Mexborough and Swinton Times, May 27th, 1932
The Floods at Old Denaby & Mexborough
The ferry was by common consent the best ‘vantage point to watch the Don playing Mississippi and the top of the slipway was thronged all Sunday and Monday. There was no great loss of livestock here, in spite of the fact that the rise was most sudden and rapid early on Sunday morning about six o’clock. Between then and noon the river must have risen five feet, some of the spate no doubt being due to the tapping of the great reservoirs above Sheffield. The water was discharged much more quickly down the Don valley than down the broader and shallower Dearne valley.
The “tide came up” at Adwick nearly twelve hours after it had passed Mexborough because of the wider dispersion of waters and smaller discharge of dam water. The road from Adwick to Barnburgh was dry (all but a few yards) at five on Sunday evening and impassable to light traffic three hours later.
By Monday at noon Mexborough had been closely hemmed in, blockaded on the Pastures Road, Barnburgh Road, Bolton Road, and Swinton Road. The only clear outlet was in the direction of Denaby Main and there the river bridge was awash.
Within the town there was a good deal of damage and inconvenience from the flooding of cellars, particularly in lower regions of the Council estate, the Clayfield district, also in Main Street, Schofield Street and on the Roman Terrace boundary and the fire brigade in addition to being called out to a stack fire (most incongruous of accidents!) was kept busy pumping cellars dry.
And it was the one Sunday morning of the year which the fire brigade, all polished and set, hoped to spend in church! The water got at the telephone cables in Adwick Road and put over seventy services out of action.