Newark: 'I took a trip to one of the finest towns in England - less than an hour away from Yorkshire'

Forty years on, and it still is, despite further blots appearing over the intervening few decades – the inevitable nail bars, vape shops and tattoo parlours.

The small market town was recently named best place to live in Nottinghamshire by the luxury lifestyle website Muddy Stilettoes. And – thanks not least to its collection of medieval, Tudor, Georgian and Victorian buildings – it’s been given Historic England funding to preserve its heritage.

Driving down the A1 or taking the train from Yorkshire, you can’t miss the soaring spire of St Mary Magdalene parish church. The county’s tallest, it is, according to Thorold "without question one of the greatest medieval churches in England”. Sadly, it’s closed at the moment for essential maintenance, but there’s still plenty to see in and around Newark and neighbouring Southwell.

My husband and I were staying at Thoresby Hall, 20 miles away. The Grade I- listed stately home, surrounded by Thoresby Park and Sherwood Forest, was built in the mid-19th century for the 3rd Earl Manvers. It was eventually sold to the National Coal Board by the sixth earl’s daughter, Lady Rozelle Raynes.

Twenty-five years ago, it was rescued from Historic England’s ‘at risk’ register by Warner Leisure Hotels and transformed into a 220-bedroom country-house hotel. And they’ve done it proud, returning it to its earlier splendour, especially in The Blue Room, with its fine Wedgwood blue and gilt ceiling and cherub-scattered silk wallpaper, and the oak-panelled library.

The sumptuous Great Hall, meanwhile, still has its minstrels’ gallery, sweeping staircase and enormous marble fireplace topped by the Manvers cost of arms. No wonder parts of the hall were used as locations for the 1999 BBC adaptation of Great Expectations.

I’m not the only one to be impressed. “In the old days,” says a fellow guest, here with her husband from Driffield, “people like us would have been on the outside looking in. We wouldn’t have been allowed to come anywhere near this. Now we’re on the inside looking out.”

Back in Newark, the cobbled Market Place is still ‘one of the grandest in England’, as Thorold described it. Tucked into one corner is the medieval timber-framed Old White Hart, its peach-coloured paintwork studded with statues of saints.

In another is G. H. Porter Provisions, the 130-year-old butcher’s business whose closure a year ago was mourned far and wide but which has now reopened under new owners. At the far end is the handsome 18th Century Town Hall, designed by York architect John Carr shortly after working on Harewood House.

Outside are Doric columns and a balustraded balcony. Inside is a beautifully proportioned 18th century Assembly Room and the Museum and Art Gallery (visitnewark.co.uk). The museum is devoted mainly to the town’s civic history, while the gallery showcases work by artists with local connections.

Among them are Sir William Nicholson, father of artist Ben Nicholson and father-in-law of sculptor Barbara Hepworth, and painter and sculptor Robert Kiddey, who for 50 years taught at the technical college here.

He also exhibited at the Royal Academy and Paris Salon, alongside Picasso, Augustus John, Eric Gill and Jacob Epstein. ‘He often seemed to be teetering on the brink of major international success,’ as a caption puts it.

Newark is also home to the National Civil War Centre (www.nationalcivilwarcentre.com) which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year.

The centre traces the important role this Royalist stronghold played in the Civil War. Besieged three times, it gave refuge to King Charles I before his surrender at The Saracen’s Head in Southwell.

The town’s social history is also explored, including such curiosities as a scold’s bridle, eel spears and a disturbing 17th Century Plague doctor costume, complete with black bird beak mask to protect its wearer from infectious coughs and sneezes.

Another gallery is devoted to the town’s strong Polish connections. Nearly 400 members of the Polish Armed Forces were, after all, buried in the local cemetery after the Second World War, including General Sikorski, commander in chief of the Polish forces, and three Polish presidents in exile.

Leaving Newark for Southwell, we pass the ruins of the 12th Century riverside castle, where King John died of ‘a surfeit of peaches’, and the striking Ossington Coffee House, a former temperance hotel.

Southwell, just eight miles away, centres around the Gothic-style Minster (www.southwellminster.org), with its famous ‘Leaves of Southwell’: 13th Century stone carvings of plants, people and animals. Architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner labelled them ‘a miracle’.

Glance upwards and Patrick Reyntiens’ stunning golden Angel Window depicts 300 celestial beings glowing with heavenly light. A more modest stained-glass window celebrates 200 years of Southwell’s famous Bramley apple.

And, at different ends of the social scale, the town was once home to Lord Byron (whose first poems were printed in Newark) and to a 19th Century workhouse, now owned by the National Trust.

Back at Thoresby Hall, we continue the Upstairs Downstairs theme, taking afternoon tea on elegant white and gold china in opulent surroundings. And it’s not at all bad, being on the inside looking out.

A two-night break at Thoresby Hotel & Spa costs from £204pp, while a three-night break costs from £259pp. Thoresby Hall, Thoresby Park, nr Ollerton, Notts NG22 9WH: (www.warnerleisurehotels.co.uk/hotels/thoresby-hall-hotel)​​​​​​​