"I think Scrooby is better known on the Atlantic side" says Scrooby resident Malcolm Dolby.
Scrooby's link to the Separatists was overlooked for 250 years after the initial Mayflower voyage. It was not until the Victorian period, around 1860, that relatives retracing their roots back to the area visited Scrooby. The largest number of people to visit the village came in 1970 on the 350th anniversary of the crossing. There is a monument at Immingham, between Grimsby and Hull and a number of plaques dedicated to the Separatists in Scrooby itself.
According to Malcolm Dolby all three were actually cast in Boston, Massachusetts. The first plaque was presented during a visit by Congregational Church members in 1891, the second on the 300th anniversary of the departure of the Mayflower and the third dates from 1977 when a party came over from America as part of the international congregational fellowship. They held a short service in front of the Manor house and the plaque was unveiled.
For such a small, seemingly insignificant place, Scrooby produced, and nurtured, the thoughts and beliefs of a few men and women who set out to form a small idealistic colony and whose influence is still evident in the religious beliefs of America.
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