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patch which Jessop evidently regarded as very creditable, since he adds, {123}”This has been done by the same vessel for ten weeks successively, and would often be done if they were not obliged to wait for their lading.”
One of the affluents of the Trent, the 鏉窞鍝佽尪涓婅 little river known as the Idle, joins it at Stockwith, 21 miles from the junction of the Trent with the Humber; and seven miles up the Idle is the once-famous “port” of Bawtry.
This particular place fulfilled all the conditions of what I have already described as the ideal port of olden days. 鏉窞鍝佽尪瑗挎箹 Not
only was it far inland, bringing a considerable district into communication with the sea, but it was situated鈥攅ight miles south-east of Doncaster鈥攐n the Great North Road, at the point where this road enters the county of York. Until the navigation of the Don was 鏉窞娲楁荡鏈嶅姟濂?improved, under an Act passed in 1727, the Hull, Trent, Idle and Bawtry route was preferred to the Hull, Ouse, Aire, Don, and Doncaster route alike for foreign imports into Yorkshire and for Yorkshire products consigned to London or to places abroad; and Bawtry, known to-day, to those who know it at all, as only a small market town in Yorkshire, was at one time of considerable importance.
In the reigns of Edward III. and Edward IV., as told by the Rev. Joseph Hunter, in “The History and Topography of the Deanery of Doncaster” (1828), the lords of the manor of Bawtry 鏉窞涓濊鍏荤敓浼氭墍 were “of the prime of English nobility,” while the market established there dated from the beginning of the thirteenth century. When the sovereign or any members of the Royal Family travelled in state to the north, they were usually met at Bawtry by the sheriff of the county 鏉窞妗戞嬁娴佺▼ and a train of attendants.
More to our present purpose, however, is the fact that, down to the opening of the second quarter of the eighteenth century this inland port of Bawtry was the route by which most of the products of Sheffield, of Hallamshire, and of the country round about, destined for 鏉窞妗戞嬁璁哄潧钂插弸浜ゆ祦 London, for the eastern counties, or for the Continent, passed to their destination. From Sheffield to Bawtry was a land journey of twenty miles, and thus far, at least, packhorses or waggons had to be utilised over such roads as there then were. The Idle is described 鏉窞鐢峰＋鍏荤敓浼氭墍鎺ㄨ崘 by Defoe as “a full and quick, though not rapid and unsafe Stream, with a deep Channel, which carries Hoys, {124}Lighters, Barges or flat-bottomed Vessels out of its Channel into the Trent.” In fair weather these vessels, taking on their cargo at Bawtry, could continue the journey 褰╄澏鏉窞鎸夋懇鍏荤敓浼氭墍 from Stockwith, where the Trent was entered, to Hull; but otherwise the cargo was transhipped at Stockwith into vessels of up to 200-ton burthen, which were able to pass from the Humber along the Trent as far as Stockwith whether laden or empty. By means of this navigation, to quote again 鏉窞鎸夋懇鍏ㄥ鏈嶅姟 from Defoe:鈥?
“The Town of Bautry
becomes the Center of all the Exportation of this Part of the Country, especially for heavy Goods, which they bring down hither from all the adjacent Countries, such as Lead, from the Lead Mines and Smelting-Houses in Derbyshire, wrought 鏉窞鎸夋懇涓€鏉¤ Iron and Edge-Tool