A proud past, but will high street cash help town move forward?
BBCGainsborough is proud of its past. In the market square, large boards telling the story of more than 1,000 years of history – from the Viking era to the golden age of manufacturing – have been put up in empty shop windows.
But on a weekday morning, the once-bustling town centre is virtually empty.
This week, the government said it would bring boarded-up high streets back to life with £210m of funding to turn derelict buildings into shared workspaces, cafes and community hubs.
The cash will also be invested in revamping buildings at risk, such as pubs and sports clubs.
Is this what Gainsborough needs?
According to townspeople who spoke to the BBC's Politics North show, the quality of shops and the traditional markets are key to the future of the town centre.
For Kimberley Francis, 30, more clothes shops would be welcome, "as we don't have much".
Fellow resident Chelsea Clark, 33, says the markets, which are held twice a week, have shrunk to "not much at all".
"The Market Place is rubbish now and I'd rather go out of town to shop," she says. "We need more opportunities for different kinds of market stalls."
Jackie Moncaster, 62, agrees: "The markets are not the same as they used to be."
Gainsborough has benefited from a number of investments in recent years.
Market Place was given new pots and planting, paid for out of an £18m grant under the previous Conservative government's Levelling Up scheme.
The money was also used to build a walkway to the new Savoy cinema, which sits between the traditional square and the Marshalls Yard shopping centre.
Some in Gainsborough believe that the Yard, which opened in 2007, has drained visitors from the town centre.
But for Geoff Lester, 81, from nearby Upton, it is all about whether people have money to in their pockets.
"Nothing will improve anywhere until people have more money," he says. "At the end of the month you see the drop off because people have spent all their money."
In September 2025, Gainsborough was awarded another £20m under the Labour government's Pride of Place initiative. A local committee has been formed to decide how to spend the money.
But Dawn Barron, owner of fashion shop Barron Bou, in Lord Street, says answers are to be found in national, not local, decision making.
She says she can no longer afford to employ staff, even though at one point she had four, because of rises in the minimum wage. An increase in her energy costs means she will have to raise her prices this year.
"If the government want to keep the high streets, they have to help small businesses and bring the shop rents and rates down," she says.
"In this climate I would not recommend anyone to open a business."
'Local power'
When he announced the new fund on Friday, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said too many high streets had been "left to hollow out" and the money would "help put power back into the hands of locals who know their area best".
Other government initiatives designed to help high streets include a 20% cut to business rates for pubs, social clubs and live music venues from next year.
Councils and communities have also been promised greater powers to control the spread of vape shops, betting shops and adult gaming centres, along with what the government calls "rogue businesses" with links to crime.
But Sir Andrew Street, the former John Lewis boss who spent seven years as Conservative mayor of the West Midlands, says grant funding into high streets has been "small scale" at a time when businesses have been hit with "incredible" tax rises.
Street, who now co-chairs the pro-business group Prosper UK, adds: "Business rates penalise the high street terribly. There needs to be a radical overhaul, ending them potentially for high street retailers.
"Big increases in taxes on employment also need to be reversed."
Whether any of these measures will spark a new golden age for Gainsborough remains to be seen.
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