The Town of Retford.

Lets face it.. Retford is not a place name that immediately comes to mind when you think of middle England.. For starters, where is it? Well it's geographically located in Nottinghamshire, but ask most people in the town and they'll tell you they're more closely related to South Yorkshire than Nottinghamshire. As if to confirm this, the town doesn't appear in any Nottinghamshire telephone directory, though nor for that matter in a Yorkshire one. Strangely enough, it's in the Lincolnshire one. To further confuse things Retford has a Doncaster (south Yorkshire) postal code.

For a town of it's size, it unusually doesn't have it's own district council, well, it does, but it's a remote district council, you guessed it, located in another town, who are understandably primarily interested in the success of their own town where they are based, Worksop. The all-encompassing name for this district is Bassetlaw. Sure the district council will make the odd appearance and even opened an office with great fanfare, but this is nothing more than a one-stop advice centre that you can find in any large village. Yet Retford is a large town, with a population of more than thirty thousand people.

If you are observent enough to locate the fleeting reference to Retford in the official Notts guide to Nottinghamshire, you will see that the town is described as a 'small market town on the far northeastern edge of the county'. Admittedly Bassetlaw district council would have you believe we are such, yet even our own county council doesnt know the correct location of Retford, for look at any map and you will plainly see that Retford is located right bang in the centre of the district, with it's larger neighbour Worksop, being the one actually located on the far north western edge.

Looking back over the last few centuries it's confusing to see how the town got itself into this position. Retford was once one of the more important towns in the country, boasting not one but two MPs in parliament. Alas now we have none.

On paper, the town has a lot going for it, an enviable location, with four large cities/towns all within thirty miles. To the east is Lincoln, to the north Doncaster, to the south Nottingham and to the northwest Sheffield. Retford is also at the centre of the UK rail network, with both the north to south, London to Edinburgh main line and the east to west lines both crossing in the town. It has a railway station of the size any small city would be proud of. It also has a great road network, being located less than 3 miles from the A1, which now veers sharply towards Worksop so as to avoid Retford completely, it originally used to pass directly through the centre of Retford. It has the pretty river Idle which meanders through the town and the main canal waterway also criscrosses through the centre. Finally, Ten miles to the north is the newly opened Robin Hood international airport.

The town of Retford is steeped in history, although anyone from outside the town would most probably not know as the towns name is conveniently missing from most council official websites, preferring to replace it with the all encompassing Bassetlaw. Famous names such as Dick Turpin and Robin Hood both played a part in the towns history. The founding fathers of America, the pilgrim fathers started their journey from the Retford area before moving on to Plymouth, though mysteriously the town of Retford is missing from the Bassetlaw councils official account of the pilgrim fathers, which is odd as the two most important places in Americas history, Babworth and Scrooby are both located on the edge of the town.

At the heart of Retford is the magnificent market square, which has been an important trading place since at least the twelfth century when it was issued with the official charter of the then king of England, and still today holds a traditional market Thursday to Saturday. Just off from the market square is the beautiful kings park, which was left to the people of the town, but which is now slowly but surely being sold off piece by piece, by Bassetlaw council.

Suffice to say that the next time you're passing along the A1 or traveling along the east coast main line and you happen to notice a sign for Retford, consider for a moment having a look around. I'm sure you'll like what you see, because the town of Retford really does exist, regardless of what Worksop would have you believe.

Email retfordexists@hotmail.co.uk Alternatively you may enter the new Retford Exists Forum HERE (Registration required to post).