The place-name 'Market Rasen' is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as Rase, Rasa and Resne. The name derives from the Old Englishræsn meaning 'plank', and is thought to refer to a plank bridge. The river name 'Rase' is a back-formation. Originally "Rasen", as it is known locally, was called "East Rasen", "Rasen Parva" or "Little Rasen". Market Rasen's community fire and police station opened December 2005. It is one of the first purpose-built combined fire and police stations in the UK.
Geography
The town centre has a homogeneous 19th-century redbrick appearance of mainly Georgian and Victorian architecture, centred on a market place with a medieval church, restored in the 19th century. The River Rase flows through the town and is crossed by Jameson Bridge, Caistor Road Bridge and Crane Bridge. In 2011 it was one of the towns chosen for the Portas Review of small-town retailing business.
Education
Market Rasen's secondary school is De Aston School, a co-educational 11-18 former comprehensive school now an academy member with approximately 1,300 pupils, including day pupils and boarders. It was founded in 1863 as a small grammar school as part of a legal settlement following a court case involving funds from the medieval charity of Thomas de Aston, a 13th-century monk. Within the Market Rasen area are Market Rasen Church of England School, Middle Rasen School and Pre-school and schools at Osgodby, Faldingworth and Legsby. Market Rasen Church of England Primary School is the biggest school in the area and is near to the centre of the town: it was built in the 1930s and was a secondary school until 1974, when the primary school moved to the site. Middle Rasen School is within of Market Rasen town centre. The independent Middle Rasen Nursery is situated on the site of the school, and provides progression to full-time education.
On 27 February 2008 a significant earthquake had its epicentre approximately north-west from Market Rasen, near the neighbouring parish of Middle Rasen. The earthquake, which according to the British Geological Survey measured 5.2 on the Richter Scale, struck at a depth of and was felt across much of the UK from Edinburgh to Plymouth, and as far away as Bangor in Northern Ireland and Haarlem in the Netherlands. The 10-second quake was the largest recorded example in the United Kingdom since the 1984 Llŷn Peninsula earthquake struck North Wales, measuring 5.4. There were no recorded local injuries and only one recorded injury elsewhere in the UK, in South Yorkshire, when a chimney was dislodged from a house roof, falling down through the house's roof and landing on the male resident, who was in bed at the time, causing a broken pelvis.
Community
Market days are Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. On each Tuesday there is an auction of goods and produce, and on the first Tuesday of every month, a farmers' market. Every Friday the Women's Institute holds a country market. The town newspaper is the weekly Market Rasen Mail, which was founded in 1856. It is published by Johnston Press.
