Worksop: History of the Priory has played a big part in the town’s heritage

The Christian heritage of Bassetlaw really starts in the year 627, when King Edwin of Northumbria and Saint Paulinus joined in the baptism of hundreds in the River Trent at Littleborough.

Only six years later, Edwin was killed in the Battle of Hatfield, which some believe took place near Cuckney.

Edwin – later be to be declared a saint – was buried in a hidden spot in the forest from which he was later moved to Whitby, though the name of ‘Edwinstowe’ has survived to commemorate this.

An iron cross in the forest marks the spot where a hermit lived, and therefore possibly where Edwin had been buried until the monk Trimma received a vision telling him to find the body and move it.

When the Normans conquered England they brought a new group of landowners who had grown rich on violence.

As they faced old age, some of these began to hedge their bets by paying for chapels and monasteries so that monks would then pray for their souls.

Worksop Priory was founded in 1103 by William de Lovetot, a Norman baron.