansfield Railway connected at both ends with the Great Central Railway, which worked the trains.

Central station lost its scheduled passenger services at the beginning of 1956 and Town station closed to passengers in 1964, leaving Mansfield without a passenger railway service until 1995. During this period, Mansfield was, by some definitions, the largest town in Britain without a railway station. The closest station was located at Alfreton; between 1973 and 1995, it was named Alfreton and Mansfield Parkway to encourage use as a railhead for Mansfield.

In 1995, the Robin Hood line restored passenger services and was officially reopened by Secretary of State for Transport, Sir George Young. A Sunday service was restored to Mansfield in December 2008.

Mansfield & District Light Railways ran a tram service between 1905 and 1932.

Road
The M1 motorway lies west of Mansfield. It is  from junction 29 at Heath, Derbyshire for traffic from the north and Chesterfield, and  from junction 27 at Annesley for traffic from the south.

The A60 road runs north–south through Mansfield, between Nottingham and Worksop. The A617 road skirts around the town, providing a road link eastwards towards Newark-on-Trent as well as westwards towards Chesterfield and the M1.

The A38 road, the longest 2-digit A-road in Great Britain, terminates at Mansfield, and provides the town with a direct link to Derby.

Buses

Buses in Mansfield are operated mainly by Stagecoach, with Trent Barton and National Express also working the area. The council granted planning permission for a new bus station on the former Station Road car park, expected to cost £7 million, in 2006. The old bus station, built in 1977, handled around 1,500 buses and 16,000 passenger arrivals a day; however, it  had an outdated design and appearance, and poor outdoor waiting facilities.

There were good pedestrian links to the pedestrianised town-centre shopping streets; however, the railway station was several hundred yards away. The new bus station addressed the problem, but proved unpopular with shopkeepers near the old facility, with several claiming marked reductions in trade.

The new bus station and transport interchange opened on 31 March 2013 in a location on a former car park, close to the railway station. It is part of a regeneration scheme known as Gateway to Mansfield, which aims to give visitors a clean and tidy first impression, including buildings with a themed use of local sandstone. The scheme also aims to improve facilities for locals, boost visitors to the town and help step up the local economy.

The new bus station increased passenger safety and provides a more welcoming scene for arriving visitors. Improvements have included an enclosed waiting area, automatic doors for fume reduction and safety, a tourist information centre, electronic bus and rail departure information, toilets and baby-changing facilities. A tower with lift and stairs to an elevated walkway connects it to the railway station.

Air
The closest airport to Mansfield is East Midlands Airport followed by Birmingham Airport.

Sport

Mansfield is home to Mansfield Town FC, known as the Stags or yellows. Relegated to the Conference National after 77 years in the Football League at the end of the 2007–2008 season, Mansfield Town returned to the Football League after winning the 2012–2013 Conference National title. Non-League club AFC Mansfield plays in the Forest Town area of Mansfield.

Mansfield Rugby Club is a rugby union club based at Eakring Road and currently plays in Midlands 1 East, a sixth-tier league in the English rugby union system. It won the Notts Cup for five years in succession and for a record 18 times.

Mansfield Giants is Mansfield's Premier Basketball Club, and has a three-star Accreditation and Club Mark from the English Sports Council. The team plays in the England Basketball (EB2).

The annual half marathon held for more than 30 years was cancelled after 2011 due to escalating costs, after changes to Health and Safety legislation meant professional services were needed to address road-closure measures, instead of volunteers. Mansfield local business networking group 2020 had hoped to restore a race by September 2014, but this event, reduced in length to 10 kilometres, was postponed, initially until spring 2015, and took place in August.

Angling is well supported in the Mansfield district, where ponds remain from the former textile milling industry.

Tennis is catered for by Mansfield Lawn Tennis Club located at the same site since 1883, with two grass courts and four asphalt courts, three of them floodlit. Further hard-surface courts are found in the district at six Mansfield District Council park locations.

Mansfield is home to Mansfield Roller Derby, Mansfield's premier Flat Track Roller Derby league.

One issue for local residents is Mansfield's lack of a central Leisure Centre. Mansfield District Council decided it would rubber stamp the sale of the existing Leisure Centre and extensive public car park to Tesco, which opened a large Tesco Extra store in 2007. The Council asserted that this would be replaced by a brand new Leisure Centre, but nothing has been built or is planned. It received over £5m from Tesco for the Leisure Centre site, but decided to spend this on refurbishing Sherwood Baths instead.

Mansfield has two indoor swimming centres and a third, smaller pool attached to a school, which has been under threat of closure since 2011. These facilities give Mansfield the largest square meterage of indoor water-sports facilities per capita of any town in the United Kingdom with less than 100,000 inhabitants.

Mansfield is one of three outlets for the Nottinghamshire County Council Swim Squad, which competes as Nova Centurion. The Sherwood Swimming Baths adjacent to the former Sherwood Colliery was refurbished and opened in January 2010 as the Rebecca Adlington Swimming Centre. The 25-metre pool was widened at the expense of losing tiered public seating and has a new, small, endless stroke-improvement training pool with variable-resistance water flow. The complex reduces its carbon footprint by using a ground-source heat pump backed by a biomass boiler burning wood pellets prepared from waste by a local wood yard.

At the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, a Mansfield contestant, Rebecca Adlington, won two gold medals, for 400 and 800-metre freestyle swimming. After her record-breaking success, Adlington was welcomed home to Mansfield by thousands lining the streets to applaud as she passed in an open top bus. This culminated in an appearance at the old Town Hall in the Market Square. Her success boosted swimming interest in the area, leading to expansion of swimming classes to encourage young people to begin swimming. At the 2012 Olympic Games in and around London, Adlington won two Bronze medals again for 400 and 800 metres, the best performance of a generally disappointing Team GB swimming squad. She retired from competitive swimming in February 2012.

Water Meadows swimming complex opened during the Christmas holidays of 1990 in Bath Street, on the site of the former Mansfield Baths and defunct cattle market. It has a gym and a soft-play area for children with an adjoining café, as well as one 25-metre competition pool, two other pools, and a small teaching pool. The leisure lagoon pool has an artificial wave machine operating periodically, and also a slide and a shallow area like a beach. The complex is popular with family groups, and many surrounding schools make use of its facilities.

Mansfield Bowling Club is reputed to have origins in the 1700s. The club played at a bowling green to the rear of the Bowl in Hand pub in the town centre, until relocating into the grounds of Queen Elizabeth's Academy, with a new facility including pavilion opening in 2009.

Parks

Titchfield Park

On the same site as the Water Meadows swimming complex, offers large grassy areas on both sides of the river Maun, crossed by two footbridges. It has a bowls green, hard tennis courts, a basketball court, a children's play area, and many flowerbeds.

Fisher Lane Park

Nearby stretches from the top of Littleworth through to Rock Hill. It is popular with dog walkers, kite flyers and skaters, as Mansfield District Council installed a concrete skate plaza, causing some local controversy. However, the skate plaza has proved popular with local young people. Some rides and stalls for local children are set up in the park in the summer.

Carr Bank Park

Also close to the town, has a rocky grotto, a bandstand and summer flower beds. It has a war memorial built of local sandstone, dedicated to soldiers killed in action since the end of the Second World War, to complement the original setting unveiled after the First War in 1921.

Cemeteries and crematorium
The main cemetery and crematorium occupy a 10-acre site accessed from Derby Road, on the southern edge of town near to the boundary with Ashfield. They share a car park. In late 2015, Mansfield District Council recognised the need for additional spaces and planning consent was obtained. The older part of the cemetery, fronting Nottingham Road and Forest Hill (the old Derby Road) has on-street parking. Site access on foot can be hard due to the steep slope.

The cemetery was opened in 1857 due to insufficient church graveyard space, the mid-to-late Victorian population growth and several then-new churches built with little or no dedicated graveyard areas. A 10-acre extension was made in 1898. Registered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as 'Nottingham Road Cemetery', this cemetery contains the war graves of 51 Commonwealth service personnel of World War I and 45 from World War II.

The adjacent Mansfield and District Crematorium, with two chapels seating 35 and up to 80, was set up in 1960. and is a responsibility shared between Mansfield District Council, Ashfield District Council and Newark and Sherwood District Council.

There are other cemeteries on the A60 at Mansfield Woodhouse and at Warsop, and off the A617 at Pleasley Hill.

Entertainment
The Palace Theatre in Leeming St is the town's prime entertainment venue. Built as a cinema in 1910 and originally known as the Palace Electric Theatre, it was adapted as a theatre with a proscenium arch, presenting live shows. It was known as the Civic Hall and Civic Theatre before the current name was revived in 1995. With a seating capacity of 534, the theatre is a mid-scale touring venue. It presents a programme of professional and amateur productions and a yearly pantomime.

Mansfield Museum, beside the Palace Theatre in Leeming Street, opened in 1904. and has been based on its present site since 1938. With free entry, it won the Guardian Family-friendly Museum of the Year Award in 2011.

Mansfield was home to Venue 44, a nightclub that gave birth to the superclub Renaissance which was operated there in 1992–1994 by Geoff Oakes and launched the DJ's Sasha, John Digweed, Nigel Dawson and Ian Ossia to global fame. The building was demolished in 2010.

The Carnegie Old Library near the town centre houses a recording studio, meeting room and 100-seat Studio Theatre. Mansfield also has a large Odeon Cinemas on a new retail and entertainment park outside of the town centre. The previous ABC town-centre cinema was used as a snooker centre until closure in 2012, but late in 2013 it was converted into a church.

Mansfield Super Bowl, a 28-lane alley with hospitality, opened in 1991. Facing closure in 2014, it was sold and refurbished in 2015.

The Intake, a live-music venue in Kirkland Avenue, closed in 2016. The Town Mill, a former waterside mill on the banks of the Maun at the edge of the town centre, was turned into a pub and live music venue in 2002, but closed in 2010, citing the smoking ban, rising beer prices and recession among its reasons for failure.

Mansfield is close to the East Midlands Designer outlet.

Sherwood Forest

|A Spire for Mansfield, Westgate]] A few miles outside Mansfield lies Sherwood Forest, a Royal Forest famous for its links with Robin Hood. Mansfield has a tree and a plaque mounted on a plinth in West Gate to mark what was the centre of Sherwood Forest. Nearby is a giant metallic feather sculpture dating from 2007. This has been named A Spire for Mansfield.

Summer in the Streets
Every year between June and August, Mansfield District Council hosts a Summer in the Streets festival. This consists of various public events held all across the town over many days, such as children's entertainment, fairground rides in the market square, and hands-on workshops for things like crafts and circus skills.

The festival highlight is a final event in Titchfield Park called Party in the Park. Its range of entertainment includes live music acts by local bands, performances from local dance groups, and activities such as face painting. For 2012 and 2013, this culminating event was cancelled for austerity reasons.

On 21 August 2010 the various summer entertainment arranged by Mansfield District Council included the Irish boy band Westlife in a live concert at Field Mill stadium, home to the town's football team, the Stags. This was the first big-name act to visit the town.

Media
The local newspapers are the Chad  (formerly Chronicle Advertiser) and Mansfield and Ashfield News Journal, a community newspaper. Mansfield's radio station, Mansfield 103.2, broadcasts from Fishpond Hill in Skegby Lane, from a transmitter that also broadcasts Mansfield versions of Nottingham stations BBC Radio Nottingham on 95.5 FM and Capital Midlands on 96.5 FM. DAB broadcasts from Fishpond Hill began on 21 July 2006 with the NOW Nottingham multiplex. Subsequently, the Digital One and BBC National muxes were added (during 2006 and 2007).

Television reception in Mansfield is often poor due to its location between regions. Historically, Mansfield has been part of the BBC North and Yorkshire Television regions. Between 1965 and 1974, some homes in Mansfield even received Anglia Television.

Since the 1995 arrival of Diamond Cable (latterly ntl, then finally Virgin Media), BBC East Midlands and ITV Central East has been provided, and since regionalisation of SKY digital, many residents now receive BBC East Midlands and ITV Central, which are the default channels for this area and appear on channels 101 and 103.

Mansfield receives its television signals from various transmitters: Waltham from East Midlands, Emley Moor from South and West Yorkshire, and Belmont from East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. This meant that the celebrations for Rebecca Adlington's success at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, though covered officially by East Midlands Today, could be shown on both East Midlands Today and Look North, so that all the Mansfield area could watch.

Politics
Ben Bradley has been the constituency (Conservative) Member of Parliament since May 2017, succeeding Sir Alan Meale (Labour), who served the town for 30 years.

On 5 May 2019, Andy Abrahams was elected as the Mayor of Mansfield, winning by just 2 votes, and also became the first directly elected Labour Executive Mayor. During the 2023 UK Local Elections, Andy Abraham increased his majority by an additional 4133 (a total majority of 4155) with these elections being the first of its kind to require photo identification at the polling station following the Elections Act 2022 gaining Royal Assent on 28 April 2022.

From 2010 the Parliamentary Constituency boundaries were realigned to include areas to the north of Mansfield around Warsop, previously part of the Bassetlaw constituency.

History

Mansfield has a directly elected mayor, as one of only 16 places with one in the United Kingdom. Tony Egginton was Mayor of Mansfield from October 2002 until retirement in May 2015, being replaced at scheduled elections by a fellow candidate for the Mansfield Independent Forum political party, Kate Allsop. Much was said of the first Executive Mayor, but during his time in office, Mansfield struggled with local land development and many projects across the region faltered.

Egginton (in office 2002–2015) was criticised by some councillors and residents for placing too much focus on self-publicity, as opposed to publicity for the town. The issue was raised again after his prominent role in Olympic swimmer Rebecca Adlington's homecoming ceremony, after her Gold Medal successes at the 2008 Beijing Olympic games.

In April 2017, Sophie Whitby was elected to the Mansfield district as a Member of Youth Parliament, on a manifesto that included promoting equality for the LGBT community.

Cultural
D. H. Lawrence, in Lady Chatterley's Lover, described Mansfield as "that once romantic now utterly disheartening colliery town".

Notable people

People with Wikipedia pages, in alphabetical order:
Rebecca Adlington OBE (born 1989), Olympic bronze and gold medallist swimmer
Steve N Allen, comedian, TV & Radio broadcaster, star of award-winning shows "The Mash Report" and "Late Night Mash"
Richard Bacon (born 1975), broadcaster
John Balance (1962–2004), singer/musician with Coil
James Collinson (1826-1881), Victorian painter
Kris Commons (born 1983), Celtic F.C. footballer
Nicholas Crafts (born 1949), economic historian
Stephen Critchlow (1966-2021), radio, TV and stage actor
Ed Davey (born 1965), British politician, Leader of the Liberal Democrats since 2019
Craig Disley (born 1981), Grimsby Town F.C. footballer
Robert Dodsley (1704–1767), playwright and poet, wrote The King and The Miller of Mansfield and Sir John Cockle, performed at Drury Lane in 1736 and 1737 respectively
Wes Dolan (born 1980), actor and singer/songwriter
Suzanne Eggins, a linguist in Australia
Watson Fothergill (1841–1928), Victorian architect
Elspeth Gibson (born 1963), Nottingham-born fashion designer, studied at Mansfield College of Art and Design.
Harry Harpham (1954–2016), coal miner and MP for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough
Mark Holmes (born 1960), lead singer of Canadian new wave rock group Platinum Blonde
Mark Henderson (born 1957), Tony award winning lighting designer
Sir Richard Jebb, 1st Baronet (1729–1787), physician to the Royal Family
Rob Kozluk (born 1977), footballer
Ric Lee (born 1945), drummer with Ten Years After
Sir Richard Leese (born 1951), local politician in Manchester
Leo Lyons (born 1943), bassist, songwriter, producer with Ten Years After
Alexander Malcolm (1864-1956), former member of parliament in New Zealand
Charles James Martin (1886-1955), artist
William Martin (1767–1810), naturalist, born in Mansfield 1767.
John Ogdon (1937–1989), pianist, born in Mansfield Woodhouse
Steve Ogrizovic, footballer born in Mansfield
Greg Owen (born 1972), professional golfer
Carly Paoli, opera singer (born 1989)
Joel Peat, lead guitarist of the band Lawson
James Perch (born 1985), Mansfield Town footballer
Tom Scott, YouTuber and former TV presenter
Sir Charles Seely, 2nd Baronet (1859-1926), British Industrialist
Alvin Stardust (1942–2014), pop singer
Steve Ward (born 1957), accoladed as oldest active professional boxer
John Bainbridge Webster (1955–2016), Professor of Divinity at St Mary's College, University of St Andrews.
John Whetton (born 1941), track runner
Helen Wilson (1864-1951), a physician and social purity campaigner
Oliver Wilson (born 1980), professional golfer
Glenis Willmott (Dame) - Medical Scientist and former Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party, aged 10 was raised in the town.
Pollyanna Woodward – TV presenter
Cassie Bradley - Actress raised in Nottingham and Mansfield.
Andrea Adams - BBC Broadcaster and Journalist.
Dorothy Atkinson - Actress and singer.
John Darrell (born 1562) - Anglican Clergyman known for his puritan views and practice as an Exorcist.
Richard Sterne (bishop) (born 1596) - Archbishop of York in 1664.
William Chappell (bishop) (born 1582) - English Scholar and Clergyman.
Samuel Jebb (born 1694) - English Physician and literary scholar.

Twin towns – sister cities

Mansfield is twinned with:
 Heiligenhaus, Germany
 Mansfield, Massachusetts, United States
 Mansfield, Ohio, United States
 Reutov, Russia
 Stryi, Ukraine

Gallery

Geography and climate
Mansfield has a temperate oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb), with a narrow temperature range, an even spread of rainfall, low levels of sunshine and often breezy conditions throughout the year. The closest weather-station records for Mansfield come from Warsop in Meden Vale, seven miles to the north.

The absolute maximum temperature record for the area stands at , recorded in August 1990. In a typical year the warmest day should reach  and 12.72 days should reach  or higher.

The absolute minimum temperature record for the area is , recorded in January 1987. There is air frost on an average of 59 nights a year.

Rainfall averages 634 mm a year, with 113 days reporting in excess of 1 mm of rain (observation period 1971–2000).

See also
Mansfield District (council area)
Mansfield (UK Parliament constituency)
Mayor of Mansfield
Cantamus Girls Choir
Portland College
Listed buildings in Mansfield (inner area)
Listed buildings in Mansfield (outer areas)

Notes

References

External links

Mansfield District Council Official site
Mansfield regeneration site
Mansfield BID Official site

Towns in Nottinghamshire
Market towns in Nottinghamshire
Unparished areas in Nottinghamshire
Former civil parishes in Nottinghamshire
Mansfield District

Mansfield


The light board operator (commonly referred to as the "Light Op" or "Board Op") or moving light programmer, is the electrician who operates and/or programs the light board. Depending on the scale and type of production, the board op may be responsible for conventional or automated lighting fixtures, as well as practicals and, in some instances, controlling video as well.

Sometimes, most commonly in small productions, the light board operator will also be the stage manager. Another variation in smaller productions has the responsibilities of light board operator and sound operator combined into one position. In the smallest productions, all three of these functions are done by one person. For productions where lighting and sound are operated by a single person, as well productions where sound needs to be exactly timed with lighting, it is not unusual to use MIDI Show Control (MSC), Open Sound Control (OSC), or Timecode (SMPTE Time Code) to synchronize the lighting, video, and audio consoles.

The light board operator could, in some cases, also be the lighting designer for a production.

Responsibilities

The light op has many responsibilities in theater, especially in small productions.  For small productions, the light op may also be the lighting designer and master electrician, and is therefore required to create a lighting plot, and perform a complete hang and focus in addition to their duties as board operator. In more professional environments, the light board operator is a highly specialized professional who is usually well versed in the intricacies of a wide variety of lighting instruments and control consoles, and able to easily program complex lighting cues involving multiple fixtures and other components.

During the technical rehearsals, the light board operator usually programs the lighting console with the assistance of the lighting designer and stage manager. In situations where manual boards are being used, the light board operator will work with the lighting designer and the stage manager to practice the timing of the lighting changes.

During the performance, the light board operator is often on headset with the Deputy Stage Manager, and multiple other members of the running crew. Their responsibility lies primarily in advancing the cues under the direction of the deputy stage manager. It is important that light board operators be familiar with the light plot, as they may be called upon to make "on the fly" changes to accommodate unexpected circumstances that occur during the production.

See also
Dimmer - controls intensity of the lights
Electrician (theater)
Film crew
Light board
Lighting design
Sound board
Spotlight operator - a similar job
Stage lighting instrument - what the operator is controlling
Stagecraft
Television crew
Theatre

References

External links
wordpress.com, Production Team & Crew Glossary

Stage lighting
Stage crew
Filmmaking occupations
Television terminology
Theatrical occupations
Broadcasting occupations

Light board operator


The Frieden (known in German as the Traditionsschiff Typ Frieden) is the former German motor vessel Dresden operated by the VEB Deutsche Seereederei Rostock. Since 1970 it has been used as a museum ship.

The Dresden was built in 1956/57 at the Warnow Shipyard. It was the fifth Type IV ship in the first batch of 10,000 tonne piece-goods freighters that were built in East Germany's shipyards after the Second World War. Because the first ship of this series was christened Frieden (commissioned in June 1957), the other ships of this series of 15 new vessels were classed as Frieden type merchant ships.

On 27 July 1958 the ship was handed over to the Deutsche Seereederei shipping line and it operated until 1969 on scheduled services to East Asia, Indonesia, Africa, India and Latin America.

After some serious defects that were found in the engine room that would have resulted in excessive repair costs, the ship was decommissioned in 1969 and opened on 13 June 1970 as the "Rostock Shipbuilding Museum" (Schiffbaumuseum Rostock). Part of the ship also acted as a youth hostel for a time.

Today it is part of the Rostock Shipbuilding and Shipping Museum (Rostocker  Schiffbau- und Schifffahrtsmuseum) in the IGA Park and contains comprehensive exhibitions of shipbuilding history. Topics include Shipbuilding in East Germany, Shipyard Operations, the History of Maritime Radio Communications and Navigation. In addition, there is a collection of various types of ship engine. Many areas of the ship have been preserved in their original state (the engine room, bridge, radio station, ship's hospital and crew cabins) and give an impression of life on a merchant ship in the 1950/60s.

The Rostock City Harbour Museum Ship action group (Traditionsschiff Stadthafen Rostock) is advocating moving the shipyard and shipping museum to a central and easily accessible site in the centre of Rostock. Low visitor numbers have been cited as the reason for this initiative.

References

External links

 Rostock Shipping Museum (Schifffahrtsmuseum Rostock)

Museum ships in Germany
Museums in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
1957 ships
Merchant ships of East Germany
Ships built in Rostock
Ships built in East Germany

Frieden (museum ship)


Tyscot Records is an independent American gospel music record label based in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Tyscot Records was founded by Craig Tyson and Dr. Leonard Scott in 1976 in to record their church choir, Christ Church Apostolic Radio Choir.

It now stands as the oldest black-owned Gospel recording label in the nation. Dr. Scott and Tyson established Tyscot Records as a recording vehicle for a local church choir project. Leonard Scott operated Tyscot from offices in his dental practice. The company faced hard financial times in the beginning phases and sometime later Craig Tyson decided to relinquish his share in the company. In the 1980s the label gained momentum by signing artists such as the Rev. Bill Sawyer and the Christian Tabernacle Choir, and Robert Turner and the Silver Hearts.

In 1988, Scott's son, Bryant Scott was hired as the label's General Manager. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Tyscot Records experienced tremendous growth and success mostly due to the recordings of a new artist at that time named Rev. John P. Kee. Rev. Kee and his New Life Community Choir climbed the charts with each successive recording to land in the number one position in 1992 with the recording "We Walk By Faith".

The company faced a severe crisis in 1993 when their distributor, Spectra, filed for bankruptcy and left owing Tyscot Records over half a million dollars that had been generated from the sale of its products. This meant, in turn, that Tyscot Records would not be able to pay its artists or their bills.

"But each of our artists stayed with us and renewed their contracts even though there was no guarantee they would be compensated," said Scott. As the 1990s progressed, Tyscot Records experienced tremendous success with John P. Kee, whose 1999 release, "Not Guilty", sold more than 500,000 copies and gave Tyscot their first RIAA certified Gold Record.

Today Tyscot Records has a roster of artists who boast a national and international following, including Deitrick Haddon and the Voices of Unity, the Rance Allen Group, Bishop Leonard Scott (founder of Tyscot Records), Shirley Murdock, Rodnie Bryant, Anointed Pace Sisters, Damita Haddon, Bishop Larry Trotter, Bishop Noel Jones and the City of Refuge Sanctuary Choir, VaShawn Mitchell, Morris Chapman, DeAndre Patterson, Lucinda Moore, Carman, and the Inner City Mass Choir.

Tyscot Recording Company is in the near north side of Indianapolis. The company staff consists of President, Executive Assistant, Senior Director of Marketing, VP of Promotions, A&R Representative, Marketing & Promotions Coordinator, contracted Public Relations personnel, interns and a host of volunteers. All Tyscot Records products are distributed by Ryko Distribution for the general market and Word Distribution for the CBA (Christian Booksellers Association) in association with Taseis Media Group.

Tyscot is home to several notable gospel artists such as Garnelle Hubbard-Spearman Deitrick Haddon, Chris Jones, Mark Hubbard, Brent Jones, Oscar Hayes, Cedric Ford, Javen, Lucinda Moore, and seminal CCM artist Carman.  Label co-founder Craig Tyson died on November 30, 2006 in Indianapolis.

See also
 List of record labels

References

External links
Official Tyscot Records homepage
Official Leonard Scott homepage

American independent record labels
Record labels established in 1976
Christian record labels
1976 establishments in the United States

Tyscot Records


Isabella of France (1295 – 22 August 1358) was the Queen consort of England as the wife of Edward II of England. She was also Regent of England for her son Edward III of England when he was too young to rule. Until 1325 she was a traditional queen consort. After that time she had one of the worst reputations of any English queen.

Early life
She was the daughter of Philip IV of France and Joan I of Navarre. As the daughter of two monarchs she was destined to be a queen. While France and England had a common culture, political relations between them were tense. To ease this situation Pope Boniface VIII arranged two marriages. This double-alliance was between Edward I of England and Marguerite of France and also the infant Edward II marrying Isabel. In 1299 the marriage between Edward I and Marguerite took place. The marriage between Edward II and Isabella would wait until she was old enough. They were married in 1308 at Boulogne-sur-Mer in France.

Young queen
At age 12 the young bride was already considered a great beauty. Since his father's death a year earlier, the 24 year old Edward II was now king. But he showed very little interest in Isabella. His first act as king was to recall the exiled Piers Gaveston. One chronicler wrote "He had home his greatest love."

Whatever their relationship was exactly, Edward II regarded Gaveston with great affection. From the beginning of his marriage to Isabella their relationship was not good. Edward had no romantic interest in Isabella. Isabella soon found her husband was not giving her any money. She wrote to her father telling him she was living in poverty. King Philip quickly wrote back demanding Edward provide for his wife and any children they might have. Edward stalled by giving excuses. Meanwhile Isabella discovered that Piers Gaveston had been given many of the jewels her father had given her as part of her dowry. Isabella was furious. Her uncles warned Edward they would not attend their coronation unless he got rid of Gaveston. But Edward's barons had already made the same threats. Edward promised he would take care of everything when the parliament met in March. When Gaveston was put in charge of the coronation, one thing after another went wrong. At the banquet table honoring the king and queen, Gaveston sat next to the king instead of Isabella. He even displayed his Coat of arms next to the king's instead of Isabella's. The barons and Isabella's kinsmen were angry over these insults to their new queen. But it wasn't until 1311 that the barons drew up a list of ordinances the king had to follow. The first was to get rid of Piers Gaveston. But before 1312 Gaveston came back to England. That same year Isabella was pregnant with their first child. To escape the barons, Edward and Gaveston fled north taking Isabella with them. They left her unprotected at York while Edward and Gaveston escaped on a ship. But the barons were not upset with Isabella. Gaveston was captured and murdered in the summer of 1312. This didn't end Isabella's troubles as Edward found a new favorite in Hugh le Despenser. In November their first child was born, the future Edward III of England. But Despenser hated Isabella more than Gaveston. By 1321 she was virtually a prisoner. By 1324 Edward had given all her lands to Despenser.

Sent to France
In 1325 Edward convinced Isabella to go to France. Her brother Charles IV of France was now king. Edward wanted her to negotiate for him over Gascony. This was Isabella's chance for freedom. She even convinced her husband to send their son Edward (III) to join her. Edward soon realized his mistake and demanded she and his son return. Isabella ignored his demands and remained in France. The anger she must have felt over the years of mistreatment in England finally gave her a chance to rebel against her husband. She had their son, the future king of England with her and Edward could do nothing. At this time she was joined by Roger Mortimer an English exile. Another who came to her aid was Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, Edward II's half-brother. A number of Englishmen in France joined her cause. Many were upset with Edward II and the Despensers.

Hainaut
But Isabella was short of funds. She and her followers went north to Hainaut to find more support. In turn for their support, she negotiated a marriage for her son Edward to Philippa of Hainaut. She also gave up any claims she had to the French crown. She now had an army from Hainaut with many Englishmen backing her. While living in Hainaut, she and Roger Mortimer had become lovers.

Return to England
In 1326 Isabella and her army landed at Suffolk. Neither Edward or the Despensers could mount an army against her. Edward II was captured and lost his throne. His son Edward III was made king in his place, with his mother as regent.

In 1321 when she was denied access to the Leeds Castle, she made her escort try to force their way in through the gate, and after they failed, she made 13 of her escort hang immediately. She had 4 children and at least 3 miscarriages. When she later died she was buried in her wedding dress.

References

1290 births
1358 deaths
French princesses
Kings and Queens consort of England

Isabella of France


The New Red Sandstone is a sandstone rock in Britain and elsewhere. It was laid down in desert conditions from the Permian (280 million years ago) to the beginning of the Triassic (240 million years ago). It underlies the Jurassic Lias, which are marine rocks such as the Blue Lias.

The term distinguishes it from the Old Red Sandstone, which is largely Devonian in age. The New Red Sandstone is much brighter and redder in colour than the Old Red Sandstone, as the examples show. The colour is caused by iron oxides in the rock.

the red sand stone was formed from 416 million to 359.2 million years ago . it was washed up on the beach

Sandstones

New Red Sandstone


Hillsong Music is Christian music produced by Hillsong Church in Sydney, Australia as well as offshoot churches, Hillsong London, and Hillsong Kiev.  Hillsong albums are released and distributed by Hillsong Music.  The main groups are Hillsong Worship, Hillsong United, Hillsong Young & Free, and Hillsong Kids.

Hillsong Music (label)


Solomon Jones (c. 1756 – September 21, 1822) was a doctor, judge and political figure in Upper Canada.

He was born in New Jersey, America around 1756 and the family later moved to New York state. He studied medicine in Albany; at the start of the American Revolution, he became a surgeon's mate in Edward Jessup's Loyal Rangers. After the defeat of General John Burgoyne at Saratoga, the family fled north. Jones spent much of the following years treating wounded loyalist soldiers. After the war, he settled in Augusta Township. In 1788, he became surgeon for the local militia and, in 1794, was clerk for the land board in the Eastern District. In 1796, Jones was elected to the 2nd Parliament of Upper Canada for Leeds and Frontenac and was also appointed justice of the peace in the district. In 1800, he became a judge in the court for the Johnstown District.

When serving as a judge he had his own son appointed as his court clerk.

His sons were educated at the school in Cornwall run by John Strachan and he helped Strachan in establish the Church of England in the area. During the War of 1812, he served as surgeon for the garrison at Prescott. In 1819, he was appointed to the district land board.

After a period of ill health, he died at his home near the current site of Maitland in 1822.

His former home, Homewood, one of the oldest houses in Ontario, was opened as a museum in 2005.  It was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1982.

Jones was a slave-owner, having purchased a female slave from his brother Daniel.

References

External links
Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online

1756 births
1822 deaths
Members of the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada
Canadian military doctors
Upper Canada judges
Canadian justices of the peace
Physicians from Ontario

Solomon Jones


Emilia Butler, Countess of Ossory (4 March 1635 (baptised) – 12 December 1688 (buried)), born Æmilia van Nassau-Beverweerd, was an Anglo-Dutch courtier.

Emilia was born in The Hague, the daughter of Lodewijk van Nassau, Lord of Beverweerd, the Governor of 's-Hertogenbosch, and his wife, Isabella, Countess of Hornes. Her elder sister, Elisabeth van Nassau-Beverweerd (1631–1717), became the wife of the prominent Stuart politician Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington; her brother was the Dutch field marshal Hendrik Van Nassau-Ouwerkerk.

Emilia was married in Den Bosch in the Netherlands on 14 November 1659 to Thomas Butler, viscount Thurles (1633–1680), the eldest son and heir of the Irish peer James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, and accompanied him to England, where she was naturalised by Act of Parliament (1660). Lord Thurles became earl of Ossory several years later when his father achieved the dukedom (1662).

The countess was presented to Catherine of Braganza, the wife of Charles II of England upon her arrival in London and was appointed as lady-in-waiting to the queen at Hampton Court Palace. She attended the queen at Greenwich Palace when the latter met her mother-in-law, Queen Henrietta Maria, for the first time (August 1662).

During the outbreak of the plague (1665) the countess accompanied the queen and her household to the safety of Hampton Court, later removing to Oxford. She accompanied the king and queen to Dover to farewell the Duchesse d'Orleans on her final visit (June 1670). During the plots directed against the queen and other prominent Catholic figures, the countess and others of the queen's ladies came under the suspicion of being secret papists (1678).

Lady Ossory served Queen Catherine for over twenty years, retiring from service after the death of Charles II (1685). A famous beauty, her portrait was painted by Wissing. She was buried in Westminster Abbey in London on 12 December 1688.

Her children included:
James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde (1665–1745), who succeeded his grandfather;
Charles Butler, third Duke of Ormonde (1671–1758), who succeeded his brother;
Lady Elizabeth Butler (1660–1717), who married William Richard George Stanley, 9th Earl of Derby;
Lady Henrietta Butler (died 11 October 1724), who married her cousin Henry de Nassau d'Auverquerque, 1st Earl of Grantham

References

Sources

 G. E. Cokayne, The Complete Peerage (1910–1959) (Ormonde).
 A. Strickland, Lives of the Queens of England, London (1888) (under "Catharine of Braganza")

1635 births
1688 deaths
17th-century English women
Burials at Westminster Abbey
Emilia
Irish countesses
Nobility from The Hague
English ladies-in-waiting
Court of Charles II of England
Household of Catherine of Braganza
Wives of knights
Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom

Emilia Butler, Countess of Ossory


A Christmas decoration is any kind of decoration used for the holiday of Christmas. There are many different types of decorations used depending on the traditions of each culture. The inside and outside of homes are often decorated with lights and figures. They are also often hung in public areas, from street lights and community spaces.

Popular holiday plants include holly, mistletoe, ivy, red amaryllis, and Christmas cactus. Christmas trees are decorated with many ornaments.

The traditional colours of Christmas are green (evergreen), white (snow), and red. Gold and silver are also very common. Typical symbols of the holiday include baby Jesus, Santa Claus and the star of Bethlehem. Symbols of winter are also used, including snowflakes and snowmen.

Types of decorations

Glass ornaments

Figural glass Christmas ornaments originated in the small town of Lauscha, Germany in the latter half of the 19th century. The town had long produced fine glassware. The production of Christmas ornaments became a family affair for many people. Some families invested 16 hours a day in production. For some, it was their sole source of income.

Sometimes competitions were held. Prizes were awarded to the family producing the finest examples. Santa Clauses, angels, birds, animals, and other traditional Yuletide subjects were favorites.

F.W. Woolworth discovered these glass ornaments on a toy and doll buying trip to Sonnenburg, Germany in the 1890s. He sold them in his "five and ten cent" stores in America. The ornaments were said to have contributed to Woolworth's great business success.

For the American market, figures were blown depicting comic book characters as well as patriotic subjects such as Uncle Sams, eagles, and flags. Glassblowers have held on to the old molds. Glass ornaments are still created from these old molds.

Method
A clear glass tube is heated over an open flame. It is then inserted into a mold. The glassblower then blows into the end of the tube. The glass expands to fill the mold. The glass takes on the shape of the mold. It is cooled. A silver nitrate solution is swirled about inside the ornament. This gives the ornament a silver glow. The outside of the ornament is painted or decorated with metal trims, paper clippings, etc.

Cotton batting
Cotton batting Christmas ornaments were popular during the years of the German Christmas toy and decoration boom at the turn of the century. They were exported in large numbers to the United States. These decorations suggested puffs of snow. Fruits and vegetables were popular subjects and often had a realistic appearance. African American and patriotic characters were fashioned for the American market. Some ornaments were used to hide boxes of candy.

Assembling these decorations was a cottage industry. Cotton batting was wound around a wire frame resembling a human or animal. A face was either painted on or a lithograph cut-out was affixed to the batting. Figures were given crepe paper costumes. Some were touched with glue and sprinkled with flakes of mica for a glittering appearance.

Dresden
Dresdens are three-dimensional ornaments. They are made of paper, card, or cardboard. Dresdens were produced mostly in Dresden and Leipzig, Germany, from the 1860s to WWI. They were originally priced between 1 and 60 cents. Subjects included animals and birds, suns and moons, humans, carriages and ships, etc. Some Dresdens were flat, allowing the buyer to collect them in scrapbooks.

Positive and negative molds were set into a press. A moistened sheet of card was put into the press. The images were pressed. When they had dried, they were sent to cottage workers for the finishing touches. This involved separating the form-halves from the card, trimming ragged edges, and gluing the two halves together. The form was then gilded, silvered, or hand-painted. Sometimes a small gift or sweet was put into the form. Forms were usually no larger than five inches.

Notes

References
 Merck, Robert M. 1992. Deck the Halls: Treasures from Christmas Past. Abbeville Press. . pages 40–69.
 Smith, Lissa and Dick. 1993. Christmas Collectibles. Chartwell Books, Inc.

Christmas

Christmas decoration


Edgar "Chirp" Brenchley (10 February 1912 – 13 March 1975) was a British ice hockey player who mainly played in the Eastern Amateur Hockey League (EHL). However, he is best remembered for playing for the Great Britain national ice hockey team which won the gold medal at the 1936 Winter Olympics. He is a member of the British Ice Hockey Hall of Fame.

Career
Although born in Sittingbourne, England, Brenchley's family emigrated to Canada when he was a child. He learned to play ice hockey while living in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

Europe
Brenchley first played senior ice hockey in the 1934–35 season when he played for the Hershey B'ars in the EHL. The following season, 1935–36, Brenchley returned to the United Kingdom to play for the Richmond Hawks in the English National League (ENL) before going to the Harringay Greyhounds, also of the ENL, for the 1936–37 season.

International career

Brenchley played for the GB national team at the 1936 Winter Olympics, where he played in all seven games and helped the team to win the gold medal. He scored the only goal of the game against Sweden as well as the game-winning goal against Canada with only 90 seconds left of the game. He again played for the GB national team at the 1937 World Championships held in London. He helped the team to silver medal in the World Championships and, as the highest place European team, the gold medal in the European Championships at the tournament.

Return to North America
Brenchley returned to North America to play for the Atlantic City Seagulls in the EHL for the 1939–40 season before it was abandoned due to the outbreak of World War II. When play resumed after the war, he played for a large number of teams in the EHL, Quebec Senior Hockey League, the American Hockey League and the International Hockey League before retiring at the end of the 1953–54 season which he had spent with the Johnstown Jets in the IHL.

Coaching career
In 1955, Brenchley became the head coach of the Philadelphia Ramblers in the EHL. He stayed with the Ramblers for three seasons — also having iced for them once in the 1955–56 season. He became the head coach for the Sudbury Wolves for the 1962–63 season. The following season, 1963–64, he joined the Port Huron Flags as head coach before joining the St. Catharines Black Hawks, now the Saginaw Spirit, for the 1964–65 season. Brenchley retired from coaching after the 1965–66 season which he had spent with the Toledo Blades

Retirement and after
Between 1967 and 1971 Brenchley served as a professional scout for the Washington Capitals, and from 1971 and 1973 he served as an assistant coach to the Pittsburgh Penguins. He scouted for the Penguins in 1974.

Brenchley was posthumously inducted into Niagara Falls Sports Wall of Fame in 1990 and the British Ice Hockey Hall of Fame in 1993.

Awards and honours
 Olympic gold medalist in 1936.
 World Championship silver medalist in 1937.
 European Championship gold medalist in 1937.
 Inducted to the Niagara Falls Sports Wall of Fame in 1990.
 Inducted to the British Ice Hockey Hall of Fame in 1993.

References

 British Ice Hockey Hall of Fame entry
 Niagara Falls Sports Wall of Fame

1912 births
1975 deaths
Baltimore Clippers players
British Ice Hockey Hall of Fame inductees
British emigrants to Canada
English ice hockey right wingers
English Olympic medallists
Harringay Greyhounds players
Hershey Bears players
Ice hockey players at the 1936 Winter Olympics
Medalists at the 1936 Winter Olympics
Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain
Olympic ice hockey players for Great Britain
Olympic medalists in ice hockey
People from Sittingbourne
Pittsburgh Penguins coaches
Pittsburgh Penguins scouts
Sudbury Wolves coaches
Washington Capitals scouts
Washington Lions players

Edgar Brenchley


In mathematics, more specifically in ring theory, a maximal ideal is an ideal that is maximal (with respect to set inclusion) amongst all proper ideals. In other words, I is a maximal ideal of a ring R if there are no other ideals contained between I and R.

Maximal ideals are important because the quotients of rings by maximal ideals are simple rings, and in the special case of unital commutative rings they are also fields.

In noncommutative ring theory, a maximal right ideal is defined analogously as being a maximal element in the poset of proper right ideals, and similarly, a maximal left ideal is defined to be a maximal element of the poset of proper left ideals.  Since a one-sided maximal ideal A is not necessarily two-sided, the quotient R/A is not necessarily a ring, but it is a simple module over R.  If R has a unique maximal right ideal, then R is known as a local ring, and the maximal right ideal is also the unique maximal left and unique maximal two-sided ideal of the ring, and is in fact the Jacobson radical J(R).

It is possible for a ring to have a unique maximal two-sided ideal and yet lack unique maximal one-sided ideals: for example, in the ring of 2 by 2 square matrices over a field, the zero ideal is a maximal two-sided ideal, but there are many maximal right ideals.

Definition
There are other equivalent ways of expressing the definition of maximal one-sided and maximal two-sided ideals. Given a ring R and a proper ideal I of R (that is I ≠ R), I is a maximal ideal of R if any of the following equivalent conditions hold:
 There exists no other proper ideal J of R so that I ⊊ J.
 For any ideal J with I ⊆ J, either J = I or J = R.
 The quotient ring R/I is a simple ring.
There is an analogous list for one-sided ideals, for which only the right-hand versions will be given. For a right ideal A of a ring R, the following conditions are equivalent to A being a maximal right ideal of R:
 There exists no other proper right ideal B of R so that A ⊊ B.
 For any right ideal B with A ⊆ B, either B = A or B = R.
 The quotient module R/A is a simple right R-module.

Maximal right/left/two-sided ideals are the dual notion to that of minimal ideals.

Examples
 If F is a field, then the only maximal ideal is {0}.
 In the ring Z of integers, the maximal ideals are the principal ideals generated by a prime number.
 More generally, all nonzero prime ideals are maximal in a principal ideal domain.
 The ideal  is a maximal ideal in ring . Generally, the maximal ideals of  are of the form  where  is a prime number and  is a polynomial in  which is irreducible modulo .
 Every prime ideal is a maximal ideal in a Boolean ring, i.e., a ring consisting of only idempotent elements. In fact, every prime ideal is maximal in a commutative ring  whenever there exists an integer  such that  for any .
 The maximal ideals of the polynomial ring  are principal ideals generated by  for some .
 More generally, the maximal ideals of the polynomial ring  over an algebraically closed field K are the ideals of the form . This result is known as the weak Nullstellensatz.

Properties
 An important ideal of the ring called the Jacobson radical can be defined using maximal right (or maximal left) ideals.
 If R is a unital commutative ring with an ideal m, then k = R/m is a field if and only if m is a maximal ideal.  In that case, R/m is known as the residue field. This fact can fail in non-unital rings. For example,  is a maximal ideal in , but  is not a field.
 If L is a maximal left ideal, then R/L is a simple left R-module.  Conversely in rings with unity, any simple left R-module arises this way.  Incidentally this shows that a collection of representatives of simple left R-modules is actually a set since it can be put into correspondence with part of the set of maximal left ideals of R.
 Krull's theorem (1929): Every nonzero unital ring has a maximal ideal.  The result is also true if "ideal" is replaced with "right ideal" or "left ideal".  More generally, it is true that every nonzero finitely generated module has a maximal submodule.   Suppose I is an ideal which is not R (respectively, A is a right ideal which is not R). Then R/I is a ring with unity (respectively, R/A is a finitely generated module), and so the above theorems can be applied to the quotient to conclude that there is a maximal ideal (respectively, maximal right ideal) of R containing I (respectively, A).
 Krull's theorem can fail for rings without unity. A radical ring, i.e. a ring in which the Jacobson radical is the entire ring, has no simple modules and hence has no maximal right or left ideals. See regular ideals for possible ways to circumvent this problem.
 In a commutative ring with unity, every maximal ideal is a prime ideal. The converse is not always true: for example, in any nonfield integral domain the zero ideal is a prime ideal which is not maximal.  Commutative rings in which prime ideals are maximal are known as zero-dimensional rings, where the dimension used is the Krull dimension.
 A maximal ideal of a noncommutative ring might not be prime in the commutative sense. For example, let  be the ring of all  matrices over . This ring has a maximal ideal  for any prime , but this is not a prime ideal since (in the case ) and  are not in , but . However, maximal ideals of noncommutative rings are prime in the generalized sense below.

Generalization
For an R-module A, a maximal submodule M of A is a submodule  satisfying the property that for any other submodule N,  implies  or . Equivalently, M is a maximal submodule if and only if the quotient module A/M is a simple module. The maximal right ideals of a ring R are exactly the maximal submodules of the module RR.

Unlike rings with unity, a nonzero module does not necessarily have maximal submodules. However, as noted above, finitely generated nonzero modules have maximal submodules, and also projective modules have maximal submodules.

As with rings, one can define the radical of a module using maximal submodules. Furthermore, maximal ideals can be generalized by defining a maximal sub-bimodule M of a bimodule B to be a proper sub-bimodule of M which is contained in no other proper sub-bimodule of M. The maximal ideals of R are then exactly the maximal sub-bimodules of the bimodule RRR.

See also
Prime ideal

References

Ideals (ring theory)
Ring theory
Prime ideals

Maximal ideal


Kaare Aksnes (born 25 March 1938 in Kvam in Hardanger) is a professor at the Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics at the University of Oslo.

Personal life
He was born in Kvam, Hordaland as a brother of the chemist Gunnar Aksnes. His parents were farmers. In 1959 he married teacher Liv Kristin Marøy.

Career
He finished his secondary education in 1956, and graduated with the cand.real. degree in 1963, having studied in both Bergen and Oslo. From 1964 to 1965 he was a research assistant at Harestua. He then worked in the United States for several years, and took the Ph.D. at Yale University in 1969. His doctor's thesis is today a standard work within estimating the course of planets, moons, meteors, comets and artificial sounds. His work is among other things used by NASA's Voyager sounds to Jupiter, and he received the NASA Group Achievement Award for his work.

After several years at the Center for Astrophysics  Harvard & Smithsonian in Cambridge, Massachusetts he returned from the United States to Norway in 1978, where he was employed at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment from 1978 to 1988. He was also an assisting professor at the University of Tromsø from 1980. In 1988 he was appointed as a professor at the University of Oslo. Since 1993 he is also responsible for the official Norwegian almanac.

He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters since 1991. Since 1990 he presides over the International Astronomical Union Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature, which maintains the astronomical naming conventions and planetary nomenclature for planetary bodies. Already in 1978, the asteroid 2067 Aksnes was named after Aksnes. On 5 December 2006 he received the HM The King's Medal of Merit in gold for his scientific achievements through a long scientific career within astronomy.

References

1938 births
Living people
People from Kvam
Norwegian astronomers
Norwegian almanac editors
Harvard University staff
Norwegian expatriates in the United States
Academic staff of the University of Tromsø
Academic staff of the University of Oslo
Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
Recipients of the King's Medal of Merit in gold

Kaare Aksnes


The Indian National Congress, also called the Congress Party, is a major Indian political party. The party was founded in 1885. It is the largest constituent party of the UPA, a coalition of Indian political parties that form the opposition against the ruling NDA coalition. The party's parliamentary chairperson is Sonia Gandhi. It has registered its worst performance in an election in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

In 1969, the party suffered a major split. A faction was led by Indira Gandhi, leaving to establish the Congress (R), with the remainder becoming the Congress (O). The Congress (R) became the dominant faction, winning the 1971 general election with a considerable margin. However, another split occurred in 1979, leading to the creation of the Congress (I), which was recognized as the Congress by the Electoral Commission in 1981. Under Rajiv Gandhi's leadership, the party won a massive victory in the 1984 general elections, nevertheless losing the election held in 1989 to the National Front. The Congress then returned to power under P. V. Narasimha Rao, who moved the party towards an economically liberal agenda, a sharp break from previous leaders. However, it lost the 1996 general election and was replaced in government by the National Front (then the BJP). After a record eight years out of office, the Congress-led coalition known as the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) under Manmohan Singh formed a government post-winning 2004 general elections. Subsequently, the UPA again established the government after winning the 2009 general elections, and Singh became the first Prime Minister since Nehru in 1962 to be re-elected after completing a full five-year term. However, in the 2014 general election, the Congress suffered a heavy defeat, winning only 48 seats of the 543-member Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Parliament of India). In the 2019 general election, the party again suffered a heavy defeat, winning only 52 seats in the Lok Sabha.

References

1885 establishments
Social democratic parties in Asia
Political parties in India
1880s establishments in India

Indian National Congress


In the Fishtank 14 is a collaborative EP from Isis and Aereogramme. It is the fourteenth installment of the collaboration project by Konkurrent, and was released in September 2006. Rock Sound ranked it as the 39th best album of 2006 in its yearly rundown.

According to Isis frontman Aaron Turner, "Aereogramme is a band we've known for some time and have an affinity for their music and we got along with them, so when we were invited to do the session with them it was a no-brainer. [...] It went extremely smoothly and came together cohesively better than I could have ever imagined. [...] We both had some stuff pre-prepared, but usually we're hyper-prepared when we go into the studio, so it was fun for us to go in and just do it and let go a little bit and have other people to bounce ideas off of."

Track listing
 "Low Tide" – 9:29
 "Delial" – 3:55
 "Stolen" – 10:40

References

14
Isis (band) albums
Aereogramme albums
Split EPs
2006 EPs
Konkurrent EPs

In the Fishtank 14


Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs, officially known as Questions to the Prime Minister) is a weekly event in the British Parliament. It is a chance for the Leader of the Opposition and other Members of Parliament to ask the Prime Minister questions. Until 1997 there were two short PMQs each week. Now there is one longer event, which is on a Wednesday. It can often be a loud and rowdy event with lots of MPs shouting. Once Michael Heseltine grabbed the mace and waved it around his head.

Politics of the United Kingdom

Prime Minister's Questions


Ádhamh Cúisín, Irish scribe and genealogist, fl. c. 1400.

Life and career
Ádhamh Cúisín is the name of one of some ten scribes who compiled the Book of Uí Mháine.

His name seems to be of Norman origin, the Annals of the Four Masters noting that King Ruaidrí Ó Gadhra of Sliabh Lugha was killed in 1256 by "David, son of Richard Cuisin."

The Annals of Connacht under 1270 records that "The Earl and the Connacht Galls made great raids in Tirerrill on the people of Aed O Conchobair. David Cusin was killed on this raid."

David Cuisin or Cusin possessed a castle and land near Ballaghaderreen. Another bearer of the name was Tomás Cúisín, listed under 1462 in the Annals of Ulster as "the best master of law in his time in Armagh who had a great school in this year." It is unknown if either of the latter two were related to Ádhamh.

Ádhamh Cúisín has been noted by Ó Muraíle as "the most prolific of the scribes in the portion of the manuscript that still survives – his hand appears on 99 of the extant folios). The manuscript was known to contain 368 folios in the 15th and 16th centuries. Two hundred and fifty years later, Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh transcribed a seventy-page historical-genealogical compilation called Seanchas Síl Ír. His source can be shown to be the Book of Uí Mháine. Mac Fhirbhisigh's faithful transcript is especially valuable as four of the original fourteen folios have since been lost.

The book began to be written some time before 1392–1394, and some time after that date. It was written at the behest of Muircheartach Ó Cellaigh, who was Bishop of Clonfert (1378–1393) and Archbishop of Tuam till his death in 1407. Bishop Ó Cellaigh was a grandnephew of Uilliam Buidhe Ó Cellaigh, king of Uí Mháine from about 1349 to 1381.

The only other scribe of the book known by name is Faolán Mac an Ghabhann na Scéal, who died in 1423. Mac an Ghabhann's poem, Adham ar n-athair uile, was penned by Cúisín.

References
 The Surnames of Ireland, Edward MacLysaght, Irish Academic Press, 1978, p. 73. .
 The Ó Cellaigh Rulers of Uí Maine – A Genealogical Fragment, c.1400, (Part 1), Nollaig Ó Muraíle, Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society, pp. 32–77, volume 60, 2008.

People from County Galway
People from County Roscommon
14th-century Irish writers
Medieval European scribes
Irish genealogists
Irish scribes
Irish-language writers
Irish scholars and academics

Ádhamh Cúisín


The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 (c 4) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, relevant to UK constitutional law. It provides for a Supreme Court of the United Kingdom to take over the previous appellate jurisdiction of the Law Lords as well as some powers of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and removed the functions of Speaker of the House of Lords and Head of the Judiciary of England and Wales from the office of Lord Chancellor.

Background
The office of Lord Chancellor was reformed to remove the ability of the holder to act as both a government minister and a judge, an arrangement that ran contrary to the idea of separation of powers. The reform was motivated by concerns that the historical mixture of legislative, judicial, and executive power might not conform with the requirements of Article 6 (paragraph 1) of the European Convention on Human Rights, because a judicial officer who has legislative or executive power is likely not to be considered sufficiently impartial to provide a fair trial. This act ensures that the powers of the Lord Chancellor and the Secretary of State for Justice have limitations on their abilities over the president of the court.

Legislative history
The bill was originally introduced in the House of Lords on 24 February 2004 and proposed the following changes:
Abolition of the office of "Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain", generally known as the Lord Chancellor.
Setting up of a "Supreme Court of the United Kingdom" and moving the Law Lords out of the House of Lords to this new court.
Other measures relating to the judiciary, including changes to the position of the Lord Chief Justice and changes to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

The bill caused much controversy and the Lords made amendments to it. The most significant of these was the decision not to abolish the position of Lord Chancellor, as, unlike other Secretaries of State in the UK Government, a number of the Lord Chancellor's functions are explicitly defined in law, and transferring these functions to other individuals would have required further legislation. However, although the post was retained, its role in relation to the judiciary is greatly reduced and the office holder is no longer automatically Speaker of the House of Lords because of the Government's announced intention to appoint Lord Chancellors from the House of Commons. Other measures remained generally the same as stated above.

The newly created Cabinet position of Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs (originally created to wholly replace the Lord Chancellor's executive function) continued, although the holder of that Cabinet post—renamed Secretary of State for Justice in 2007—currently also holds the office of Lord Chancellor. The Lord Chancellor remains the custodian of the Great Seal (the bill as originally written put this into commission).

The bill was approved by both Houses on 21 March 2005, and received Royal Assent on 24 March.

Changes resulting from the act

The act contains provisions which reform two institutions and one former office of the United Kingdom. The document is divided into three parts: the first concerns the reform of the office of Lord Chancellor, the second creates and sets the framework for a Supreme Court, and the third regulates the appointment of judges.

Role of the Lord Chancellor
Under the new legislation, the role of the Lord Chancellor was redefined. Rather than being the head of the Judiciary in England and Wales, the role of the Lord Chancellor was changed to managing the judiciary system including the Supreme Court, county courts, magistrates' courts, and coroners' courts. In carrying out this duty, the Lord Chancellor is required to address both houses of Parliament and deliver a report as to how he or she has managed the Judiciary system.

The Lord Chief Justice replaces the Lord Chancellor as head of the English and Welsh judiciary and is also responsible for representing the views of the judiciary to the Lord Chancellor and Parliament as a whole.

The law also set out an oath of office for the Lord Chancellor to take. the Oath being: "I, (name), do swear that in the office of Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain I will respect the rule of law, defend the independence of the judiciary and discharge my duty to ensure the provision of resources for the efficient and effective support of the courts for which I am responsible. So help me God."

Supreme Court
The establishment of a Supreme Court is the main subject of the act and it had consequences for the House of Lords and the office of Lord Chancellor. The sections contained in Part 3 prescribe that the Supreme Court be composed of 12 judges (s. 23) and that the first judges be the then-current twelve Lords of Appeal in Ordinary (s. 24). The following sections (ss. 26–31) set out the rules for the appointment of future members of the Court. Section 11 of the Supreme Court Act 1981, amended by The Judicial Pensions and Retirement Act 1993, requires Justices of the Supreme Court to retire at age 70. Justices are appointed by the Monarch on the recommendation of the Prime Minister. On a death, or deselection approved by both houses, its selection commission consisting of the President and Deputy President of the Supreme Court (schedule 8) proposes one name to the Lord Chancellor who may reject a name only once per vacancy (since amended to Secretary of State for Justice), having a single veto. Sections 32 to 37 are entitled Terms of Appointment and deal with issues such as tenure, salaries and allowances, resignation and retirement, and pensions. Section 40 additionally sets out that the new Court will assume the jurisdiction of the House of Lords and the jurisdiction in matters of devolution of the Privy Council.

The following sections deal with practical matters such as procedures, staff, and resources of the new Court and the fees of the judges. The Chief Executive of the Supreme Court must prepare an annual report on the work and it must be presented to both Houses of Parliament (s. 51).

Although the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords is abolished, the 2005–06 serving Law Lords kept their judicial office in the new Supreme Court. Newly appointed members of the Court take no peerage, instead bearing the formal title Justice of the Supreme Court. Under the act such judges also have a courtesy title of Lord or Lady, for the expressed purpose of ensuring there is no perceived hierarchy among the JSCs.

The new Supreme Court sits in a separate building from the Houses of Parliament where the mentioned predecessor judicial committee (of the House of Lords) formerly acted as the UK's final court of appeal. After a lengthy survey of suitable sites, including Somerset House, Parliament and the former Lord Chancellor's Department agreed to the Court's installation in Middlesex Guildhall in Parliament Square, formerly a Crown Court building. Architect Lord Foster was chosen to design the necessary alterations. The building reopened as the Supreme Court on 1 October 2009.

Appointment of judges
The third part of the act is about the appointment of judges. In 1991 the Law Society had criticized the old system (the Monarch appointing judges on the advice of the Lord Chancellor), emphasizing its defects and recommending the establishment of an independent body responsible for appointing judges. The Constitutional Reform Act realized the hopes of the Law Society. Section 61 prescribed the creation of the Judicial Appointments Commission, responsible for the appointment of judges for English and Welsh courts. The following sections regulate the structure and the procedures of the Commission.

There are several criteria set out by the law in order for a person to become eligible to sit on the Supreme Court. These are:

 held high judicial office for a period of at least 2 years,
 been a qualifying practitioner for a period of at least 15 years,
 satisfied the judicial-appointment eligibility condition on a 15-year basis, or
 been a qualifying practitioner for a period of at least 15 years.

See also
Constitutional reform in the United Kingdom
Halsbury's Statutes
Reform of the House of Lords
UK constitutional law

References

External links
House of Commons Reports on Bills January 2005 Scroll halfway down the page for this bill's two reports.
Department for Constitutional Affairs The official website of the Department of Constitutional Affairs, which includes a section on constitutional reform in the UK
The election and role of the new Lord Speaker of the House of Lords

United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 2005
Government of the United Kingdom
Constitutional laws of the United Kingdom
Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning the House of Lords
Courts of the United Kingdom
Courts of England and Wales
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
Reform in the United Kingdom

Constitutional Reform Act 2005