As we cycled into Newark from our base at Ivy Farm I knew I was going to like the town. The first things we saw were this traditional cycle shop and the Palace Theatre, surely they were good omens?

And while I knew I wanted to come here, I hadn't really planned much of what we should see, or where we should go. Clare had said the best place to leave our bikes was in the Market Square, so we were pleased to spot this sign.

The Market Place was a traditional market square with the town hall at one end of the square. I can't tell you how many times we walked through here sometimes checking on our bikes and other times because we just found ourselves back here.

And inevitably we often got a view of the Parish Church, a beautiful building inside and out. I've some photos from inside the church which I'll share another day. But it's an elegant church isn't it?

On one of our walks around the church I spied these brightly coloured front doors over the wall, and I was off to get a closer look. And the second photo below was taken standing in the middle of the road with MOH on watch for oncoming cars.

There were plenty of great looking buildings in the town - and as I had my camera in my hand, I snapped quite a few of them. The details of the stonework and the fancy bits on the roof stood out on this one.

The vintage signs and the plant which was climbing up this building caught my eye at the time, and now when I look at this photo I think it has a timeless quality to it. And that's how I felt about Newark - a place that still has traditional values at its heart.

There's not many letterboxes you'll see at this height, and it's a traditional green colour too isn't it?

I was curious about, what turned out to be a boot scraper to the left of the red door below. And I loved how it was built in to the building's fabric, I think because I'm after a classic freestanding boot scraper myself. I'm quite fussy and have an idea of what I want, but haven't seen the one I want yet.

Heading back towards town we headed into The Arcade and the roof caught my eye.

At the end of the Arcade we spent some time looking in the window of a vintage shop, and two things from my childhood caught my eye. The first was this dress, which I'm sure my mum had something similar, it was either peach or blue but had the same fine pleats.

The other thing that caught my eye was the mustard coloured cups and saucers - the very same set that we had at home in the 1970s. I was very tempted to buy these two trios (plate, saucer and cup) but they don't really match my usual, more prettier style of tea sets. I think that dinner set is long gone, but maybe they have an odd piece or two hanging about. I'll have to find out.

I've still more to share from Newark-on-Trent - some from inside the Parish Church and of course some from the Castle - so look out for those.