Bathers in the Don
Features such as the foul river Don have won for South Yorkshire its reputation for gross pollution and environmental degradation, yet not so long ago the Don ar Doncaster was for generations of children of all ages, from Hexthorpe, Balny, Sprotborough and Doncaster, a well used substitute for the seaside. Instead of catching shrimps in rock pools, the youngsters caught minnows and sticklebacks, and instead of fishing for codling off Scarborough pier, the anglers caught roach, perch and gudgeon at choice places along the Don’s towpaths,
Swimming was a regular pastime in the long summer evenings , with large numbers of children using traditional stretches from Levitt Hagg and Sprotborough down to Hexthorpe and on to Sandall, Barnby Dun, Stainforth and Thorne. A favorite place was at the bend near Hexthorpe railway viaducts below the horseshoe arch. A wooden structure known as the Devil’s Elbow, which protected a railway water pump from barge traffic, was used as a diving platform. Some daredevils used to demonstrate their skills and bravado by swimming under passing barges and by diving off the bridge at Hexthorpe and Sprotborough.
Doncaster Amateur Swimming Club held its annual swimming championships and galas in the Don and spectators crowded the river banks to watch the main events of the Don’s aquatic sporting calendar. These were the men’s mile race, starting from below Sprotborough lock, passing Engine Wood and finishing at Hexthorpe Boat House, and the women’s 440 yards race which also finished at the Boat House.
Although the majority of swimming club activities were removed to Doncaster swimming baths in about 1919, the distance events were held in the Don up till the 1930s and proved local heroes like Oswald Clark, Lol Smith, Jackie Bond, Joe Gilvray and George Taylor, all of whom were presented with a silver cup, now sadly lost. People who swam in the Don during the summers of the 1910s and 1920s remember the water as being fairly clear; some even drank it! By the late 1930s the water was rather more coloured, particularly in times of high water and flood, but according to those who swam, the great deterioration in water quality began during the 1939-45 war and has steadily progressed to its present revolting state.
Pleasure boating on the Don has a long history, with the Aqua Bus ferrying passengers through the beautiful and dramatic countryside between Marshgate, Doncaster and Swinton during the 1800s. Publicity for the vessel boasted the beauties and delights of the river journey which included the famous Sprotborough Falls and the Don Gorge at Levitt Hagg. The stretch is now famed for the effluent and flotsam of industry and vistas of quarries, mine, rubbish dumps and colliery waste tips.
Hordes of children on Sunday School treats crowded into spring-cleaned barges for sing-song barge trips to Sprotborough where passengers disembarked for the traditional picnic fields near the site of the Ivanhoe pub. Assorted fleets of rowing boats operated from what is now the Dell at Hexthorpe; Hoyles Don Foundry – now demolished – just upstream of St. Mary’s Bridge, Doncaster, and from Burcroft, Conisborough. The boats owned by the otley family were first run from Bridge Cottage near st. Mary’s Bridge and moved to their better known base at Hexthorpe Dell in 1904.
The Ottley’s, later assisted by their son-in-law, Mr. E.L. Bedford, had 40 boats, from sturdy family-sized craft down to light skiffs. These were much used between Newton and Sprotborough by families on sedate Sunday afternoon outings, and by gangs of lads who rowed up to S[protborough for a swim and lark about around the falls. Rival squadrons came down to the falls from Conisborough to join in the fun. Many a lad went home soaked and minus his boat.
During the 1939-45 war, Doncaster Corporation closed down Mr. Otley’s business, possibly under the impression that Mr. Hitler was planning to invade South Yorkshire using Otley’s boats. The boats were sold off and the pontoon from which the business was operated was towed away to the barge graveyard at Strawberry Island and sunk. After the war, boating again came back to life as a popular recreation, this time run by the corporation Parks Department. By the 1950s pleasure boating had become less pleasurable and more nauseous due to the increase in river pollution. Barge traffic had also made the pastime somewhat hazardous, the two factors contributing, in 1958, to the Corporation having to suspend operations. Sadly, this brought to a close a long era of cheap local recreation, depriving Doncastrians of a valuable and well used natural amenity.