Sherwood was perhaps the most anomalous of the 1983 General Election results in Nottinghamshire. The constituency was new for 1983 and forged from parts of the constituencies of Ashfield, Gedling and Newark creating one of the top five constituencies in the country dominated by employment in mining, but its inaugural election was startlingly won by a Conservative farmer, Andrew Stewart, who also held on in 1987, aided by the Notts miners working through the 1984-5 miners strike.
With the subsequent spectre of pit closures hanging over the region, Paddy Tipping was elected as Labour MP for Sherwood in 1992. He increased his majority to 16,812 in 1997.
The Dukeries coalfield opened in the 1920s, fundamentally changing an area that until then had been known for its large aristocratic estates in what was left of Sherwood Forest.
As in other parts of Nottinghamshire the decline of the knitwear industry has been quite important here, with one factory closure in Ollerton before Christmas and other factories struggling. Since the closure of mines many people from former mining villages travel out of the constituency to work.
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