Bawtry

Bawtry is a

The origin of the name "Bawtry" is uncertain, but it is thought to contain the Old English words ball ("ball") and trēow ("tree"), so meaning it was a "(place at) ball-shaped tree". It was not mentioned in the Domesday Book, but it appears as Baltry in 1199^[4] and as Bautre on a 1677 map.^[5]

Bawtry was originally the site of a

Around 1200, a new town was developed adjacent to the older village, under the auspices of John

Trading in Bawtry later declined and by the 1540s John Leland recorded it as being "very bare and pore", but it grew again in the Elizabethan period through the shipping of millstones.^[7]

Bawtry Hall was the base for RAF No.1 Group Bomber Command during and after the Second World War, and became the headquarters of RAF Strike Command (see RAF Bawtry).^[8]

Geography

Bawtry is where the western branch of the Roman

Nearby towns include Gainsborough to the east, Retford to the south-southeast, Worksop to the south-west and Doncaster to the north-west. The town is just south of Doncaster Sheffield Airport, formerly RAF Finningley, and between Bircotes and Misson at the conjunction of the A614, A631 and A638. In the 20th century Bawtry became a bottleneck, until a bypass was eventually built in 1965. The county boundary with Nottinghamshire runs just to the south of the town – the southernmost house on the Great North Road names itself "Number One Yorkshire".^[9]

The town's former prosperity was based on communications: the River Idle when it was a port, the Great North Road in the coaching era, and the Great Northern Railway. Its geographical location is 53° 25' 40" North, 1° 1' West, at an elevation of some 37 feet (11.4 m) above sea level.^[10]

Media

Local news and television programmes are provided by

The White Hart in Swan Street is the town's oldest surviving public house, dating from 1689. The older Swan Inn in the same street has been converted to other uses. Market Hill and High Street contain buildings of the same period, interspersed with more recent ones. The Crown Hotel in High Street was once a coaching inn. Singer Ronan Keating and comedian Billy Connolly have stayed there.^[14]

South Parade is a terrace of Georgian houses. The Courtyard, a modern development of housing, shops and businesses, won the Green Apple Awards 2005.^[15]

From 1989 to 2013 Bawtry Hall operated as a Christian conference centre and a base for several Christian bodies. It now serves for a wider range of events such as wedding receptions.^[16]

Notable people

• Pilgrim Father and publisher of Mourt's Relation

See also

• Listed buildings in Bawtry
• Bawtry gasworks contamination

References

1. ^ UK Census (2001). "Local Area Report – Bawtry Parish (00CE008)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
2. Office for National Statistics
   . Retrieved 15 February 2021.
3. ^ City Population. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
4. ^ 'Oxford Dictionary of British Place-Names', A. D. Mills, Oxford University Press.
5. ^ 'A Mapp of Nottingham Shire with its Devisions and Wapontakes Described', Dr.(?) Roberto Southwell, 1677.
6. ISBN 978-1-78378-444-8
   .
7. ^ ^{a b c} David Hey, Medieval South Yorkshire
8. ISBN 0-85059-484-7
   .
9. ISSN 0963-1496
   .
10. ^ "Bawtry". getoutside.ordnancesurvey.co.uk. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
11. ^ "Emley Moor (Kirklees, England) Full Freeview transmitter". UK Free TV. 1 May 2004. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
12. ^ "Belmont (Lincolnshire, England) Full Freeview transmitter". UK Free TV. 1 May 2004. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
13. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/3180. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
14. ^ Robert Langley: "Historic hotel used by Billy Connolly and Ronan Keating snapped up in £5m deal - here's what it means", Lincolnshire Live, 25 August 2017. Retrieved 15 December 2020
15. ^ Visit Bawtry. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
16. ^ Bawtry Hall. Retrieved 16 December 2020.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bawtry.

• Bawtry Town Council