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The area history predates Roman times, but it was probably the
Anglian ‘Gainas’ tribe who, in the 6th century first
settled on the site of what is now the present day town.
The earliest notice of Gainsborough, or Gainsburgh was during the
Saxon Heptarchy. During the unsettled period, it took part along
with the other towns in the calamities of war, sometimes forming
part of the Kingdom of Northumbria, and at others being included
with that of Mercia; and being a frontier town, it doubtless was
exposed to more frequent assaults to which the Trent formed but
a feeble barrier. The town suffered considerably from the ravages
of the Danes, and when Sweyne, (Forkbeard) King of Denmark, in 1013,
brought his vessels up the Trent, and landed his forces in the town,
the whole of Northumbria, together with Lindsey, submitted to his
‘yoke’.
Sweyne died the following year at Gainsborough. His son Canute,
better known of tide turning fame, used every means to secure the
advantages his father had gained and rendered great assistance by
the Lindissians, but Ethelred, whom the Saxons induced to return
from Normandy, fell upon the Danes and compelled them to abandon
Gainsborough. At this period the Danes greatly outnumbered the English.
The Domesday Survey of 1086 recorded only eighty people. However,
the town grew, and during the Middle Ages emerged as a major wool
centre with a thriving port until the advent of the railways in
1849.
In the early part of the reign of Charles1, the town was of such
importance as to induce the king to place it under the government
of the Earl of Kingston. On 20th July 1643, Lord Willoughby of Parham,
a zealous partisan of the Parliament, obtained possession of the
town and imprisoned the Governor whom he sent to Hull but, in crossing
the Humber, the boat was seen by the Royalists who fired several
shots in an attempt to make a rescue, accidentally killing the removed
governor.
The Parliamentarians did not retain possession of the town for long,
for the Marquis of Newcastle arrived shortly after with a large
body of troops, compelling surrender, and appointed a Royalist Governor,
Colonel St George. However, eight days later, Oliver Cromwell on
his way to York routed the Royal forces, when General Cavendish,
their commander, and Colonel Markham of Allerton, were slain in
the conflict. A monument to this battle can be seen today on Foxby
Hill being the area of the rout. Although by no means a major Civil
War battle, it was one of Cromwell’s earliest field engagements
in which his strategic excellence was recognised.
The town steadily grew during the 17th century. Gainsborough achieved
the status of a port in 1841, and seven years later a Danish Vice-Consul
had taken up residence in the town. With the advent of the railways
came Marshall Sons and Co. Ltd., the engineering company founded
by William Marshall in 1848. By 1857 Marshalls was exporting boilers
as far away as Russia, and by 1900 employed a work force of 4000.
This company together with that of William Rose vied with each other
to employ the engineering talents of the local people. William Rose
was the inventor of the first packaging machine, and a plaque commemorating
this achievement can be seen in the town centre.
Earlier timber framed buildings have been replaced by the red brick
that characterises the town today. Only the Old Hall survives from
that age of timber.
A notable feature is the River Trent with its ‘Aegir’,
a tidal bore which comes up from the lower reaches attaining a height
of several feet at the time of the Spring Tides. It is said the
George Eliot, on a visit to the area in the mid 1800’s, may
have been inspired by the unpredictable nature of the river with
its tidal bore, influenced the drama behind the catastrophic flood
in her novel, 'The Mill on the Floss’. Readers may recognise
the fictional town of St Oggs as Gainsborough, and local’s
continue the association, for example The St Oggs Society, and Tullivers
Tea-Rooms on the riverside.
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Introducing Gainsborough
Gainsborough
