Bawtry

infobox UK place
country = England
official_name= Bawtry
latitude= 53.4278
longitude= -1.0167
map_type= South Yorkshire
population =
metropolitan_borough= Doncaster
metropolitan_county= South Yorkshire
CountyType= Metropolitan county
region= Yorkshire and the Humber
constituency_westminster= Don Valley
post_town= Doncaster
postcode_district = DN10
postcode_area= DN
dial_code= 01302
os_grid_reference= SK6593

Bawtry is a small market town which lies at the point where the Great North Road crosses the River Idle in South Yorkshire, England.

Location

The town's name comes from the Anglo-Saxon, and means 'Balda's tree'. It is located in the metropolitan borough of Doncaster on the border with Nottinghamshire, and is situated between Bircotes and Misson at the conjunction of the A614, A631 and A638 roads. The county boundary with Nottinghamshire runs just to the south of the town and for this reason the southern most house on the Great North Road is named 'Number One Yorkshire'.

Bawtry's geographical location is 53° 25' 40" North, 1° 1' West, at an elevation of around 20 metres above sea level.

The town is located just south of Robin Hood Airport, formerly RAF Finningley, and was home to the RAF's No.1 Group Bomber Command Headquarters at Bawtry Hall (see RAF Bawtry). Since 1989 Bawtry Hall has operated as a Christian conference centre (70 beds) and a base for several Christian organisations (see [http://www.bawtryhall.co.uk/] ).

History

Bawtry was originally a Roman settlement located on Ermine Street between Doncaster and Lincoln.

In 616 AD, the Anglo-Saxon King Aethelfrith met his end in battle against Raedwald King of East Anglia, at Bawtry on the River Idle. The site lies close to the present borders of Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire; in Aethelfrith's time this area lay on the southern reaches of Northumbria, a dangerous marshy region close to the border with Lindsey and easily accessible from the East Anglian kingdom.

A small settlement developed around a wharf in the Viking era, and evidence suggests that St Nicholas' church was first erected in this period. While the village originally lay in Nottinghamshire, boundary changes before the Norman Conquest moved it just inside the West Riding of Yorkshire.David Hey, "Medieval South Yorkshire"]

Around 1200, a new town was developed adjacent to the older village, by either John de Busli or Robert de Vipont. In 1213, de Vipont received a Royal Charter declaring an annual four-day fair at Pentecost, and a market was first recorded in 1247. The town grew as a river port, and also as a local commercial centre and a stopping point between Doncaster and Retford. By the mid-fourteenth century, the port was exporting wool and other items overseas, and the Hospital of St Mary Magdalene was founded, which survived until the eighteenth century.

Trade declined, and by the 1540s, John Leland recorded it as being "very bare and pore", but it grew again in the Elizabethan period around the export of millstones.

Bawtry has a school called Bawtry Mayflower named after the ship "Mayflower", which took William Bradford, leader of the Pilgrims, to the Americas, settling the first Plymouth Colony. Bradford lived at Scrooby, close to Bawtry.

The White Hart on Swan Street is the oldest pub in Bawtry dating back to 1689.

It holds a well-known car auction three times weekly. This is usually hosted by resident disk jockey Owen Hall

References

External links

* [http://www.bawtrytowncouncil.co.uk/ Bawtry Town Council]
* [http://www.bawtryhall.co.uk/ Bawtry Hall Conference Centre]
* [http://www.be4christ.org/ Bawtry Evangelical Free Church]
* [http://www.bawtrychurchestogether.org/ BCT]
* [http://www.communityfriend.co.uk/towns/bawtry/bawtry.htm Community Friend Bawtry]