Tuxford is a historic market town and a civil parish in the Bassetlaw district of Nottinghamshire, England. It had a population of 2,813 in the 2021 Census.
Geography
Its nearby towns are Ollerton, Retford, Worksop, Mansfield and Newark-on-Trent. The nearest cities are Lincoln, Sheffield and Doncaster. The town is located near the border with Lincolnshire in The Dukeries.
The A6075 passes through east–west and connects the A57 to Ollerton and Mansfield. The East Coast Main Line passes close to the east. The A611 previously went east–west through the town; this is now the A6075; the A611 now goes from Mansfield to Hucknall.
The Great North Road runs through the town (now B1164), though the majority of traffic now uses the modern A1 trunk road, which splits the town in two. The town was bypassed in 1967. The section of road, known as Carlton to Markham Moor, or the Sutton-on-Trent, Weston and Tuxford Bypass, was built by Robert McGregor & Sons, with concreting aggregates supplied by Hoveringham Gravels (later bought by Tarmac). The eight-mile section was authorised by Tom Fraser with a contract for £2.7 million, but ended up costing £3.4 million. The section is notable for the first use in British construction of the slip form paver using pervious concrete. The bridge sections came from Boulton & Paul Ltd in Norwich.
Tuxford bypass
The proposed (and modest) Tuxford bypass in 1958 was priced at only £204,000, only slightly more than Cromwell at £150,000. In August 1960, the Cromwell to Markham Moor proposed bypass route was completely changed. Previously, the 1950s plan was to merely dual the main road, with a small bypass at Tuxford, and diversions at Weston and Scarthingmoor, but it was realised that all gaps should be closed, and that bridges should instead be built..The Tuxford bypass route was fixed on 16 April 1963, and the new route would leave the former 1950s route midway across the Carlton-on-Trent bypass.
Tuxford Bypass started in early December 1965, and was to finish by late 1966 or in early 1967. Construction started near Markham Moor at Sibthorpe Hill at East Markham. The former roundabout at Markham Moor was previously much more modest, so it was widened; the Markham Moor roundabout was designed for a possible bridge, but traffic flow was not big enough in 1965 for a bridge. The Cromwell bypass was largely finished by December 1965, so the Tuxford bypass started when the Cromwell bypass had finished. The contractor's depot was at Ashvale, to the south of Tuxford, next to the former Tuxford Central railway station. When building the roundabout at Markham Moor, traffic was diverted through East Markham. Concrete was made at Cromwell, being made from a Newark quarry. Wet weather delayed construction in October 1966. Earth-moving equipment came from Shellabear Price of Walton-on-Thames. The bridges were made by Conder (Midlands) Ltd, a structural steelwork company of Burton upon Trent. On Friday 30 September 1966, seventy five people from the International Road Federation, from a conference in London, travelled to Cromwell and Tuxford, to see the new slip form method.
The bypass opened on 14 July 1967, opened by Stephen Swingler, costing £3,035,658. The Tuxford parish council were not invited to the opening, due to long term heated disagreements over a lack of footbridge provision. Stephen Swingler had lunch in the Newcastle Arms. Also at the opening was the chairman of Nottinghamshire County Council, Albert Pounder, and the Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham Gordon Savage. The main road was now a dual-carriageway from Balderton to Bradbury, County Durham. Stephen Swingler also said that a £225,000 bridge for the B6387 at Twyford Bridge, to the north, was being planned, as it was an accident spot, being built around 1972
History
Tuxford is listed in the Domesday Book as Tuxfarne, and was also historically known as 'Tuckers Ford'. In Daniel Defoe's eighteenth century work, A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, Tuxford is referred to as 'Tuxford in the Clays'; Defoe writes: 'Passing Newark Bridge, we went through the lower side of Nottinghamshire, keeping within the River Idle. Here we saw Tuxford in the Clays, that is to say, Tuxford in the Dirt, and a little dirty market town it is, suitable to its name.'