Mexborough & Swinton Times – Friday 11 September 1931

Railway Under Water

Never within the memory of the oldest residents of the Mexborough and Conisborough districts has there been such rain in September.

Harvest fields the vicinity of the Don were swamped and during Friday many stoops were swept away down the river, and the ungarnered crops were ruined. The Mexborough – Old Denaby ferry was suspended on Friday afternoon and the boat was swept away from its moorings by a river transformed into a “raging torrent.” It was not until it reached Denaby Colliery that it was caught and secured.

This dislocation meant that Old Denaby residents were compelled to make a detour of over a mile and half through Denaby Main to get to Mexborough. The canal and Don rose over seven feet on Friday and in places the waters joined and submerged intervening land.

The Mexborough lock-keeper, Mr- A. Wood, with his mother and sister were marooned in the Lock House. Water surrounded the house to a considerable depth and when Mr. Wood was rung on the telephone late on Friday night from this office he said he was “standing up to the knees in water” and water was still pouring into the house. His mother and sister were in upstairs rooms whence most of the furniture had been taken. He expected to have to sit up all night, because they may need a boat to get away. But the water receded with surprising quickness and by Sunday the house was once again “connected with the mainland.”

At 4 o’clock on Friday the Sheffield-Doncaster branch line of the L.N.E.R. was put out of action owing to the line being flooded in several parts. The worst of the flooding was at Rotherham Road station, where the track was submerged to a depth of several feet. The officials kept the usual’ service going by switching traffic on to the Chapeltown branch. Throughout Saturday morning passengers for Swinton. Kilnhurst and Rotherham were taken by Yorkshire Traction Co. bus from Mexborough station. The night mails on Friday were taken by road from Mexborough.

At 11 o’clock on Saturday morning work at the Wath concentration yard of the L.N.E.R. had to be suspended owing to floods. Rails and points were flooded to a depth of three and four feet and the power boxes had to be lifted above the water. At the same time one of the main passenger lines became flooded and trains to Sheffield, Barnsley and Doncaster bad to be worked at one line. Everything was normal by Monday.

Returning period excursionists to Mexborough during the week-end found that owing floods throughout the country their trains were hours overdue. Those returning from the East Coast could not get through Doncaster and had to come over the avoiding line between Bentley Junction and Conisborough. The Mexborough section of the L.N.E.R. line was not affected by flooding.

Many acres of low-lying land in the district were flooded to a considerable depth during the week-end and enormous damage was done to crops. Hay and grain stoops with other debris were seen floating down the river and at Denaby bridge on Saturday was a large haystack which had come down with the flood water. Mexborough Pastures was a large lake, the road between Mexborough and High Melton being flooded for over a quarter of a mile. In Mexborough itself several streets were flooded, the worst being Swinton Road from the South Yorkshire Hotel to near the Swinton Gas Works.

The Mexborough ferry boat was hauled beck to the ferry on Monday. It appears that the cause of its escape from its moorings was a haystack which came down the river and crashed into and broke the mooring rope.

Owing to the river being in flood the task of hauling the boat back to the ferry was an arduous one for seven men; but it assisted the haulers when they reached the weir where the flood raised the surface of the river higher than the belt of rocks. Monday was occupied in making the boat safe assn and the ‘service” was ready for Tuesday.