Retford
Retford maps (2 available)
Map of Nottinghamshire
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
See this old map of Nottinghamshire
Personalised maps
Create an historic map centred directly on any postcode!
Retford books (4 available)
Nottinghamshire Photographic Memories
Paperback
Newark Photographic Memories
Paperback
Nottinghamshire Living Memories
Hardback
- 12 photos on Retford appear in 2 Frith books - View photos of Retford
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Retford and Nottinghamshire
Retford memories
Read and share memories of Retford and Nottinghamshire inspired by Frith photos
my days at Sir Frederick Milner 1942 -45
The teachers were `Zorra` Hardy,`Percy` Noble, `Gunner` Meadows, `Musha`Pitt and Harry Firth. The Headmaster was Mr Hewitt. Ken Barkworth used to come home on leave from the army and take us for PT in the hall and I used to box him.
My class mates were Donald Backhouse, Donald Levick ,Frank Taylor, Gordon Blake, Bert Mellors and Frank Wilson. I played football for the school in goal.
The most famous pupil was Peter Jarvis who went on to swim for England in the Olympics. The Yarmouth evacuees came and started their own school and we used to go 9am.-till 11.0am and 1.0pm - 3.0pm and they went 11am-1.0pm and 3.0pm till 5.0pm.
I travelled from ...read more here
Contributed by clifford charlesworth
WW11 Leeds evacuees.
I was one of so many 10 year olds that arrived in East Retford Sept 1939. I was so lucky to have been cared for by caring loving families in Retford for five years. The most happiest childhood memories of my life. I have cherished those memories for the the last 69 years. God Bless East Retford.
Contributed by First Name Last Name
Remembrance Day
It was in the mid 50s that I went with my Grandmother to the Remembrance Day services held at the War Memorial. There were a group of WW1 veterans in a line and as a young child it was a surprise to me that they were crying. When I grew up and learnt what had been the horror of that war I understood.
My Grandmother had several cousins who died and whose names were on there. She pointed them out to me, but I do not remember them. In my mind's eye, I can see the scene. Remembrance Day remains an emotional time for me and I'm sure it goes back to those Sundays in November.
Remembrance Day
It was in the mid 50s that I went with my Grandmother to the Remembrance Day services held at the War Memorial. There were a group of WW1 veterans in a line and as a young child it was a surprise to me that they were crying. When I grew up and learnt what had been the horror of that war I understood.
My Grandmother had several cousins who died and whose names were on there. She pointed them out to me, but I do not remember them. In my mind's eye, I can see the scene. Remembrance Day remains an emotional time for me and I'm sure it goes back to those Sundays in November.
Extracts From Retford & Nottinghamshire books
A little further along
Hospital Road the
Chesterfield Canal passes
under the road; the bridge
was rebuilt some thirty
years ago. This view looks
towards the bridge from
below West Retford Lock,
and beyond is Bettison
Wharf, the pantile-roofed
late 18th-century canal
warehouse. This has now
gone, to be replaced by the
caretaker’s house for the
Elizabethan High School,
whose grounds are behind
the fence on the left.
An extract from from"Nottinghamshire Living Memories".
The Sir Frederick Milner School
was built as a secondary
modern school in the south-
east of the town, amid a maze
of narrow streets. In 1977,
when the schools of Retford
became comprehensive, it
was renamed King Edward
VI School, merging with the
original grammar school which
had been founded in the 1550s
in Edward VI’s reign. Rebuilt on
London Road in the 1850s, the
old grammar school buildings
survive as the other campus
of Edward VI School after the
merger with the Milner.
An extract from from"Nottinghamshire Living Memories".
The village of West
Retford, with its own
medieval parish
church, St Michael’s,
lies on the west bank
of the River Idle,
and has long been
absorbed into the
town. Holy Trinity
Hospital stands
opposite the mainly
1669 West Retford
Hall. Almshouses
rather than a hospital
in the modern sense,
it was founded in
1671 and rebuilt
in the 1820s with
a central chapel of
1872. Until the 1970s,
the elderly residents
or ‘brethren’ wore
cloaks when out and
about in the town.
An extract from from"Nottinghamshire Living Memories".
Frith’s photographer was outside St Swithun’s churchyard, looking through Cannon Square towards
the south-east arm of the Market Square and the 18th-century White Hart. The cannon was captured
at Sebastopol in 1855 and mounted here in 1859, when the area was renamed Cannon Square. During
World War II it and the distinctive iron railings were dismantled and stored, thus escaping being
melted down for Spitfires, and reinstated in 1949. Much of the distant area is now pedestrianised.
An extract from from"Nottinghamshire Living Memories".
Grove Street runs east from
the Market Square, a mix
of 18th- and 19th-century
buildings, and a mix of shops
and houses. Several of the
houses are 18th-century,
and are occupied, as in most
small towns, by solicitors,
including the one on the left
with the bow windows. In the
distance is the domineering
1000-seater Methodist church
of 1880; it is by the same
architect as the Town Hall, and
in a similarly overblown style.
An extract from from"Nottinghamshire Living Memories".