page_title: Retford
section_title: Origins of the name
hierarchical_section_title: Retford / History / Origins of the name
caption_attribution_description: English: Bridgegate Retford. This bridge joins East and West Retford
context_page_description: Retford, also known as East Retford, is a market town in Nottinghamshire, England, 31 miles from Nottingham, and 23 miles west of Lincoln. The population at the 2011 census was 22,013. The town is in the valley of the River Idle and the Chesterfield Canal passes through the centre. The village of Ordsall, west of the River Idle and the East Coast Main Line railway, and the former hamlet of Thrumpton are suburbs. Retford is administered by Bassetlaw District Council, which itself is now a non-constituent partner member of the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority. Retford is twinned with Pfungstadt, Germany.
context_section_description: The origins of the town's name are unknown and have been subject to much debate, but consensus seems to conclude that it gets its name from an ancient ford crossing the River Idle. There is considerable variation in how its name has been spelt historically, although in early usage it is usually styled as Redeforde or Redforde. A common explanation of the name is that the river water was tinged red due to the frequent crossing of people and livestock disturbing the clay river bed. Other traditions include that it refers to the reeds that are plentiful in the river, or that the name references the Battle of the River Idle which was said to tinge the Idle red with blood.
  Wilmshurst proposes another theory as to the origin of the name:
  "In the days of the Roman occupation of Britain, a great Roman Road, or "Strada"— Street— ran from Southampton to Derby, Little Chester, Chesterfield, Castleford, Pontefract, to Eboracum, or York: and from it, at Chesterfield, branched out a "Street" to the Roman Station of Lindum, or Lincoln, which crossed the River Trent at Agelocum, now Littleborough, and the River Idle by a Ford, still used as a watering place for horses, near West Retford Bridge; hence the place would be known as the Street-Ford, or Streteford."
  — Wilmshurst, Edwin, "The History of the Old Hall of the Manor of West Retford"
  The historical importance of the town as a river crossing is underlined by the fact that one of the main streets is named 'Bridgegate'.
  The official name of the town is still East Retford, although this refers only to the historically larger of the two settlements on either side of the Idle. The inhabitants of the town and the people in the surrounding area traditionally refer to the town simply as 'Retford'.
caption: Bridgegate in Retford, showing the Idle Bridge
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