Local Roads and Railways

LOCAL ROADS

Until the middle ages, travellers journeying between the Midlands and the Vale of York could use the Roman road from Doncaster to Lincoln (reaching Ermine Street or the Fosse Way), via Bawtry and the ford across the Trent at Littleborough. An alternative route to the Midlands was the forest road from Bawtry to Nottingham (the present A614). In early medieval times, a more direct route from London to the North was developed (the Great North Road) which brought onto the route a number of chartered market towns (e.g. Stamford, Grantham, Newark), and this road ran through the centre of Scrooby and along the line of Mill Lane before joining the old forest road near Hawk’s Nest south of Bawtry. In 1766, improvements were made to the road, Retford was brought onto the route, and the new road was put under the administration of a turnpike trust, with a toll-gate between Scrooby and Bawtry at the location later known as Gibbet Hill. The present main road through the village (the A638) is the turnpike road of 1766, and cuts across the earlier village pattern.