Kirkby in Ashfield information

Kirkby-in-Ashfield is a market town in Nottingham, England, with a population of 25,265 (according to the 2001 National Census). It is a part of the Greater Nottingham area. The Head Offices of Ashfield District Council are located there.
Kirkby-in-Ashfield lies on the eastern edge of the Erewash Valley which separates Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. Kirkby-in-Ashfield, or Kirkby as it is locally known, was originally a Danish settlement (Kirk-by translates as 'Church Town' in Danish) and is a collection of small villages including Old Kirkby, The Folly (East Kirkby), Nuncargate and Kirkby Woodhouse. It is mentioned in the Doomsday Book and has two main churches, St Wilfrid's, a Norman church, which was gutted by fire January 6th 1907 but quickly re-built to its former glory and St Thomas's built in the early 1910s in neo-gothic style.
Kirkby-in-Ashfield was once an important centre of coal mining and railways in west Nottinghamshire, with three active coal mines and a central junction where both the London Midland and Scottish Railway and the Great Central Railway met. The town rapidly expanded during the Victorian era. However the closure of the coal mines in the 1980s and early 1990s lead to a major slump in the local economy and the area suffered a high level of socio-economic depression. The Railway was closed during the Beeching era leaving the town without a fast link to central Nottingham and nearby Mansfield. The Railway re-opened in the 1990s as part of the 'Robin Hood' line. (...) more....

by