Mexborough and Swinton Times July 22, 1927
The Story of Mexborough
From Saxon Times
By W Smith
Mexborough Through The Ages
To what circumstances does the thriving town of Mexborough owe its origin?
None can give a positive answer to this question, but I venture the opinion that the first settlement here had for its primary purpose the protection of the passage over the Don at the shallow place now known as Strafforth Sands, formerly named the Strata Ford, a name which takes us back to Roman times, but doubtless this ford was a regular crossing with the British name, in days long anterior to the Roman invasion.
Just as the original purpose of Conisborough was to guard this crossing from danger approaching from the south-east, so, I am convinced, Mexborough was a strong point guarding the approach from the south-west.
The Manor of Mexborough
At the time when all monastic communities in the country were abolished, the income of the Bretton Priory derived from Mexborough was computed as £22.18s.0d, annually, the lands being managed by a bailiff, one Edmund Dewis, who, for the work, was paid 20 shillings per year. The property now reverted to the King, and in the year 1545 Henry granted the lands of Mexborough to Morgan Wolfe, Thomas Colton and others, the consideration being, the usual 25 years purchase. In 1577 the Manor was held by a gentleman named Blount in right of his wife. It must, however, at a subsequent date have reverted to the Crown for in a survey of Crown Lands made in 1649 it was shown that the Manors of Mexborough and Bolton had been, in 1599, granted by Queen Elizabeth to Francis Birnand of Harrogate, who was at a later date knighted
Early in the 17th century it belonged to Mrs Sarah Clay, from whom it descended to a Mrs Reeves, who was in possession about a century ago, and at that date she held the usual manorial Courts at Mexborough, but at what date they these were discontinued we have been unable to discover.
The Earth Work at Mexborough
The earthwork generally known as Castle Hill, now in the keeping of the town, followed generally the same plan as the more extensive castle mounds at Conisbrough and Tickhill, though the elliptical area at Mexborough approaches the circular form more nearly than is the case at either Conisbrough or Tickhill.
In all three cases the elliptical area is surrounded by a high mound of earth, and near one of the foci of the ellipse we find a tumulus upon which the tower was built, the mound would be surmounted by a wall, and outside this there was a surrounding ditch still clearly traceable and some 50 feet wide, though now largely filled by debris. The small half-moon shaped annex on the N.W. of the site probably accommodated a ditch defended barbican protecting the entrance to the Castle yard. The mound in the course of ages has lost much of its height.
Mexborough stood at or near the junction of two ancient roads, one, from the West, followed the line of that ancient fortifications known locally as the Roman rig; the other from the south was known as Rykeneild Street. All trace of the former in the immediate vicinity of the town is now lost in the low lying land to the west, but the latter may be traced, either as portion of old road, or of boundaries of civil and ecclesiastical divisions from its entry into the county between Hartill and Thorpe Salvin to the passage of the Don near Mexborough. No doubt both roads led to the Strata Ford which gave its name to the extensive division of Yorkshire known from ancient times of the Wapentake of Strafforth.
The actual meeting place of the Wapentake court was a point in the right bank of the Don, a little to the right of a line drawn from Denaby (which is of course the village now known as old Denaby) and Mexborough.