King Richard II signed a warrant in November 1377 to grant tenants the right to hold a four-day fair each year; the spelling had changed to Mannesfeld.

[13] There are remains of the 12th-century King John's Palace in Clipstone, between Mansfield and Edwinstowe, and it was an area of retreat for royal families and dignitaries through to the 15th century.

Other Tudor houses in Stockwell Gate, Bridge Street, and Lime Tree Place were also demolished to make way for development before they could be viewed for listing.

[24][25] Fox met Elizabeth Hooton at her home in nearby Skegby; she is usually considered to be the first person to accept the doctrines of Quakerism.

[26] The Old Meeting House (Unitarian church) on Stockwell Gate was built in 1702 and is the oldest nonconformist place of worship in Nottinghamshire.

[35][36] In 1790, John Throsby described Mansfield as 'a flourishing and genteel market town, general well built.....and is certainly an ancient place, and some think of high antiquity'.

[16] St Johns Church, a Grade II listed building, was built in 1854 and designed by Henry Isaac Stevens.

[56][57][58][59] Surroundings includes a museum, the Palace Theatre, restaurants, fast-food outlets, pubs, bars and night clubs.

[63] Also in February 2022 Severn Trent Water shared its £76 million Green Recovery Project for flood alleviation investment for the town.

[69] The BID also offers events to attract visitors and raise awareness, provides security including banning orders and improved shop frontages,[70][71] Other BID moves have been "gating off" alleyways blighted by anti-social behaviour, improving signage, and enhancing cleansing operations.

[82][83][84] In April 2023, a planning application to demolish the Rosemary Centre to build a Lidl supermarket and another retail unit was approved.

[92] Mansfield Community Partnership was at the Civic Centre is a centralised hub for law and order, with police, street wardens, housing, domestic abuse and anti social behaviour officers in a dedicated town-centre unit.

[100] Several urban regeneration projects planned for Mansfield involved mass demolition, but the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and subsequent central-government funding cuts and escalating austerity measures deferred them.

[107] Production ceased in 2002,[108] and the Mansfield range of ales moved to manufacturing facilities around the country; the site was later sold to Pubmaster Ltd, and from the 2020s is being redeveloped as housing.

[90] A move to a modern factory in Bellamy Road in 1975 released land projected for a high-density housing development known as Layton Burroughs.

[90] Mansfield Brewery sold the business in 1988 for £21.5 million to the Scottish drinks company A. G. Barr plc, producer of Irn-Bru, Tizer, and Mandora.

[123][124][125] It closed in April 2015,[126] and was turned into office space for businesses, including the local newspaper,[127] and a micro brewery with a cafe and bar.

[132] The Coal Authority is based in Mansfield, and the larger than lifesize statue Tribute to the British Miner by Nikolaos Kotziamanis was erected in 2003 to honour the town's mining heritage.

The A38 road, the longest 2-digit A-road in Great Britain, terminates at Mansfield, and provides the town with a direct link to Derby.

[citation needed] The town is one of three outlets for the Nottinghamshire County Council Swim Squad, which competes as Nova Centurion.

[148][149] At the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, a Mansfield contestant, Rebecca Adlington, won two gold medals, for 400 and 800-metre freestyle swimming.

After her record-breaking success, Adlington was welcomed home to Mansfield by thousands lining the streets to applaud as she passed in an open top bus.

At the 2012 Olympic Games in and around London, Adlington won two Bronze medals again for 400 and 800 metres, the best performance of a generally disappointing Team GB swimming squad.

The leisure lagoon pool has an artificial wave machine operating periodically, and also a slide and a shallow area like a beach.

[151][152] Titchfield Park, on the same site as the Water Meadows swimming complex, offers large grassy areas on both sides of the River Maun, crossed by two footbridges.

The main cemetery and crematorium occupy a 10 acres (4.0 hectares) site accessed from Derby Road, on the southern edge of town near the boundary with Ashfield.

[168] Mansfield was home to Venue 44,[169] a nightclub that gave birth to the superclub Renaissance which was operated there in 1992–1994 by Geoff Oakes[170] and launched the DJ's Sasha, John Digweed, Nigel Dawson[171] and Ian Ossia to global fame.

This consists of various public events held all across the town over many days, such as children's entertainment, fairground rides in the market square, and hands-on workshops for things like crafts and circus skills.

[181][182] On 21 August 2010 the Irish boy band Westlife performed live at Field Mill stadium, home to Mansfield's football team, the Stags.

[184] In April 2017, Sophie Whitby was elected to the Mansfield district as a Member of Youth Parliament, on a manifesto that included promoting equality for the LGBT community.