Mansfield ˈmænsfiːld 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.
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.
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.In 1199 the Manor was owned by King John.