Bawtry Heritage Group consists of people who have an interest in the very rich history and heritage of Bawtry, which is a small market town in the very south of South Yorkshire adjacent to Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. We are a Registered Charity (Number 1188945) and our objective is:
To advance the education of the public in the history and heritage of Bawtry and the surrounding area, in particular by:
We always have a lot of fun trying to unravel our local history and debating it with each other. Some of that history is very obvious – we have a lot of listed buildings and a couple of Scheduled Monuments – but some of it takes a lot of teasing out and is subject to different interpretations and admits significant speculation. There are a few sources which address Bawtry, but this website constitutes the first attempt to try and draw it all together and present it to the public as a cohesive whole.
The Group meets regularly in Bawtry. Members of the public are welcome to attend our meetings which are advertised on this site and on our Facebook page here, as are the public talks we present. Contact us if you’d like to join our Group.
We have created a Town Trail, with a map lectern in the Market Place, supported by Trail leaflets available free from the Bawtry Community Library. We are embarking upon a programme of installing “waymarkers” at significant points of the Trail.
Our endeavours have been supported by several local organisations, companies and individuals, by means of financial donations. We are very grateful for that support and thank everyone very much. A full list of our donors appears under the About Us tab.
Find out more here:Bawtry as a named place dates back to at least the end of the 12th century, when the Normans laid out the existing town. There is, however, evidence of prehistoric and Roman activity well before that. It may be a settlement was here at that time – we don’t know but would love to find out! There appear to have been two keys to Bawtry’s development. The first was its location right on the border between Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire (or, earlier, between Northumbria and Mercia), with Lincolnshire also being very close. The second factor was transport links. The border position probably caused a major battle (between the kingdoms of Northumbria and East Anglia) to occur here in the 7th century. Later, King Harold marched through what was (or was to become) Bawtry in 1066, going north to victory at Stamford Bridge, and then south to defeat at Hastings. The town’s location on the navigable River Idle may have stimulated the Normans’ interest; through medieval times the town developed as a regionally important inland port. In the Middle Ages, royal travellers – from heralds and messengers to Lords and Ladies would have been “handed over” between one county and another at Bawtry, through which the Great North Road passed. River trading opportunities diminished during the canalisation which occurred during Georgian times, but happily for the town, it was able to re-invent itself as a coaching centre due to its location on the Great North Road, a function which sustained it during the 19th century.
In modern times the importance of the town diminished, although in 1941 Bawtry Hall became the headquarters for RAF Number 1 Group Bomber Command, and subsequently Headquarters Strike Command, this function seeing the RAF through the Cold War and the Falklands War. A rich history indeed! – which this site seeks to explore.
The main history content of this site features in the “Bawtry History” tab. There, original papers on different aspects of Bawtry’s history, written by members of Bawtry Heritage Group, are presented. They are presented in several sections according to their historical era and may be downloaded and copied free of charge, although we would appreciate donations via our Just Giving page to help us with our expenses. The papers are also lodged in Bawtry Community Library.
Bawtry’s census returns between 1841 and 1911 are also available here.
This is a “work in progress” and additional papers, and other items not originating from Bawtry Heritage Group, will appear in the future.
The tab “Significant buildings and sites” accesses a kind of gazetteer, comprising information about all the listed buildings/sites (in excess of 50), the two ancient monuments, and other buildings of historical interest. Where possible, all these are illustrated. Much of the information presented here is from third parties, especially Historic England. The buildings/sites are grouped together according to their street location. This tab also includes our Town Trail map and a map of the Bawtry Conservation Area.
Also on the “Significant Buildings” page is a paper entitled “Bawtry Heritage Through Art – A Snapshot of Work by Bryan Hancock”. Bryan, who sadly died in 2023, was a prominent local artist who did numerous watercolours and pen & ink drawings of significant buildings in Bawtry. The paper includes images of many of these.
The tab “Other resources” contains details of third-party publications (some of which may be accessed via a link and downloaded) and websites (with their links) which will be of interest to anyone wishing to find out more about our history. Finally, further information about Bawtry Heritage Group, including notes from our meetings, will be found under the “About Us” tab.