The Wardman Wire

Rebecca Adlington has won two gold medals in swimming at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and put Mansfield back on the map. This blog is based near Mansfield, which used to be a centre of coal production, where the local industry played an heroic role in resisting the UK National Miners’ Strike in 1984. For a contrast I thought that this morning I’d introduce you to a few of our more “artistic” local heroes.

Lord Byron, Poet

Byron was described as “mad, bad, and dangerous to know”. He owned Newsstead Abbey, near Mansfield, poet, gigolo and bankrupt.) he lived from 1788 to 1824. Here is Byron’s poem “She Walks in Beauty”. It is read well, and I’m afraid I don’t know the identity of the reader.

One of Byron’s children was Ada Lovelace, “The First Computer Programmer”, who collaborated with Charles Babbage on the invention of the difference engine - a predecessor to modern computers.

Sir Roger Moore, Actor

Most famous for his roles as James Bond (”007″) and Simon Templar (”The Saint”. He is also known as Roger “oh please, no” Moore - both by Bond girls and cinema-goers. Here he is being interviewed in about his appearance in the detective series “The Saint“. This photo was taken on the set of The Sea Wolves in Goa.

Alvin Stardust, Singer

Alvin Stardust was born in some area of London (has anyone heard of Muswell Hill?), but moved to Mansfield at the age of 4. Appropriately for a political website, he was named “Alvin Stardust” by Michael Levy. This is a video of “You You You” from 1974.

And here are two colourful local political figures.

Alan Meale, MP for Mansfield

Local Member of Parliament. Famous for calling Margaret Thatcher “ducky” in the Chamber of the House of Commons.

Tony Egginton, Independent Mayor of Mansfield

Mansfield is unusual in that the Council is controlled by an Independent administration, rather than by a political party.

It is also unusual in having a Directly-Elected Mayor.

At present (2008) both the Mayor and the Independent administration are in their second terms.

Why is Mansfield invisible?

For a town with a population of 70,000, Mansfield is not very prominent. One reason may be that the BBC cannot decide which television region the town belongs to. From Wikipedia:

Whilst Yorkshire Television’s news programme “Calendar” still covers Mansfield, BBC Look North has for many years refused to cover the town insisting that Mansfield belongs in the BBC East Midlands region (though few homes get acceptable terrestrial reception of BBC East Midlands).

Rebecca Adlington Swimming Centre

They’ve been quick off the mark after the double Gold Medal for Becky Adlington at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, however:

Her local swimming pool, The Sherwood Swimming Baths, is about to be renamed The Rebecca Adlington Swimming Centre.

Mansfield’s Previous Commonwealth Games Swimmer

Becky Adlington was taught to swim by Maureen Arnold, a swimmer from Mansfield who competed in the Commonwealth Games in Vancouver in 1956. From the Mansfield Chad:

Arnold, who was Adlington’s first coach when she was a six year-old at Mansfield Woodhouse’s Sherwood Baths, told Chad it was clear to see Becky’s talent from an early age.

“I tought her when she was just a young kid and even then it was clear to see she had the talent for great things,” she said.

Later, Arnold converted a church in Mansfield Woodhouse into a swimming pool where she ran a business.