is a town in the
Bassetlaw district of
Nottinghamshire ,
England on the
River Ryton at the northern edge of
Sherwood Forest . It is about 19 miles ESE of the
City Of Sheffield and its population is estimated (mid-2004) to be 39,800.
Worksop is known as the "Gateway to
The Dukeries ", so called for the number of
Ducal residences in the area.
Clumber Park is a Large National Trust park open to the public. An important manufacturer in the town is
Batchelors UK, which produces products such as Campbells Soup and
Oxo . Wilkinsons Distribution Centre is also an important employer as well as the recenlty opened B&Q Distribuition Centre. The town is also home to
Worksop College a co-educational day and boarding school. The local football team,
Worksop Town F.C. play in the
Conference North.
Famous people born in Worksop include
Bruce Dickinson (singer in the heavy metal band
Iron Maiden ), John Parr, who wrote the rock anthem ''St Elmo's Fire'',
Donald Pleasence (actor),
Graham Taylor (football manager), and
Lee Westwood (golfer). Also born in Worksop was
Neil Entwistle , a computer engineer accused of shooting dead then raping his wife Rachel and their nine-month-old daughter Lillian at their home in
Massachusetts in January
2006 .
Evidence that Worksop existed before the
Norman Conquest Of England in 1066 is provided by the
Domesday Book of 1086:
:"In Werchesope, (Worksop) Elsi (son of Caschin) had three carucates of land to be taxed. Land to eight ploughs. Roger has one plough in the demesne there, and twenty-two sokemen who hold twelve oxgangs of this land, and twenty-four villanes and eight bordars having twenty-two ploughs, and seven acres of meadow. Wood pasture two miles long, and three quarentens broad."
This early period of the town's history was humorously depicted in the
Children's Television Show , ''
Maid Marian And Her Merry Men '', where it was largely portrayed as a mass of mud.
After the conquest, in about 1103,
William De Lovetot established a
Castle and
Augustinian Priory at Worksop. Subsequently Worksop grew into a
Market Town . The building of the
Chesterfield Canal in
1777 , and the subsequent construction of the
Manchester, Sheffield And Lincolnshire Railway in
1849 , both of which passed through the settlement, led to a degree of growth. Discovery of sizable
Coal seams further increased interest in the area. In recent years Worksop has been recognised as having a serious drugs problem attributed to the decline of coal mining in the early
1990s during the government of
John Major . The
Member Of Parliament for Bassetlaw,
John Mann , has fought a high-profile campaign to tackle the problem, once described as being at levels seen in inner cities.
Worksop's most famous website is probably http://www.worksopboysontour.co.uk/ which is run by Robert Yaw this site has lots of photos of him and his friends getting up to high jinx, some of these photo's feature boys in various states of undress - enjoy it if that's your type of thing. Rob (http://www.worksopboysontour.co.uk/robcam/pics/robcam_00167.jpg) is currently getting so serious time in on this site and welcomes comments and suggestions on his forum board.
Some of his friends look like famous people see if you can guess which ones ?
Worksop has a evil badger which runs around the streets at night and humps legs.
