It has been a busy and, on balance, a positive week for Worksop and the wider Bassetlaw district. From the relief of a missing-person appeal that ended well, through a major investment announcement for the town centre, to a statement football win at the weekend, there has been plenty to follow. Here is your Worksop Wire round-up.
🟢 The story everyone wanted to end well: Matthew Martin found safe
The week began with an urgent appeal and ended with relief. Nottinghamshire Police confirmed that 38-year-old Matthew Martin from Gateford, who had been missing since Sunday 5 April, had been located safe and well. His family thanked the community for sharing the appeal far and wide. Residents across Worksop, Retford and the wider Bassetlaw area helped spread the word on social media and keep an eye out for Matthew during the nine days he was missing.
💷 £120,000 for Worksop town-centre businesses
Bassetlaw District Council and the Worksop Together Board launched three new grant schemes worth a combined £120,000, aimed at filling empty shop units and helping existing independents upgrade their shopfronts. The money – part of the broader £20 million Pride in Place programme allocated to Worksop over the next ten years – is split across three pots:
- High Street Shop Fit Out Grant – up to £15,000 for new businesses moving into vacant premises
- Worksop Shop Frontage Grant – up to £10,000 for frontage upgrades
- High Street Business Support Grant – up to £3,000 for marketing, websites and e-commerce
Applications are first-come, first-served.
🎭 Retford bids to become UK's first Town of Culture
Retford has officially submitted its bid to become the first ever UK Town of Culture under the government's newly launched national scheme. Led by the Retford Town Centre Partnership Board and backed by Bassetlaw District Council, the submission highlights the Illuminate Festival, the town's Christmas Lights Switch-On, and Retford's Pilgrim Fathers heritage. The winning town will take home £3 million for a six-month cultural programme in 2028. A shortlist is due in the spring.
🏥 Bassetlaw & Doncaster neonatal story
A powerful story from the Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (DBTH) this week: Leanne, whose daughter Amelia spent nine weeks in NICU, has trained as a perinatal support volunteer and is now helping other Bassetlaw and Doncaster families through the same experience. It's a reminder that DBTH – which runs Bassetlaw Hospital on Kilton Hill – provides the same network of perinatal mental health support and peer groups to Worksop and Retford families as it does in Doncaster.
👉 Leanne's story and support signposting
🏛️ Priory Gatehouse restoration reaches a milestone
The ongoing restoration of Worksop Priory Gatehouse, one of the town's oldest and most important heritage buildings, is making visible progress. Bassetlaw MP Jo White toured the site to see the work being carried out by Pinnacle Group and Heritage Lincolnshire, funded through the Historic England Capital Fund Grant Scheme. Once complete, the medieval gatehouse is expected to reopen as a community space.
💛 Aurora Wellbeing Centre: charity shop gets a refresh
Jo White MP also visited the Aurora Wellbeing Centre – Worksop's dedicated cancer and long-term health support hub in the Old Library Building – to see the newly refurbished Aurora Charity Shop and thank the volunteers behind the project. The charity, founded in 2002 and expanded into Worksop in 2011, provides free counselling, complementary therapies, exercise and wellbeing support to people living with cancer and their families.
♿ Clarborough Parish Pastures gets a wheelchair-accessible picnic table
A lovely feel-good community story from Clarborough: a wheelchair-accessible picnic table has been installed at Clarborough and Welham Parish Pastures, funded by a £700 community grant from Bassetlaw District Councillor Fraser McFarland. It's a small but meaningful step towards making local green spaces more inclusive.
🏠 Renters, landlords: the rules are changing on 1 May
A major shake-up of private renting in England is coming into force on 1 May 2026. We published a full explainer on what Bassetlaw tenants and landlords need to know – including the abolition of Section 21 'no-fault' evictions, the move to periodic tenancies, the new landlord Ombudsman, the national landlord register, the Decent Homes Standard extension to private rentals, and tenants' right to request permission to keep pets.
🚮 Fly-tipping crackdown – and how to report it locally
Bassetlaw MP Jo White welcomed the government's new national fly-tipping crackdown, which includes penalty points on drivers' licences, 20 hours of community clean-up work for offenders, and a new national drone team to catch illegal dumpers. We also published a companion piece on the correct ways to report anti-social behaviour in Bassetlaw – through the council's ASB team, Crimestoppers, or Fearless for under-18s.
👉 The fly-tipping piece
👉 How to report ASB in Bassetlaw
📻 Jo White MP on BBC Radio 4's Today programme
Bassetlaw MP Jo White appeared on BBC Radio 4's flagship current-affairs programme, discussing concerns about individuals attempting to circumvent the UK asylum system. Listeners can catch up via BBC Sounds.
🛒 Our local guide to the best farm shops near Worksop
Following news that British farm shops now generate a combined £1.4 billion in annual sales, we published a local guide to the five best farm shops within easy reach of Worksop and Bassetlaw – Welbeck Farm Shop, Arrow Farm Shop, The Country Victualler, Anston Grange, and Thaymar Ice Cream & Tearoom.
💪 Bannatyne Worksop celebrates a record year
The Bannatyne Health Club on Retford Road reported a record-breaking year, as the UK fitness industry hit an all-time high in membership.
📚 Retford Book Festival returns with 22 events in June
Retford's Book Festival is back, bigger than last year, with 22 literary events across the town centre from Saturday 6 June to Sunday 14 June, at venues including Grove Street Methodist Church, St Saviour's Church and Idle Valley Nature Reserve.
⚽ The Tigers' roar: Worksop Town 8-0 Peterborough Sports
The weekend belonged to the Tigers. Worksop Town wrapped up their final home game of the season with an emphatic 8-0 demolition of Peterborough Sports at the Windsor Foodservice Stadium on Saturday. Oli Greaves grabbed a brace inside 11 minutes, Mason O'Malley and Szhem Whyte-Hall added further goals before the opposition had a chance to regroup. The result confirmed the Tigers' survival in their league in the most emphatic fashion possible.
🏪 New: the Worksop Wire Business Directory
Behind the scenes this week we also launched our free Worksop & Bassetlaw Business Directory, with more than 59 local businesses already listed – from longstanding independents like C.W. Waddington menswear (est. 1930) and Chris's Quality Butchers to local hospitality favourites like The Olive Grove, Piccolo Espresso Bar and The Mallard at Worksop station. Every listing includes address, contact details, opening hours and social links.
Own a Worksop or Bassetlaw business? Add your free listing here.
⚖️ On court outcomes
A brief note on court outcomes, which readers have asked about: the only court material on our desks this week was a police.uk aggregate summary for the Worksop area for February 2026 showing 78 formal-action outcomes (65 awaiting court, 10 local resolutions, 2 cautions, 1 deemed not in the public interest). That is useful context but not a named-case update. There have been no new named Bassetlaw court sentencings published to the public record since the Kobi Shaw and Jayvon Baker sentencings we covered earlier this month. We will continue to monitor daily.
👀 Looking ahead
- 1 May 2026 – The new Renters' Rights rules come into force across England. Expect a busy few weeks of landlord/tenant questions at Citizens Advice Bassetlaw.
- Spring – The UK Town of Culture shortlist is due. Fingers crossed for Retford.
- 6-14 June – Retford Book Festival, 22 events across the town.
- Ongoing – Worksop Priory Gatehouse restoration continues, with a reopening planned as a community space.
📨 Tell us what we missed
Spotted something we should be covering? A new business opening, a council meeting with real consequences, a road issue, a celebration? We want to hear from you. Use our anonymous Tip Line or email the newsroom directly. Worksop Wire is independent local news, for Worksop, by Worksop.
