Local knowledge to help make your stay in Robin Hood Country extra special

Pilgrim Tours provides tours around the Pilgrim Trail. Find out more at www.pilgrimtours.co.uk

The Pilgrim Fathers

On 5 August 1620, the 'Mayflower' left Southampton with the Pilgrim Fathers and headed for the New World, North America. The Protestant Reformation, which had begun in 1517 in Europe, had reached England some twenty years later and spawned dissenting minorities including the Puritans. The Puritan movement was stong in North Nottinghamshire and many of the Pilgrim Fathers leaders on the epic voyage aboard the Mayflower, had well documented lives in the Nottinghamshire villages.

The Pilgrim Trail takes a circular tour exploring the areas where the Puritans lived and worked, visiting their homes, the churches and their meeting places, and attempting to understand why so many risked their lives in a search for a better world. These Pilgrims founded the USA that we know today.

The Pilgrim Fathers tour can be started at any point on the route, but Babworth at the Southern end is where we start, here Richard Clifton was parson at All Saints from 1586 to 1605, from here head north via Barnby Moor to Scrooby.

The Pilgrim Fathers Inn in Scrooby has a supply of literature related to this village where William Brewster was raised. Later Brewsters home became the meeting place for the separatist movement.

Further North lies the village of Austerfield, a stop off in Bawtry to browse the quaint old town is well worth it!! William Bradford was born in the village of Austerfield in the winter of 1589/1590. As a young man he was fascinated by the scriptures and was inspired by the preaching of Clyfton.

Heading East to Gainsborough, the route passes through villages with connections to the Pilgrims including Everton and the picturesque Gringly-on-the-Hill. 

Gainsborough Old Hall, an impressive timber framed medieval manor house, was used for regular meetings of the Pilgrim Fathers. Home to the Hickman family from 1596 until 1720, the Hickmans had sympathy for the organization. It is likely that the meetings would have attracted others from the town and surrounding villages who would not have made the voyage on the Mayflower.

In Retford Museum is a figure of William Brewster, one of the Pilgrim Fathers leaders, and it is possible to find out more about how life was for the ordinary working folk of the time. Also of interest in the museum are the local Roman artifacts from Littleborough and surrounding areas and an ancient boat.

From here the route returns to Babworth and the start of the tour.

In total the tour is around 25 miles and takes you through some of the most unspoilt countryside in the UK, but with some unique sites such as the Power Stations along the Trent Valley.

Enjoy.

Scrooby Church

Gainsborough Old Hall

Retford Museum