Garthorpe and Fockerby
Although the villages of Garthorpe and Fockerby are now joined this wasn’t always the case. Garthorpe used to come under the parish of Luddington and lay on the eastern bank of the Old River Don. Whereas Fockerby lay on the opposite bank of the river and used to come under the parish of Adlingfleet in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It wasn’t until Dutch Engineer Cornelius Vermuyden began his drainage works in the Isle of Axholme and Hatfield Chase area in 1626 that things changed. Vermuyden re-routed several rivers in his ambitious plan to drain the area one of which was the Old River Don. This road that separates the two villages lays over the former site of the Old River Don.
Image and text copyright of the Isle of Axholme and Hatfield Chase Landscape Partnership.
