Trinity Hospital Retford

[2] The Old Hall in Retford was given by Dr John Darrell (d 1665), son of Barbara Denman and Edward Darell (born c. 1582), to become a hospital for old men of good repute in his will (dated 1664).

As well as a code of rules and regulations, appointing the Master Governor to be the Sub-Dean of Lincoln Cathedral; a Bailyffe who was to govern the hospital, receive the rents and be paid 20 nobles per year; the Chaplain to be the Rector of West Retford church (St Michael's); a nurse, who was to be a "Grave Ancient Woman".

The will also founded a scholarship for young men to attend Exeter College in Oxford, and this is supported by a specific building with residences to let.

By the early 19th century, the old Elizabethan building was in poor condition, and in 1832-4 the present (Grade II listed) Hospital was built on the original site to the design of Edward Blore.

In 1872, Louth (Lincolnshire) architect James Fowler (who had earlier worked on West Retford Church) was commissioned to design a new chapel and audit room.

The clock is of bird-cage wrought iron construction, having two trains, a recoil escapement and shows the time externally on a single adjacent dial.

When he retired in 1908, he finally cleaned and sorted it, discovering some came from church windows, some from noble town houses in medieval York and some from secular public buildings.

He is said to have saved his beer money for three years to pay for the window and have challenged his Brethren: "Now then you, there's t'other winder, and there be 15 o'yah; I dares ye to put him in."

An appraisal of the painting was made by an art expert from Phillips, who attributed it to Sir Godfrey Kneller, a well-known royal portrait painter during Queen Anne's reign.