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".
St Thomas's church
In the 19thcentury, touring theatrical companies performed in theatres in the town. David Grose opened 'a very neat and comfortable theatre' in 1834. In May 1844, the Giffords performed in the town.
Market Rasen's community fire and police station opened in December 2005.
Market Rasen is served by a railway station which opened in 1848.
1964 Vickers Valiant crash
Vickers Valiant 'WZ363' crashed on Wednesday 6 May 1964 at 11:41p.m. It had flown from RAF Marham, having taken off at 7p.m. It crashed near the B1202, around 400 yards south of the railway station, on the southern edge of the town, close to the fire station. There was a square mile of debris. People had seen an aircraft engine on fire.
The roof of the town's Methodist chapel was alight, which took a half hour to extinguish. Showers of sparks landed on the Wold View Estate, built in 1953, on the south-west of the town, as the aircraft flew over at roof-top height.
Search parties went out to look, but it was raining too much. Fire engines attended from Rasen and Wragby, with the Deputy Chief Fire Officer for Lindsey in attendance. There was a 25ft deep crater. Around 100 people from the town visited the scene that night, out of curiosity.
There is a May 2010 memorial on the northbound platform of the railway station
Pilot - Flt Lt Francis Christopher Welles (10 May 1937 - May 1964), 26, from Ferring Close in Ferring, West Sussex; the son of Francis Channing Welles, he attended Dean Close School from 1950-55 in Cheltenham, and played hockey for Scotland in April 1962 against England for the Combined Services Hockey XI in 1962, and for the RAF, against the Switzerland national team, when a Pilot Officer at RAF Hack Green in 1956 and for the England Schools XI in 1955 and for Hampstead and for Gloucestershire in 1958
On 27 February 2008, a significant earthquake had its epicentre approximately 2.5 miles (4.0km) north-west of 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 11.6 miles (18.7km) 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.
Geography
The River Rase flows through the town from east to west and is crossed by Waterloo Street at Crane Bridge.
In 2011, it was one of the towns chosen for the Portas Review of small-town retailing businesses.
Demographics
At the 2021 census, the civil parish had a population of 4,087 people in 2,023 households.
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 formerly 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.
↑"Key Statistics". Office for National Statistics. Tables KS001 (Usual resident population) and KS016 (Household spaces and accommodation type). Retrieved 23 June 2025.
↑"Parish Profiles". Office for National Statistics. GSS E04006016 (Market Rasen parish) in tables PP001 (households) and PP002 (sex). Retrieved 5 August 2024.
