Retford - The Broadstone or is it 'Breadstone'?

Above and Below: The Broadstone on its 'modern' plinth outside Retford Town Hall

A Relic of the Great Plague, 1665

We know it today as the Broadstone, but it is perhaps better described by its earlier nomenclature as the Breadstone.

 Situated on a 'modern' plinth in the market place outside Retford Town Hall, the stone has been recorded as appearing in various locations around Retford during its long history.  What is clear, however, is that in its original guise, it would have been located a considerable distance away from its current town centre location - as the following precis from a note in the Notts & Derbys Notes & Queries periodical for 1892 makes clear.

The article begins by referring to what happened in London in the Great Plague Year of 1665, and how many inhabitants escaped the dangers of the infected city. 

Fleeing into the surrounding country, they soon found that the country people would not have any dealings with them in case they caught the plague: they would give nothing, nor take any money as it was feared that coins might carry the infection too.  Eventually a workable mode of barter was created.

It was arranged for the 'evacuees' to place money for the purchase of bread etc on a stone at a distance from any settlement.  He /she should then retire, and after some hours - a sort of quarantine - the trader would take the money and leave the bread.

Thus we have the Broadstone - or Breadstone - in use at Retford when it too was hit by the plague.

Some accounts also refer to the hollow atop the Broadstone being filled with vinegar in a  further attempt to 'sanitise' the coins left there.