Austerfield is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. It is to the north-east of the market town of

Bawtry Bawtry is a market town and civil parish in the City of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England. It lies between Doncaster, Gainsborough and Retford, on the border with Nottinghamshire and close to Lincolnshire. The town is historically part of ...

on the A614 road, and adjacent to the hamlet of Newington in Nottinghamshire, close to the River Idle. The population in 2001 was 571, which fell to 536 at the 2011 Census.

Heritage

The name Austerfield derives from the Germanic ''Ouestraefeld'', meaning Eastern field. The Council of Austerfield was convened here by King

Aldfrith Aldfrith (Early Modern Irish: ''Flann Fína mac Ossu''; Latin: ''Aldfrid'', ''Aldfridus''; died 14 December 704 or 705) was king of Northumbria from 685 until his death. He is described by early writers such as Bede, Alcuin and Stephen of Ripon ...

of Northumbria in AD 702 and attended by

Berhtwald Berhtwald (died 731) was the ninth Archbishop of Canterbury in England. Documentary evidence names Berhtwald as abbot at Reculver before his election as archbishop. Berhtwald begins the first continuous series of native-born Archbishops of Ca ...

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

to decide on whether Saint Wilfrid should become Archbishop of York. Austerfield was then on the border between the two Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia. Austerfield contains the 11th-century church of

St Helena Saint Helena () is a British overseas territory located in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote volcanic tropical island west of the coast of south-western Africa, and east of Rio de Janeiro in South America. It is one of three constitu ...

. The builder of it in 1080 was John de Builli, using stone from quarries at Roche Abbey. The church today has 19th-century several stained-glass windows designed by Charles Eamer Kempe. The nave has a sheela na gig, a rare type of quasi-erotic stone carving of a female figure sometimes found in Norman churches. This had been blocked into a wall in the 14th century and was rediscovered in 1898 during restoration work.Bradford's baptism.
Retrieved 8 May 2020.

Notable people

In birth order: * William Bradford (1590–1657), a

Pilgrim Father The Pilgrims, also known as the Pilgrim Fathers, were the English settlers who came to North America on the '' Mayflower'' and established the Plymouth Colony in what is today Plymouth, Massachusetts, named after the final departure port of Ply ...

and Governor of Plymouth Colony, was born in Austerfield and baptised in a font rediscovered at a local farm 40 years ago, which can now be seen in the church. *

Roy Clarke Royston Clarke Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 28 January 1930), usually known as Roy Clarke, is an English comedy writer best known for creating the sitcoms ''Last of the Summer Wine'', ''Keeping Up Appearances'', ''Open All Hours'' a ...

(born 1930), an English comedy writer known for the sitcoms '' Last of the Summer Wine'' and '' Open All Hours'', was born in Austerfield.

Transport

The nearest railway station to Austerfield is at Doncaster (9½ miles, 15 km). It is served by a bus route, as are Bawtry, Worksop and Sheffield.Bus times.
Retrieved 7 May 2020. The

A1M A1(M) is the designation given to a series of four separate motorway sections in England. Each section is an upgrade to a section of the A1, a major north–south road which connects London, the capital of England, with Edinburgh, the ca ...

trunk road between London and the North passes 5 miles (8 km) to the west of the village.

References

External links

* * Villages in Doncaster Civil parishes in South Yorkshire {{SouthYorkshire-geo-stub