Huthwaite 4.56

Huthwaite is a small village in Nottinghamshire, England, located to the west of Mansfield, close to the Derbyshire border. It is in the Ashfield ward of Sutton-in-Ashfield (West). Before 1907 the village was known as Hucknall-under-Huthwaite and also Dirty Hucknall.Derivation of nameThe name Huthwaite is derived from Old English plus Norse elements—hoh is from haugr an Old Norse word for a hill and thwaite means a clearing -so, literally, a clearing on a hill spur. The former Hucknall element refers to Hucca's heath or angle of land and is shared with the present day Hucknall near Nottingham and Ault Hucknall in Derbyshire.Industry and employmentThe population in 1800 was about 500 but soon started to grow with the opening of Hucknall Colliery, a drift mine at the bottom of Blackwell Road. The "Miners Arms" public house is believed to have been the manager's cottage. This mine was worked for around 50 years. It closed due to flooding. In 1877 a new mine called New Hucknall Colliery was opened which employed 500 people. By 1881 the population of the village had grown to over 2000. By 1912 the workforce had increased to over 1,300 but the main industry in the village had become the manufacture of hosiery products.The closure of the majority of mines in the area, which included New Hucknall Colliery in the early 1980s, and the off shoring of hosiery jobs led to large amounts of unemployment. However today this has been largely rectified.Shops and servicesHuthwaite used to have numerous shops such as groceries, butchers and hardware but in the present day the only major retailers are the local Co-op and Tesco Express, found in the centre of the village. 90% of the other shops are now used as takeaways with cuisine from almost all corners of the earth.