Bawtry Wharf: Meet the local historians who want to uncover Yorkshire's 'lost' medieval river port and tell its story

Close to a viaduct which carries the East Coast Main Line over the River Idle is the location of what was once Bawtry Wharf, a medieval – and possibly even older – trade hub that has almost vanished from the landscape.

Up until the railway’s arrival in Bawtry, a market town on the Great North Road near Doncaster, the Idle was the source of its prosperity. Goods were shipped to the Humber for onward export all over Europe and even as far afield as Barbados. The wealth generated by the wharves allowed Georgian merchants to build grand townhouses.

It was open for business by the 12th century, when the first recorded cargo it handled was wool, but could even have been a Roman trading post.

The port’s downfall was swift and brutal – though it was already suffering from competition from canal and railway traffic, the Great Northern Railway’s decision in the late 1850s to build the stone viaduct meant the river had to be re-routed into a straight cut 300 metres from the ‘pool’ where the vessels had unloaded. Cut off, the area gradually silted up and the new course bypassed the town. Its last appearance on a map was in 1899, though it was mentioned in writings from 1905.

The remains of the wharves were still visible in the early 20th century, but have now almost disappeared and very little could be seen when The Yorkshire Post joined Bawtry Heritage Group member and town councillor David Kirkham for a look around what would once have been a bustling dock with warehouses alongside.

Mr Kirkham is keen for Bawtry’s maritime past to be recognised, and the group has submitted a proposal for the Wharf to be listed as a Local Heritage Asset, giving it a higher degree of protection from harmful development than it currently has. Doncaster Council are now considering the merits of the submission.

The wharves were located near St Nicholas Church and the modern St Nicholas Way housing estate on a curve on the western side of the Idle, at the end of Wharf Street, and a warehouse likely to have been associated with the port still exists. At one point, Bawtry even pulled ahead of Hull’s docks for prestige when London merchants opened their own weigh-house to bypass charges for their shipments of lead on the Humber. It operated for 700 years and was larger than many rivals. Its unusual fate means that not only does it no longer have a wharf, but it does not even have a river.

“The protections this listing would bring are modest, but we would like to try and raise the profile and value of historic sites in Bawtry. The planners have more ability to reject harmful building schemes,” said Mr Kirkham.

"A lot of Bawtry’s history is hidden but it used to be such an important place and we want to better inform people about its past. This is one way of doing this.”