Anglo-Norman Times In the
Domesday Book of 1086, Worksop appears as
Werchesope. Thoroton states that the Domesday Book records that before the
Norman Conquest, Werchesope (Worksop) had belonged to Elsi, son of Caschin, who had "two manors in Werchesope, which paid to the geld as three car". After the conquest, Worksop became part of the extensive lands granted to
Roger de Busli. At this time, the land "had one car. in demesne, and twenty-two sochm. on twelve bovats of this land, and twenty-four villains, and eight bord. having twenty-two car. and eight acres of meadow, pasture wood two leu. long, three quar. broad." This was valued at three pounds in
Edward the Confessor's time and seven pounds in the Domesday Book. Roger administered this estate from his headquarters in
Tickhill. The manor then passed to
William de Lovetot, who established a
castle and endowed the
Augustinian Worksop Priory around 1103. After William's death, the manor was passed to his eldest son, Richard de Lovetot, who was visited by
King Stephen, at Worksop, in 1161. In 1258, a surviving
inspeximus charter confirms Matilda de Lovetot's grant of the manor of Worksop to William de Furnival (her son).
Medieval and early modern history A skirmish occurred in the area during the
Wars of the Roses on 16 December 1460, commonly known as the
Battle of Worksop. In 1530, Worksop was visited by Cardinal
Thomas Wolsey, who was on his way to
Cawood, in Yorkshire. "Then my lord [Wolsey] intending the next day to remove from thence [Newstead Abbey] there resorted to him the Earl of Shrewsbury's keeper, and gentlemen, sent from him, to desire my lord, in their maister's behalf, to hunt in a parke of their maister's, called Worsoppe Parke." (Cavendish's
Life of Wolsey) A surviving (Cotton) manuscript written by
Henry VIII nominated Worksop as one of three places in Nottinghamshire (along with Welbeck and Thurgarton) to become "
bishoprics to be new made", but nothing was to come of this (White 1875), and the priory later became a victim of the
dissolution of the monasteries – being closed in 1539, with its prior and 15 monks pensioned off. All the priory buildings, except the nave and west towers of the church, were demolished at this time and the stone reused elsewhere. In 1540,
John Leland noted that Worksop castle had all but disappeared, saying it was: "clene down and scant knowen wher it was". Leland noted that at that time Worksop was "a praty market of 2 streates and metely well buildid."
Worksop Manor became a prison for
Mary, Queen of Scots in 1568. In 1580s the new house was built on the same site for
George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury. He was the husband of Elizabeth Talbot,
Bess of Hardwick. In the
hearth tax records of 1674, Worksop is said to have had 176 households, which made it the fourth-largest settlement in Nottinghamshire after Nottingham (967 households), Newark (339), and Mansfield (318). At this time, the population is estimated to have been around 748 people.
Modern history By 1743, 358 families were in Worksop, with a population around 1,500. This had risen by 1801 to 3,391, and by the end of the 19th century had reached 16,455. During the 18th and 19th centuries, Worksop benefitted from the building of the
Chesterfield Canal, which passed through the town in 1777, and the subsequent construction of the
Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway in 1849. This led to growth that was further boosted by the discovery of
coal seams beneath the town. Worksop and area surrounding are known as the "Gateway to the Dukeries" due to the former ducal seats of Clumber House,
Thoresby Hall,
Welbeck Abbey, and
Worksop Manor either owned by the Dukes of Newcastle, Portland and Kingston. ==Economy==