Mansfield on the Brink

A snapshot of the town on the eve of the First World War

Extracts from an exhibition held at Mansfield Library March - August 2014

  On 26th June 1914 King George V and Queen Mary visited the area.  The photograph below shows the scene in Mansfield looking across the Market Place and up Leeming Street from the Town Hall where the Mayor and Corporation were waiting to greet the royal party.

Below: A more typical day in Mansfield Market Place in the period just prior to the outbreak of war.  Only very poor small children went outdoors without a hat.

 Below: Linney's Directory of Mansfield showed which shops (and some private individuals) were at which address.  Most of the sorts of businesses going on at the time are still with us - confectioners, dentists, butchers, grocers - A few are unfamiliar nowadays - india rubber goods, for instance.

 Below: Linney's Directory included telephone numbers in red.  There were about 400 telephones in Mansfield in 1914.  There were public telephones in Post Offices and one in Westgate.

Below: Mansfield Free Library - Catalogue 1907 - There were 7 classes, including Class A: Religious Literature, Theology and Ecclesiastical History; Class F (Fiction, Novels, Tales, Romances) was the largest.  A few of the writers have stood the test of time and are remembered and still read 100 or more years after first publication.