Nottinghamshire

Contents

Nearby Places

East Retford

Census

• The parish was in the East Retford sub-district of the East Retford Registration District.
  
  
• The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:
  
  

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Church History

• The Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint Swithin.
  
  
• The church was thoroughly restored in 1855.
  
  
• The church seats 600.
  
  

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Church Records

• The Anglican parish register dates from 1573.
  
  
• The International Genealogical Index (IGI) includes records from this parish for the period 1627-1842.
  
  
• Bishops Transcripts are on the IGI for the period 1777 - 1833.
  
  
• Notts Archives Office hold the marriage register on microfiche for the period 1573 - 1900.
  
  
• The Society of Genealogists have marriages for the period 1573 - 1900.
  
  
• The church was in the No, 1 deanery of Retford.
  
  
• The Wesleyan Methodists had a chapel here before 1869 and it was replaced by a larger chapel in 1880.
  
  
• The Primitive Methodists had a chapel here built in 1789 as a theater, but converted to their use in 1843.
  
  
• The Independents had a chapel here by 1869.
  
  

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Civil Registration

• The parish was in the East Retford sub-district of the East Retford Registration District.
  
  
• Civil Registration started in July, 1837.
  
  

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Description and Travel

East Retford was a market town. a parish and a parliamentary and municipal borough. The town sits on the east bank of the River Idle, 8 miles east from Worksop, 18 miles south-east from Doncaster and 32 miles north-east of Nottingham city. It is 144 miles north of London.

If you are planning a visit to the towne:

• By automobile, take the A1 motorway north to Ranby and turn right onto the B6079 trunk road. Continuing east through Babworth, and West Retford is dead ahead. It is hard to distinguish West Retford from East Retford these days, but everything East of the Idle River is the old parish and town of East Retford.
  
  

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History

• This place is reportedly the scene of a 617 battle between Edwin and Ethelred.
  
  
• Richard the Lionheart reputedly provided the first town charter between 1185 and 1200, but no charter of that date has been found.
  
  
• Henry III granted the rights for an annual fair in 1246.
  
  
• Elizabeth I granted borough status in 1571.
  
  
• The Town Hall was opened in January, 1868.
  
  

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Maps

• The national grid reference is SK 7080.
  
  
• You'll want an Ordnance Survey Explorer map, which has 2.5 inches to the mile scale.
  
  
• See our Maps page for additional resources.
  
  

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Names, Geographical

• In the 1086 Domesday Book the name is written as Redeford. It appears in the 13th century as Este Reddfurth. The name appears to come from the red clay at the river bottom which was disturrbed by fording horses, cattle and carts and colored the river.
  
  

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Politics and Government

• This place was an ancient parish in county Nottingham and became a modern Civil Parish when those were established.
  
  
• The parish was in the North Clay district of the ancient Bassetlaw Wapentake (Hundred) in the northern division of the county.
  
  
• The East Retford Borough Act of July, 1878, reset boundaries for the parishes and the borough and defined the three wards for voting.
  
  
• On 1st April, 1921, the three Civil Parishes of Ordsall, North Retford and West Retford were abolished and the areas amalgamated into an enlarged East Retford Civil Parish.
  
  

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Poorhouses, Poor Law, etc.

• The town Corporation had almhouses in Union street built in 1823 with apartments for 18 poor women.
  
  
• After the Poor Law Amendment Act reforms of 1834, this parish became the centre of the East Retford Poor Law Union.
  
  

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Population

The population soared after the amalgamation in 1921 of West Retford, North Retford and Ordsall Civil Parishes into the Civil Pariush of East Retford.

Year	Inhabitants
1801	1,948
1811	2,030
1821	2,465
1831	2,491
1841	2,6801
1851	2,943
1871	3,194
1881	3,414
1891	3,438
1901	3,436
1911	3,614

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Schools

• The Free Grammar School of King Edward VI was founded by that monarch. But the school was not built here until 1855 after much political scandal ove the misuse of property.
  
  
• There was also a National and Infant School for children of both sexes.
  
  

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