Doncaster

Doncaster, a municipal borough in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and an important railway junction, on the right bank of the Don, and on the Great North Road, 33 miles S. of York, and 156 NNW. of London. The country around is flat, but beautiful. Fine old elms line the broad and level road from the town to the racecourse, about a mile to the south. Doncaster is well built, and the High Street is a mile long. The parish church of St George was rebuilt by Sir G. G. Scott, after destruction by fire, in 1853-58, at a cost of £43,128. Its noble tower is 170 feet high. Doncaster possesses an elegant market and guild-hall, a corn exchange, a wool-market, and a cattle-market. The foundation-stone of a new library and school of art was laid in 1888. The water-works, constructed in 1880, were opened at a cost of £180,000. The town has manufactures of iron, brass, sacking, linen, and agricultural machines. The locomotive and carriage works of the Great Northern Railway are at Doncaster. The agricultural trade is large, and there is a corn-market. Pop. (1851) 12,042; (1881) 21,130; (1891) 25,936. Doncaster was the ancient Danum, and lay on the Roman road from York to Lincoln. Roman coins, urns, and a votive altar have been found. It was the Dona Castre of the Saxons. The Saxon Northumbrian kings had a palace here. Doncaster was burned by lightning in 759, and frequently ravaged by the Danes. During the Civil War it was for some time the headquarters of the Earl of Manchester after the battle of Marston Moor. It has long been famous for its annual races, begun in 1703, and held a mile south-east of the town in the second week of September. Colonel St Leger, in 1776, founded stakes which have been yearly run for by the best horses in England. On an eminence 5 miles WSW. of Doncaster are the ruins of Conisborough Castle, the stronghold of Athelstan in Scott's Ivanhoe. A Norman-Saxon round tower, it is 37 feet in diameter and 86 feet high, with walls 15 feet thick, strengthened by square buttresses reaching the whole height. The door is arrived at by an external flight of 37 steps. See Tomlinson's History of Doncaster (1887).