|
From the DET:
25 April
2005
SIXTY YEARS AGO, hundreds of children used to enjoy paddling and
playing in the waters of the Derwent. Sadly, the river also claimed many
lives. Pat Parkin recalls heroine Ethel Copestake, who tried to rescue a
little girl who fell in near her riverside shop.
With plans finally afoot to exploit Derby's riverside setting, it is
interesting to look back more than 60 years to the time when the River
Derwent was an important part of the town's leisure activities. Pleasure
boats used to carry passengers up and down the river, rowing boats were
a popular weekend activity and town children would learn to swim there.
The river banks were always packed with families picnicking and,
sometimes, there would be as many as 50 or 60 children paddling and
playing in the shallow water.
Sadly, it was also a time when drownings became commonplace, especially
further up river at Darley Abbey. An article in the Derby Evening
Telegraph, during the summer of 1940, revealed that life-saving had
become regarded almost as part of a day's work by some people living on
the banks of the Derwent.
"Numerous rescues, particularly among children, have been effected in
recent years and at one time the cry 'Someone is in the river' was so
frequent that it was almost taken as a matter of course," said the
paper.
And one of those who risked her own life, several times, to try to save
another, was Ethel Copestake, of Folly Houses, Darley Abbey, who, on one
occasion, received the Royal Humane Society's certificate for bravery.
Sadly, on that occasion, she was unable to save the child,
eight-year-old Margaret Downing, of Poplar Row, Darley Abbey.
But, she and a 12-year-old Derby schoolboy, William Mayze, were honoured
and publicly thanked for their efforts.
It was August 1940 when Mrs Copestake heard someone shouting and ran
from her riverside cottage to the river bank at Darley playing fields
where the little girl, who had been feeding bread to the fish, had
fallen into the water. She saw the child struggling to stay afloat, with
only her face showing, and promptly jumped in. But, when Mrs Copestake
reached her, the child began thrashing about and she was unable to pull
her out. As they both became caught in the current, schoolboy William
Mayze, who was passing by, dived in to help.
Between them, they succeeded in getting the girl to the bank and Mrs
Copestake applied artificial respiration, helped by a soldier, until the
police arrived, but the child was dead by the time she reached hospital.
At the inquest, the girl's mother said her brother had drowned at the
same spot some years earlier, so the child had been warned not to go
near the water.
Mrs Copestake, who learned to swim while attending St Paul's School and
had won several certificates including one for life-saving, said the
spot was a favourite playground for children from Chester Green and
Darley Abbey. She knew of at least six children who had been rescued
there during the previous four years. The water was shallow and large
boulders formed stepping stones for the children. But, on the far side
of the stones, there was a sheer drop and children seemed unaware of the
danger. The current was particularly treacherous there and when children
slipped off the stones they were soon carried away by the under tow.
From time to time, it had been suggested to the authorities that Red
Ditch, a brook which ran into the river, should be cleaned of growth and
made more favourable for paddling purposes but, at the time, nothing had
been done.
Mrs Copestake's son, Neville, still lives near to his mother's old home
and said it used to be a common occurrence for children to fall into the
water. He still has a letter sent to his mother by the little girl's
uncle in which he expressed gratitude to her for her brave deed in
trying to save Margaret's life.
"May God reward you in the end," he wrote.
Said Neville: "In those days, the Derwent ran higher and much faster
than it does today and the river was much wider. It was really busy,
too, with lots of pleasure boats."
His mother used to make ice-cream and her husband built a landing stage
outside the cottage so the boats could pull in to buy them. She also
sold teas to the cricketers who played on Darley Fields. |
