Bassetlaw Museum

Bassetlaw Museum is the district museum for Bassetlaw — the northernmost district of Nottinghamshire, a largely rural area with a remarkable history that includes a direct connection to the Pilgrim Fathers and the founding of America. Housed in Amcott House, an elegant Georgian building on Grove Street in the market town of Retford, the museum offers an entertaining and informative journey through the district's history from prehistoric times to the present day.

Bassetlaw's claim to national and international significance rests on its connection to the Separatist community of the early 17th century that eventually sailed for the New World on the Mayflower in 1620. The villages of Scrooby, Babworth and Austerfield in north Nottinghamshire were the home of William Bradford (later Governor of Plymouth Colony), William Brewster (Elder of the Plymouth church) and other members of the Separatist congregation that eventually became the Pilgrim Fathers. The museum explores this connection with appropriate depth, tracing the journey of these courageous religious dissenters from their Nottinghamshire origins to the founding of Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Amcott House itself is a fine early 18th-century building that adds architectural interest to the museum experience. The house reflects the prosperity of Georgian Retford as a market and coaching town on the Great North Road, and its handsome proportions and period details provide an appropriate setting for the collections within.

Beyond the Pilgrim Fathers connection, the museum covers the full sweep of Bassetlaw's history: the agriculture and landholding that shaped the rural landscape; the industrial heritage of the Idle valley; the medieval market towns and their fairs; the great estates such as Clumber and Thoresby; and the 20th-century history of coal mining and its communities in the western part of the district.

Fine art, decorative arts and natural history round out the collections, making Bassetlaw Museum a genuinely comprehensive local museum serving its community and welcoming visitors to one of Nottinghamshire's least-visited but most historically interesting areas.