Image ID: 21514

The Swan Hotel.

Courtesy of Old Mansfield Society

Church Street
Mansfield
England

The Swan on Church Street, formerly Kirk Gate, was already more than two centuries old when it was rebuilt in 1586 after one of the fires which ravaged the timber and thatched cottages of Medieval and Tudor Mansfield. Then known as 'at the sign of the White Swan', it was the foremost hostelry in the town. In the 18th and part of the 19th centuries, the Swan was a transport centre, with mail coaches and carriers' carts coming and going from Swan Yard. The photograph seen here shows a coach and four, which took visitors to Sherwood Forest, Hardwick Hall and Newstead Abbey. Standing next to it is the town omnibus which met all trains at the Midland Station. Prominent visitors to the town usually stayed here, including in 1862, Mr and Mrs Charles Stratton (General Tom Thumb) of Barnums' Circus. The present day visitor enters the Swan through the main door, which was formerly the coach entrance to the Swan Yard. In this roofed over corridor, the datestone of 1586 can still be seen. The interior has recently been refurbished. To the left of the pub is the former Mansfield Branch of the Nottingham and Notts Bank, attributed to Watson Fothergill. Today it forms part of the Swan Inn.

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Mansfield Library