White Hart Street. Mansfield

White Hart Street July 2009
M Marples
Railway Viaduct, Mansfield
PC Collection YMCA Series

White Hart Street

Then and Now

As we reflect on the differences in these two pictures, one taken possibly around 1909, the other July 2009, it is also worth considering how they were taken.

For the early photograph, the photographer would have had a heavy wooden tripod with a large camera mounted on it. He would have to wait to see the image he had taken until this was developed and printed. Prints or postcards would have been made from the negative/glass plate and have been sold in local shops etc. The process from start to finish would have taken a number of hours even days or weeks. Fortunately some of the early postcards have survived enabling us to see what this area of Mansfield looked like many years.

By comparison the coloured photograph taken in July 2009 with a digital camera and the photographer could instantly see the image taken. Within an hour or two the image had been downloaded on to a computer and placed on this web page. It is now there for people far and wide to view, hopefully for many years to come.

It is worth reflecting that at the time the early photograph was taken it was steam trains that travelled over the viaduct, today it is diesel trains we see on this bridge, which is now as part of the Robin Hood Line.

 

Comments about this page

  • I am trying to find the name of the chemist that was on White Hart Street in 1953

    By Patricia Hodgson (13/10/2023)
  • Yeoman’s army store was one of my abiding memories of Mansfield. Many expeditions made by school pals and me to such heady locations as Park Hall Wood, Pleasley Vale, Bolsover Castle and other places, were aided and abetted with gear bought from here. It had a huge window display and plenty of stock of all kinds for workpeople and budding adventurers alike and I loved it. Sadly it’s no longer there. 

    By John (29/03/2018)
  • Before Copes it was Humphreys I think. The music shop was Carlins on the corner of Dame Flogan St/White Hart St. They had the same sheet music on display in the window for years. I would like to have cleared out the shop when it closed, loads of stuff other music shops didn’t stock.

    By Tom Shead (25/03/2018)
  • Quite right I remember the Travel Office and certainly Copes Motor Cycles. Also looking down White Hart Street on the right hand side was a music shop on the corner where I probably bought my first harmonica, can’t recall the shops name and certainly don’t know if it is still there. I believe Henstocks Motor Cycles was originally there (W.H, street), before moving to premises on Chesterfield Road not far from the old Ritz Cinema?

    By Steeve. C. (21/03/2018)
  • Before the building was Mansfield District Travel office wasn’t it Copes motor cycle shop? I think they were Triumph dealers. I once remember seeing a new one in the window, a 500 or 650cc. It was a big one anyway £249-19s-6d, must have been mid to late 1950s

    By Peter Bowler. (22/01/2013)
  • Directly behind the photograph viewpoint existed a stone staircase between the viaduct and the Mansfield District Travel office that was, it’s now a kebab shop. The staircase formed part of a path that went from street level to track level and allowed access to the Mansfield Station North signal box and the other railway buildings in the goods yard. Such a pity that no photos seem to exist that show the staircase. I have a shot taken from partway up the flight looking down White Hart Street but at too higher angle to show the steps. Photos taken from the signal box looking along the viaduct/down White Hart Street also exist, but again, nothing showing the staircase. Very little remains of the construction, the lower section at the side of the kebab shop has been filled in and a stone wall erected across the original entrance. Further up near track level, just before the new underpass, there remains marks in the stonework from what I assume was the handrail.

    By Berisford Jones (01/08/2011)
  • There Were also The Nottingham Evening News snd The Sheffield Star also providing The Football Results Papers one of the Nottingham Papers was the Pink Un and The Sheffield Star The Green un On delivery regular paper sellers would race down on to the Market Place with a Large Quantity of same all with their own pitch

    By Malcolm Raynor (14/11/2010)
  • At top of White Hart Street was the Nottingham Evening Post Shop where we waited on Saturday about 6pm for the Football Post to come and collect and rush on your bike on your paper run to sell them,the people would come out to buy them.

    By ARTHUR WRIGHT (18/07/2010)

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