Doncaster

Doncaster, a municipal borough and market town of the West Riding of Yorkshire, is on the right bank of the Don, 33 miles south of York. It is a well-built town, with a High Street one mile long, with some fine public buildings, including a guildhall, a corn exchange, wool and cattle markets, and a lately rebuilt parish church with a tower and spire of 170 feet. Doncaster is an important railway junction, and the Great Northern Railway Company has here extensive locomotive and carriage works. There are good waterworks. The chief manufactures are iron and brass wares, agricultural machines, sacking, and linen. The town is noted in the racing-world, the well-known St. Leger having been instituted in 1776. The racecourse is a mile south of the town, and the road to it is bordered by fine old elms. The country round is beautiful though flat, and there is an important cattle market, and a good trade in agricultural produce. An important Roman station on the road from York to Lincoln occupied the same site, and many Roman remains have been found in the neighbourhood, including a votive altar, urns, coins, and the like. There was also here a palace of the Saxon Kings of Northumbria, and the Danes often ravaged the district. In the neighbourhood are the ruins of Conisborough Castle, of which Scott speaks in Ivanhoe.