It is about 1 mile (1.6 km) north of Mansfield, along the main A60 road in a wide, low valley between the Rivers Maun and Meden.

Farming and quarrying were the main livelihoods and Mansfield Woodhouse also prospered with the growth of the textile and hosiery trades into the 19th century.

In 1839, the designer of the present Houses of Parliament, Sir Charles Barry, selected a sand-coloured magnesian limestone as the stone that would be used in its construction.

[2] During the UK miners' strike, some coal miners at nearby Sherwood Colliery on the edge of Mansfield Woodhouse continued working, a decision made with members and officials as part of the Union of Democratic Mineworkers, a breakaway from the National Union of Mineworkers.

Natives of Mansfield Woodhouse include D'Ewes Coke (1747–1811), an unusual combination of clergyman and colliery master, and the pianist and composer John Ogdon (1937–89).

After a fire in 1996, the Park Hall Road buildings were enlarged during rebuilding to incorporate the former Yorke Street facility, which was sold for housing land.

The Co-op store in Mansfield Woodhouse, opened in late 1984,[7][8] closed in January 2009 and was transformed into a Morrisons using the same building in June 2009.

The town also has a volunteer-run newsletter called The Woodhouse Warbler, produced quarterly since late 2000, with a circulation in the thousands.