Retro: Flashback to the days gone by in the Isle of Axholme with Colin Ella
Colin Ella is a local writer whose work has been published widely in many journals, magazines and newspapers.
The Doncaster Free Press has a new ‘retro’ section which Colin will be regularly contributing to.
Colin used to write for the Free Press’s former sister paper, the Epworth Bells, before it closed.
In the forthcoming pieces we will roam widely in the Isle of Axholme to discover how things were decades ago.
Before the coming of Keadby Bridge there were many ferries across the Trent. This is the motorised ferry at Althorpe around
1910. Here John Wesley’s father came near to losing his life when the ferry boat collided with a cargo boat.
This vessel, one of a variety in use, carried about 20 people.
The crossing was made diagonally to the Burringham landing stage.
The ferry boat at East Ferry with its destination, Owston Ferry, seen across the river. This is in the 1930s when Bob
Royston was the ferryman.
The cyclist, odd jobman Tom Ebbs is likely intending to make the crossing’ the ferry point at Owston Ferry is off shot to the right.
There was no bridge across the Trent in the Isle of Axholme until the Keadby railway bridge was built in 1864. It had stations at
each end and passengers could buy at ticket to travel from Althorpe to Burringham for what must surely have been possibly
the shortest trip in the country.
The bridge had seven openings and a swing section to allow large vessels to pass. It was demolished after 1916.
The new King George V road and rail bridge seen in the open position not long after its opening in 1916.
During the First World War it was guarded by troops. Two electric motors powered the raising section seen here in the open position, but if necessary it could be operated manually.
The bridge stopped raising in the 1960s.
Its lift span and counterweight combined weighed 3,000 tons. The bridge was positioned 220 yards to the north of the old rail bridge.