Who we are
Bawtry Heritage Group (BHG) grew out of the Bawtry Neighbourhood Plan in 2016. The Plan, designed to identify what was best about Bawtry and to try to protect it, highlighted our town’s history. It found that most residents did have some idea of their heritage because some of it is readily visible in the form of old buildings – and they valued it. But few knew just how extensive and rich it is, encompassing all the major themes of British history from prehistoric times to the present day, and illuminating many of them quite spectacularly. A group of local history enthusiasts determined to try to change this.
We became a Charitable Incorporated Organisation in 2020 – that is a Registered Charity, Number 1188945. All our details, including our accounts, can be found on the Charities Commission’s website https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search Our trustees are Steve Fish, Peter Holland, Tony Jones, David Kirkham, John Linsley and Mick Maguire. Trustees usually meet on a monthly basis to deal with the routine business although all members are also welcome to attend if they so wish. There are also regular wider membership and public meetings as appropriate. The Group maintains an email database of members who are circulated with details of all meetings and other relevant matters. We usually meet in the Phoenix Theatre or the New Hall, or occasionally at Bawtry Community Library. Our meetings are advertised on this site and on our Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/BawtryHeritageGroup Notes of all of our previous meetings can be found here.
What we do
Our “Charitable Objects” are described in our “Constitution” document, which can be accessed here. They reflect the Group’s concern that the true breadth and richness of Bawtry’s history are hidden and should be better researched and presented to the public. Those “Objects” are:
To advance the education of the public in the history and heritage of Bawtry and the surrounding area, in particular by:
- Arranging talks on local history
- Providing guided historical walks
- Producing booklets and publications on historical topics
- Recording events and memories to act as historical records
- Supporting initiatives which highlight the significance of sites and buildings of historical interest and importance
Detailed information about how we aim to achieve these objects is contained in our Strategic Business Plan which can be accessed here.
We want to be responsive to the local community; if information about some particular aspect of our history is sought we will do our best to supply it. We are particularly keen to work with schools – to try to encourage their pupils to take ownership of their heritage and celebrate it.
Our activities to date have included the following:
The creation of a Town Trail
We have installed a map lectern in the Market Place, showing some of the town’s buildings and sites of interest. This is supported by a Town Trail leaflet, which provides an outline of our history and detail about the Trail. This is available, free of charge, from the Bawtry Community Library.
We hope to expand the Trail by installing “way markers” along it, providing further information about the sites.
. 
An oral history project
In the “modern” period, many of our older residents hold fascinating information about people’s daily lives in Bawtry. We have convened meetings of such folk where, over a cup of tea, they are able to chat about their lives and memories of bygone Bawtry. We have made audio recordings of those meetings and, with some judicious editing we are able to harvest detail about our town’s history and present it to the public. This is not history in the sense of Kings and Queens, or battles, or Acts of Parliament – its about how ordinary people in Bawtry lived and worked. As such, it is a unique record, and one that is at risk of being lost forever if we don’t capture it. This ambitious project was commenced in 2018, and some of the material was posted on our Facebook site. Covid then interrupted our progress. We hope to resume it soon.
Dressing empty shop windows
As the town’s economic fortunes change, we endure the blight of empty shop windows from time to time. We’ve taken advantage of this by using some of them to display information about Bawtry’s history, in poster form. We hope to continue that programme.
A presence in the Library
Bawtry Community Library kindly permitted us to mount an exhibition pertaining to our town’s history. This is now being changed into more of a Bawtry history resource centre and a “shop window” for BHG, containing original papers we have produced and local history resources – a physical manisfestation of this website.
Bawtry War Memorial
Although funded and executed by the Town Council, BHG assisted in the planning of the “rescue” of the war memorial – i.e. its relocation from an inaccessible site adjacent to the wall of Bawtry Hall to its new position outside the Library.
. 
Participation in Bawtry Arts Festival
BHG helped to plan both the 2022 inaugural festival, and the 2023 festival, and made contributions to their events. These included a children’s image hunt, history talks, guided walks, and a children’s historical story/essay competition. It is intended we will maintain this sort of presence in future festivals.
Preserving and protecting the Market Cross
This Scheduled Ancient Monument is sited in a very public place and was a poor advertisement about how Bawtry cared for its heritage. It was in a very sorry condition, with the stone surfaces delaminating and some structural weakness and evidence of impact by motor vehicles.
In consultation with Historic England, the custodian of the monument, the Heritage Group proposed to Bawtry Town Council works to improve it and to protect it in the future by installing raised planters around it. The Town Council funded the works, assisted by generous grants from Doncaster Civic Trust and Doncaster-Sheffield Airport which BHG obtained.
. 
Public talks and presentations
To date, we have presented talks or workshops on the Pilgrim Fathers, Roman Bawtry, the history of the Phoenix Theatre, and the Norman “planted town” of Bawtry. We intend to write further original material about Bawtry’s history and make it accessible in the Library and on this website. Some of these papers will be presented in public talks. We will not make any charge for downloading or copying these papers, but donations will be welcome.
Donations
As with most organisations, only so much can be achieved without finance. BHG has ongoing costs to fund in order to maintain and expand our projects. We will hold ‘fundraising’ events from time to time. If anyone wishes to help us financially with our endeavours then donations will always be welcomed and certainly put to good use. If you are able to do this then please use this Just Giving link.
Merchandise
When time permits we hope to introduce some quality and select items for sale. Watch this space!
Thanks to all our donors who made all this possible
From our earliest efforts – the creation of the Town Trail – to the present day we have had the good fortune to have received excellent support from the local community and beyond. Between 2020 and 2022 we hoped to obtain premises which could be converted into a Heritage Centre (and Changing Place) and we had a major fundraising project to finance it. That project became unachievable, but the majority of supporters generously allowed us to keep their donations, to allow us to try to achieve the same outcomes the Heritage Centre would have delivered but on a peripatetic basis.
We are very grateful to all our donors and a full list of them is here. It includes local companies who offered practical help for our abortive Heritage Centre project, and jask Media who have kindly made this website for us at “cost” price.
Contact Us and Join Us!
Please contact us if you would like to join our Group, whether it is to get involved actively or simply to be kept informed. There is no membership fee and everyone is welcome. Email us here.