Epworth, the capital of the Isle of Axholme, bounded by the rivers Trent and Don, Torne and Idle, has had a unique history in a strategic setting. In Saxon times, Axel meant a town, Holme an island, Heape a small hill and Urde a farm. So Heapeurde or Epurde or Epworth was "the farm on the rising ground in the island township."

Rivers and not roads were the early lines of communication. Settlers and marauders could, with equal ease, descend the navigable streams and ascend them with the daily tides so that it was recorded in the time of Edward the Confessor that this River Island not only "contained the same villages and hamlets as it does at present, but had a numerous population."

In an early period, the Isle was covered with a dense forest of large trees which, in the course of time, led to the formation of thick and extensive beds of peat - the burial ground of many forest giants.