Market Rasen

Market Rasen (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell) is a market town and civil parish within the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. The River Rase runs through it east to west, approximately Template:Convert north-east from Lincoln, Template:Convert east from Gainsborough, Template:Convert west of Louth, and Template:Convert south-west from Grimsby. It lies on the main road between Lincoln and Grimsby, the A46, and is famous for its racecourse. In 2001, the town had a population of 3,200.<ref name=ukstats>Template:Cite web</ref> In the 2011 census, the population of the civil parish was 3,904.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

History

The place-name 'Market Rasen' is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as Rase, Rasa, and Resne. The name derives from the Old English ræsn meaning 'plank', and is thought to refer to a plank bridge. The river name 'Rase' is a back-formation.<ref>Eilert Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names, p.381.</ref>

Originally "Rasen", as it is known locally, was called "East Rasen", "Rasen Parva" or "Little Rasen".

St Thomas's church

In the 19th century, touring theatrical companies performed in theatres in the town. David Grose opened 'a very neat and comfortable theatre' in 1834. In May 1844, the Giffords performed in the town.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The Corn Exchange was designed by Henry Goddard and completed in 1854.<ref>Template:NHLE</ref>

Market Rasen's community fire and police station opened in December 2005.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Market Rasen is served by a railway station which opened in 1848.<ref> Template:Cite web</ref>

1964 Vickers Valiant crash

Vickers Valiant 'WZ363' crashed on Wednesday 6 May 1964 at 11.41pm. It had flown from RAF Marham, having taken off at 7pm. It crashed near the B1202, around 400 yards south of the railway station, on the southern edge of the town, close to the fire station. There was a square mile of debris. People had seen an aircraft engine on fire. At 12.30am, the street lights would have been switched off, and the Valiant could have landed on the town centre, instead. The sodium vapour streetlights were newly installed.Template:Fact

The roof of the town's Methodist chapel was alight, which took a half hour to extinguish. Showers of sparks landed on the Wold View Estate, built in 1953, on the south-west of the town, as the aircraft flew over at roof-top height. Arthur and Ruby Chantry, and Sidney Cottingham, lived near the crash site.<ref>Grimsby Evening Telegraph Thursday 7 May 1964, page 1</ref><ref>Louth Standard Friday 8 May 1964, page 12</ref>

Search parties went out to look, but it was raining too much.<ref>1964 Vickers Valiant WZ363</ref> Fire engines attended from Rasen and Wragby, with the Deputy Chief Fire Officer for Lindsey in attendance. There was a 25ft deep crater. Around 100 people from the town visited the scene that night, out of curiosity.<ref>Lincolnshire Echo Thursday 7 May 1964, page 1</ref>

There is a May 2010 memorial on the northbound platform of the railway station

• Pilot - Flt Lt Francis Christopher Welles (10 May 1937 - May 1964), 26, from Ferring Close in Ferring, West Sussex; the son of Francis Channing Welles, he attended Dean Close School from 1950-55 in Cheltenham, and played hockey for Scotland in April 1962 against England<ref>Times Monday 30 April 1962, page 4</ref> for the Combined Services Hockey XI in 1962,<ref>Times Saturday 22 December 1962, page 3</ref> and for the RAF,<ref>Times Friday 26 January 1962, page 4</ref><ref>Times Monday 5 February 1962, page 3</ref><ref>Times Monday 26 February 1962, page 3</ref><ref>Worthing Herald Friday 15 May 1964, page 3</ref> against the Switzerland national team, when a Pilot Officer at RAF Hack Green in 1956<ref>Times Friday 5 October 1956, page 14</ref> and for the England Schools XI in 1955<ref>Times Tuesday 29 March 1955, page 3</ref> and for Hampstead<ref>Times Monday 16 October 1961, page 3</ref><ref>Times Monday 29 October 1962, page 4</ref><ref>Times Monday 28 October 1963, page 5</ref> and for Gloucestershire in 1958<ref>Times Friday 12 December 1958, page 16</ref>
• Co-pilot - Flt Lt George Arthur Mills, married with two children, from Orford, Cheshire, attended Beamont Secondary School<ref>Liverpool Echo Friday 8 May 1964, page 7</ref>
• Navigator - Flt Lt John Robert Stringer, 37, married, from Letchworth
• Radio - Flt Lt Leslie Richard Hawkins, 30, of North Wembley
• Air Electronics Officer - Sgt Richard Noble, 25, had married two months previously, from Kings Lynn but lived at Narborough, Norfolk

The following day, an American F-101, from RAF Bentwaters in Suffolk, exploded over the Fort William area, at Kinlochleven. Five days later Avro Vulcan 'XH535' crashed at Chute, Wiltshire, with four killed, but the two pilots had ejected in time.

Geography

The River Rase flows through the town and crosses Waterloo Street at Crane Bridge.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2011, it was one of the towns chosen for the Portas Review of small-town retailing businesses.<ref>Portas Pilots Template:Webarchive</ref>

Education

Market Rasen's secondary school is De Aston School, a co-educational 11–18 former comprehensive school now an academy member with approximately 1,300 pupils, including day pupils and formerly boarders.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It was founded in 1863 as a small grammar school as part of a legal settlement following a court case involving funds from the medieval charity of Thomas de Aston, a 13th-century monk.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The main primary school is the Market Rasen Church of England Primary School.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

February 2008 earthquake

On 27 February 2008, a significant earthquake had its epicentre approximately Template:Convert north-west of Market Rasen, near the neighbouring parish of Middle Rasen. The earthquake, which according to the British Geological Survey measured 5.2 on the Richter Scale, struck at a depth of Template:Convert<ref name=BGS-08-02-29> Seismic Alert: Market Rasen Template:Webarchive, British Geological Survey, 27 February 2008</ref> and was felt across much of the UK from Edinburgh to Plymouth, and as far away as Bangor in Northern Ireland and Haarlem in the Netherlands.<ref name=felt> Template:Cite news</ref> The 10-second quake was the largest recorded example in the United Kingdom since the 1984 Llŷn Peninsula earthquake struck North Wales, measuring 5.4.<ref name=felt/><ref name=bbcmre> Template:Cite news </ref> There were no recorded local injuries and only one recorded injury elsewhere in the UK, in South Yorkshire, when a chimney was dislodged from a house roof, falling down through the house's roof and landing on the male resident, who was in bed at the time, causing a broken pelvis.<ref name=felt/>

Local media

Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and ITV Yorkshire. Television signals are received from the nearby Belmont TV transmitter.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The town newspaper is the weekly Market Rasen Mail, which was founded in 1856.<ref>Market Rasen Mail (2011), ‘Mail delivered centenary news’, 4 May, page 4.</ref>

Local radio stations are BBC Radio Lincolnshire on 94.9 FM, Greatest Hits Radio Lincolnshire on 102.2 FM, DAB radio station, Hits Radio Lincolnshire and County Linx Radio, a community online station.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

People

• The evangelist Ann Carr was born here in 1783
• Bernie Taupin, lyricist and long-term collaborator with Elton John, spent his teenage years here
• Philip Oakes,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> journalist, author and poet died here in 2005
• Jim Broadbent, actor grew up in nearby Holton cum Beckering
• Rod Temperton, hit songwriter for Michael Jackson was at school here
• Philippa Lowthorpe, television director was at school here
• Gordon White, co-founder of Hanson plc grew up here
• Simon Marsden, photographer & baronet lived in the Lincolnshire Wolds nearby
• Roger Scruton, philosopher born in nearby Buslingthorpe
• Harriet Bibby, actress best known for appearing in Coronation Street was born here

See also

• Market Rasen railway station
• Great Grimsby and Sheffield Junction Railway
• Market Rasen Racecourse
• Holy Rood Church, Market Rasen

External links

• Template:Commons category-inline