Transportation & Thorne:
A Brief History.
By Philip L. Scowcroft

Thorne and district Local History Society
Occasional Paper No 30 - 2009

Thorne is now regarded by many as a suburb of Doncaster, but in years gone by it was a small town with its own individual characteristics and history – why else would we have a Thorne Local History Society? Its individuality makes it rich in interest, and the history of its transport, whether by road, water, rail or even air is no exception. This is an attempt to produce as concise a history of Thorne’s transport as possible. I hope that those who read it will be encouraged to expand their knowledge thereof.

1: Road Transport

Doncaster, positioned on the Great North Road – a major trunk route – and also the focus of several significant branch roads, was a very important transport centre in the age of the stagecoach. Thorne a town in its own right (there were 2655 inhabitants in the 1801 census) was much less well endowed, communication-wise, but its road transport history is well worth examination.

Before the 1780's, most of its road traffic was purely local. The road to it from Doncaster, which led ultimately to Hull, was in indifferent repair until a Turnpike Act of 1825 sought to address the problem. That is not, however, to say that the road services to and through Thorne did not exist before then.

A twice weekly Hull – Sheffield coach service of 1787 doubtless passed through Thorne as a Mr Eyre of that place was a partner. From June 1787 the Rodney coach from Hull through Thorne (which had previously been routed via York) had met at Doncaster connections to London. A similar service soon followed and the two later combined, between them covering five days in the week. The White Hart Inn, which was run for many years by the Vause family, was the staging-post in Thorne.

The London – Edinburgh mail coach was transferred, apparently for a while to the road which passed from Bawtry through Thorne and Selby, before it reverted to the direct road through Doncaster. And, as we shall see, the sailings of the Thorne Waterside to Hull steam packets, begun in 1816 were fed by coach services from Doncaster and later from Sheffield. By 1822 these were part run by the Doncaster coach magnate Richard Wood, who saw off various competitors – including Vause – over the next few years by fare-cutting and improvements in speed. (Wood, had to fight off further competition, in the 1830's, though not this time from the Thorne innkeepers). Wood's success in the 1820s was bad news for the White Hart, which had lost the Rodney service which was unable to compete with the steam packets, though the inn still serviced a Doncaster – Thorne – Selby – York mail coach in about 1834, a market coach to Doncaster on Saturdays and in 1837 there was a revival of the Hull – Doncaster mail coach. The Thorne proprietors of the latter were the landlords of the White Hart (now George Meakin) and the Red Lion. The service did not last long, railways rather than steamships supplying its quietus this time.

Thorne's last stage-coach enterprise, (called an 'omnibus') was run by William Daykin of the Red Bear Inn between 1849 and 1858. His omnibuses linked Doncaster and packet boats along the Stainforth and Keadby canal. Later they ran between Doncaster and Thorne Lock railway station or New Bridge, where an "aquabus" could be boarded for Goole.

As a Market Town, Thorne had much of the infrastructure that a coaching centre needed. Until around 1850 it boasted no coachbuilders, but it had plenty of blacksmiths (nine in 1837), saddlers, harness-makers and of course coaching inns – the White Hart, which in 1794 was said to have 'a coach-house and stabling for upwards of thirty horses', the Red Bear, and possibly the John Bull at Waterside.

Carrier services survived longer than their stage-coach counterparts. These conveyed goods and, if there was room, passengers to and from market, maybe, usually over short distances. In 1822 Thorne had three, all to Doncaster. By 1828 others worked to Rawcliffe and Snaith, to Epworth, to York and to Sheffield, but by mid-century the longer distance services (to York, Sheffield and Barnsley) had dropped out. Shorter hauls (to Doncaster, Snaith and Epworth for example) survived for many years longer, though not for as long as many of those carriers working into Doncaster, probably at least partly because of the greater importance of Doncaster's market.

No carriers operated from Thorne by 1900 – Thorne's good water connections may have been a factor here. Some Thorne carriers had great longevity, the Chantrey family for example. Again Thorne's inns were terminals for them: the Green Dragon, the Marquis of Granby, the Steam Packet and the Blue Boar. Late in the 19th century there were 'omnibuses' in Thorne, but these were, I believe, hackney carriages linking the White Hart with Thorne's railway stations. James Ward was one such operator.

It was not until after the Great War of 1914-18 that Thorne again became a major focus of public road transport. A wide range of small independent companies operated services in the Doncaster – Stainforth – Thorne – Goole corridor them surviving for over half a century. They included such names as Albert Braim, William Lowe, Blue Line (R.F.H. Wilson), Severn, Felix Motors (Ernest Parish), Reliance (R. Store), Samuel Morgan and a Thorne firm which survived as a stage carrier and excursion undertaking until the 1950s, Majestic. Blue Line, originally an Armthorpe undertaking, eventually absorbed by the South Yorkshire PTE in the late 1970s. All significant services in the corridor are now operated by First, operating successors to the SYPTE – basically those affecting Thorne are now Doncaster – Goole or Doncaster – Moorends, with the South Common and Moorends estates served by diversions. Back in the 1930s around a dozen operators plied between Thorne and Moorends including two I have not so far mentioned, J. Firth (Irene) and F. Barley (Corona), both Thorne based enterprises but in the event short-lived. Most of the other, a few of operators originated from Stainforth or Armthorpe: many worked excursions and contract services expanding the options available to intending passengers in the Thorne area. In 2005 there was even a taxibus – operated by Wilfreda Beehive – for passengers in the district wishing to go to the new Robin Hood airport at Finningley.

More could be said about Thorne's road transport, not least about freight in the motor era, in which Darley's the brewers played a part, but I hope this potted survey has conveyed something of its variety over more than two centuries.

2: Water Transport.

Water Transport to and from Thorne via the former course of the River Don to Waterside (otherwise styled Thorne Quay) has a long history. It was late in the 18th century that Waterside blossomed as a port and, in a modest way, a shipbuilding centre. A firm called Steemsons built a brig of war for the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. And from 16th February 1809 Waterside became a packet port for Thorne – Hull services, sailing packets at first, initially once a week in each direction, then four times weekly after the Wellington joined the Nelson and at times other vessels in the Hull run. Sailings varied with the tide and the depth of water in the Dutch River was also a factor.

In August 1816 the sailing packets were replaced by paddle steamers. This was just four years after the earliest British paddle steamer began a regular service on the Clyde. On the Humber, services between Gainsborough and Hull (1814) and Selby and Hull (1815) predated those from Thorne which were inaugurated on a thrice weekly basis by the Britannia, soon replaced by the John Bull, which had previously operated from Gainsborough. Almost from the start stage-coaches fed the steamers, at first from Doncaster, then (from 1820) Sheffield. Packet services were now daily (every weekday that is) once the Rockingham had joined the John Bull. Rockingham is reputed to have been built at Thorne Quay, though this is not absolutely confirmed. However other packet boats were definitely built there, including a new John Bull launched in 1836. Apart from John Bull, all the Waterside launchings, from Pearson's yard, were of vessels intended for services further afield, for Hull to London, Antwerp or Hamburg: Kingston, Yorkshireman, Prince Frederick, Transit and Monarch. At 176 tons, the latter was a big vessel for its time.

The Waterside – Hull steam packets lasted, with a hiatus in 1852-3 until November 1st 1856. In the 1840s excursions and the rather similar 'full boat days' were run, some of them extended to Spurn Point, starting from Thorne at the early hour of 6am. By 1856 Waterside was in decline as a port generally, though some freight ships sailed from there until the end of the century. The various shipbuilders who had had yards there were all long gone by then, Staniland's moving to Thorne's canal frontage where it is still.

Thorne's canal, the Stainforth and Keadby, had opened around 1802, furnishing a lateral water-link between the Don and the Trent, exploited not only by goods traffic but also by packet boats, horse-drawn ones at this time, from as early as 1818, to connect at Keadby with the Gainsborough – Hull steam packets. These services still operated in the 1850s, but after 1856 were serviced by the South Yorkshire Railway, whose passenger trains had reached Thorne in that year. The water services were then operated by a small screw steamer, Speedwell, which had accommodation for over 100 passengers and was owned by the SYR. In 1859 the railway was itself extended to Keadby obviating the need for packet services, though excursions continued for some time.