| |
|
 |
 |
|
|
 |
My tour ends in the market town of Retford, with Babworth just a mile from the centre of the town to the West.
Here the river Idle divides the town into East and West Retford with the main market square and the museum in East Retford
|
|
|
|
|
St. Swithun's Church in East Retford is a magnificent late gothic building. It was restored after the tower collapsed in 1651 and again restored in 1854 -1855
|
|
The east window of St. Swithun's Church has tracery which is an excellent display of Victorian historicising design.
|
Not far from Epworth, the birthplace of John and Charles Wesley, the Methodist chapels in this area include the East Retford Methodist Church, now one hundred twenty-five years old.
Chapel architecture is sometimes distinctly non-medieval, although some of the sculptural details on this imposing building, such as the central window, have origins in the nineteenth-century revival of gothic architecture.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The West Retford Hotel, a late Georgian manor house, retains elegant interiors as meeting rooms, bar, and restaurant. Comfortable bedrooms are in a modern wing.
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Bassetlaw Museum and Percy Laws Memorial Gallery in East Retford occupies Amcott House, built in 1770-1780. This mansion has ceilings with refined sculptural decoration in the style of Robert Adam. The museum is a comprehensive local history museum with a wide range of interesting collections housed in rooms of provincial Georgian elegance.
In the drawing room, also known as the music room, wall paintings recall idyllic Italian landscapes from the Grand Tour that many English gentlemen undertook as a continuation of (or alternative to) their further education.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Fine collections of eighteenth-century glass and ceramics are displayed near the landscapes, beneath the musical instruments depicted in the sculptured ceiling.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Archaeological collections include ancient pottery, a two-thouand year-old dugout canoe, and part of a Roman sarcophagus. Elsewhere in the house are nineteenth-century agricultural implements, toys, and a school room.
|
On the stair landing, William Brewster wonders what the world is coming to and why he was left behind.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
