About the Parish

This Parish Council is in the county of Nottinghamshire and in the district of Bassetlaw The A638 and River Idle run through the five villages which make up the Parish Council.

Until the 1960s the A638 was the Great North Road and the Grade II listed Markham Moor Inn has stood alongside it for 350 years and was probably a coaching inn in the days when horse-drawn coaches used this route from London to York. West of Markham Moor the village of West Drayton runs alongside the A1. North of Markham Moor is the village of Rockley where, in the 19th century, 5 of the 13 cottages in Mill Lane were occupied by chair makers, two of whom stamped their names on the edge of the chair seats. The road then passes the new Gamston Primary School opened in 2005. In the village of Eaton the Hall originally part of the Duke of Newcastle’s estate was used as a maternity hospital during WWII, became a teacher training college and is now a Muslim educational facility.

The Rivers Maun and Meden provide the only instance in England of two rivers merging, splitting and then joining together again. The second confluence is in West Drayton parish and shortly after wards the river Poulter joins them to form the river Idle. This then flows north through Gamston and Eaton, whose residents have created a mosaic depicting the village as part of a very attractive riverside garden, on its way to joining the Trent at East Stockwith.