Doubleday wrote in the Nottinghamshire Guardian (1947) that "During the Civil War a Roundhead force from Retford attempted to capture the mansion occupied by the Royalist Gervase Lee, but the attack was beaten off and the besiegers compelled to retreat as a party of Cavalier troops from Newark approached rapidly".

Moss notes that before 1776 a toll was charged to cross the river and that to the north side were the corn mills mentioned in the Domesday Book that were once owned by Hubert de Burgh.

Although it was on the bombing route to larger targets such as Sheffield and Rotherham, was surrounded by airforce bases, and had the intersection between two railway lines, no-one was killed in the raids and the town escaped the war virtually unscathed.

[47] From 1316 Retford was a parliamentary borough (a constituency), entitled to two Members of Parliament, although by 1330 it was begging to be excused the privilege on the grounds of poverty, inability to afford the cost of paying the heavy expenses of the MPs' long journeys to and from the capital.

Hansard records that during the House of Lords debates on the Disfranchisement Bill, the town had an active committee, led by a couple of attorneys and meeting at the Turk's Head Inn, who were trying to make the borough seem even more corrupt than it was to ensure its extinction.

If the public were ignorant of the undue means by which a large majority of the Members of that House obtained their seats in it, they might declaim against the venality of the voters of East Retford; but, notorious as these circumstances were, he thought it better to pass over the present case in silence till they were prepared to deal with others equally flagitious.The 1830 Act extended the parliamentary borough's boundaries (which had previously matched the borough's municipal boundaries) to encompass the Wapentake of Bassetlaw, which included the whole of the northern end of Nottinghamshire, including the town of Worksop.

To the north and east the land is clay and the area was historically marshy (see Isle of Axholme), but was drained by Dutch engineers under Cornelius Vermuyden in the 17th century.

[66][67] And a range of mammals and amphibians can be seen such as hedgehog, frog, rabbit, brown hare, grey squirrel, toad, newts, mole, badger and red fox.

"[73] In 1896, Cornelius Brown wrote that Retford was "discernible from the Great Northern Railway line as a mass of red-brick houses and smoking chimneys, with the tower of an old parish church rising in their midst".

In his bestselling book Notes from a Small Island, he writes, 'Retford, I am pleased to report, is a delightful and charming place even under the sort of oppressive grey clouds that make far more celebrated towns seem dreary and tired.

Beside the main church stood a weighty black cannon with a plaque saying 'Captured at Sevastopol 1855', which I thought was a remarkable piece of initiative on the part of the locals - it's not every day, after all, that you find a Nottinghamshire market town storming a Crimean redoubt and bringing home booty - and the shops seemed prosperous and well ordered.

The monument was designed by architect Leonard W. Barnard FRIBA of Cheltenham, and built of Stancliffe stone from Darley Dale, Derbyshire by RL Boulton & Sons.

A window in the south aisle of St Swithun's church (by Charles Eamer Kempe) was erected in memory of the Sherwood Rangers who fell in the Second Boer War, being unveiled in December 1903.

The tablet below contains the following inscription: "To the glory of God, and to the Memory of those of the Sherwood Rangers Imperial Yeomanry who died for their Sovereign and Country in South Africa, 1900-1902" and after the names: "This Window was dedicated by their friends".

[97] J.C. Short MD, writing in 1734, says that at that time the water on Spa Common bubbled to the surface inside a handsome freestone basin which itself was enclosed in a pleasant, decorated building shaped like a pyramid.

The Victorian stained glass includes work by Clayton and Bell, Charles Eamer Kempe, Michael O’Connor, Hardman & Co, William Wailes and George Shaw.

There is a brass plaque at the church which says the following: "This first stone of the new chapel dedicated to the Saviour, and containing silver and copper coins of the reign of George the Fourth, was laid on the second day of June, AD 1828, by Henry Clark Hutchinson Esq., of Welham."

"From whichever direction it is approached this building dominates the skyline".The current Grade II listed Methodist chapel in Grove Street dates from 1880 and was built by Bellamy and Hardy, who were also the architects of Retford Town Hall.

[107] The gallery was opened by Dr Jeremy Bangs, director of The Leiden American Pilgrim Museum in the Netherlands, the Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire, Sir John Peace, and chairman of Bassetlaw District Council, Cllr Debbie Merryweather in 2019.

Biggs (1967) records that there is a tablet in the wall of a house in Bridgegate, marking the spot where Wesley preached under a pear tree in an orchard just over the Idle in the parish of West Retford.

[113] The Northern Rubber Company, which was established in 1871 by Alfred Pegler has evolved into the specialist aerospace components manufacturer Icon, employing 200+ people on Thrumpton Lane, Retford.

The Beehive Works was built in Thrumpton in 1873 and William Bradshaw set up his Carr Foundry in Albert Road which specialised in heating and rainwater pipes, gutters, stoves, fireplaces and general engineering castings.

According to DCD Pocock, "Retford, as the most northerly hop fair in the country, was of special importance until the breaking down of traditional economic watersheds and marketing limits with the advent of rail transport".

In 2002, the Heritage Lottery Fund gave the museum a grant of £78,000 to enable the purchase and digitisation of 20,000 negatives taken by professional photographers Edgar Welchman and Son of Grove Street, Retford between 1910 and 1960.

[141] Piercy mentions a theatre situated on "the west side, and nearly in the centre, of Carrhillgate" which was built in 1789 by Mr William Pero who purchased the ground from Sir Thomas Woolaston White.

During the interregnum, some public houses across England changed their name to The Black Boy in a show of concealed (and deniable) allegiance and because they were meeting places for royalist supporters.

The original six hole course was designed by Tom Williamson and laid out on 38 acres of land leased from Colonel Sir Albert Whitaker of Babworth Hall around the area known locally as Whisker Hills.

SK 700 800 38240 Between 1939 and 1941, Mrs KL Kayser agreed to allow the upper floors of Eaton Hall to be used as a maternity hospital for soldiers' wives who had been bombed-out of their homes.

Retford is home to a Post-16 centre the aim of which was to unite all Sixth Form students in one site (formerly Ordsall Hall School) and provide other courses available through North Nottinghamshire College (based at Worksop).

King Edward VI Grammar School (Motto - Ex Pulvere Palma) opened in August 1857 and was designed by the noted Victorian architect Decimus Burton.