Mansfield

the long version

Under William the Conqueror, Mansfield was listed in Domesday Book as a royal estate, and was the administrative centre for much of northern Nottinghamshire. In the Middle Ages, it was the capital of Sherwood Forest, and its position at a major crossroads made it an important trading center. The main purpose of this book, however, is to tell the story of Mansfield's transformation into an industrial center. In the 1780s the town helped set the pace of the Industrial Revolution, and it developed at an astonishing rate over the next 150 years. One man who recognised the effects of this constant change on the town's heritage was art teacher Albert S. Buxton. From the 1890s to the 1920s, he recorded Mansfield in paintings and photographs, many of which are rarely seen and which in this book are taken from Buxton's glass-plate negatives.