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Just a mile north of Scrooby you cross into south Yorkshire and the market town of Bawtry. In the 12th century it was a warm period for the earth and Bawtry was a port at the head of the river Idle. With current global warming the river may become more prominent in years to come.
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A walk in the town of Bawtry, across the square from the Crown Inn, leads to the parish church of St Nicholas. Several churches in this area have the unusual, late gothic windows like we see here. At the end of the south isle and along the upper story of the nave, the window tracery ends not in a pointed arch but with a flat top.
Richard Clifton, after he was dismissed from his position as pastor at Babworth, preached in Bawtry's church, although without the permission of higher church authorities.
Busy though Bawtry is, with traffic on the old Great North Road, just a block away are quiet little streets and old houses like this with its double bow windows and panelled and arched central doorway from the 18th century. Bawtry Hall, a gracious Grade II listed Manor House, which served as Bomber Command for the RAF for 40 years from 1941 is adjacent to the square. It is now a residential Christian Conference Centre.
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Today rushing cars thunder along a modern highway, drowning out memories of the old Great North Road.
The replacement A1 bypasses Retford, Babworth, Scrooby, Bawtry and Austerfield, but the old route is still used extensively for local traffic.
When William Brewster received the king's messengers at Scrooby Manor House to provide them with meals, overnight lodging and a change of horses, most of the road north was unpaved, especially in mountainous passages. Paved stretches, however, remain today from Roman times.
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The Crown Hotel has been the stopping place for Pilgrim tourists for well over a century. Henry Martyn Dexter, author of The England and Holland of the Pilgrims (1905) wrote , "At Bawtry, the Crown Inn is the best".
The Crown Inn dining room has recently been modernised.
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You leave Bawtry to the east for Gainsborough and before reaching Gringley-on-the-Hill, the road to Gainsborough crosses the river Idle, which joins the river Trent just before the Humber estuary.
In 1608 Pilgrim women and children fled in small boats, following the Idle to the coast. The men made their way overland to the ship that was waiting to take them to Holland.
A century and a half after the Pilgrim's flight into exile, the Chesterfield Canal Company created a waterway to connect the river Trent at Gainsborough with Chesterfield's coal mines to the west. The canal opened on June 4th 1777. Besides transporting coal and bricks, the canal served to bring stone used to build the Houses of Parliament in London. Horse-drawn canal boats accomplished the first part of the journey, then the stone was transferred to coastal ships and brought up the river Thames to London.
Now the canal serves fishermen, bird watchers and canal boat enthusiasts.
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