news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hereford/worcs/8515090.stm

Health and Safety again from the police.

Dreadfully sad

Things were very different when the following incident happened in Brinksway, Stockport, Cheshire (now part of Greater Manchester) fifty-seven years ago:



In the late afternoon darkness, an eleven-year-old Stockport boy, James Price, of 16, Lomas Street, Edgeley, was rescued from the River Mersey, in one of its most treacherous reaches behind Brinksway, by two Stockport policemen on Saturday.

Answering a "999" call, Chief Inspector T. Walker; Inspector B.F. Aubrook and Constable W.A. Wilson, rushed to the river, at a point near the Brinksway Dyeing Co. Ltd, where they heard the cries of the boy from the opposite bank.

There was only one way to reach him, and, quickly removing their clothing, Inspector Aubrook and Constable Wilson entered the water. They were able to wade part of the way, but the river varies greatly in depth, and they were compelled to swim across, before James was located, clinging on underneath the very high rock face, where the river is six feet deep.

They managed to reach James and grab hold of him. After they had moved to a different part of the bank, the rescue became a combined operation, when the rescued and rescuers were brought from the water, back up the cliffs by rope, with the help of Stockport Fire Brigade.

James, who was taken to Stockport Infirmary, had been playing on the high bank, when he slipped on some loose rocks, and plunged down into the river.

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Inspector Aubrook and Constable Wilson were later given awards for bravery for saving James' life. Presumably, Chief Inspector Walker stayed on the opposite bank, shining his torch to aid them in swimming across.

Awesome story of bravery and shows that our Police used to be heroes ( some of them at least )

I sadly cant see that happening in 2010.

I'm as big a knocker of Mr Plod as you BR but I have found in dramas like ths police or anyone else act on instinct and if they couldn't go in to save the girl it would have been because they physically could't.

I know the spot where James Price fell in the River Mersey in 1953. It would have been near to the Brinksway weir, where the current would have been very strong. To attempt to swim across the river there in daylight would have been very dangerous and twice as dangerous in the dark and on a freezing cold December night. I would have been too petrified to do it, even if I could swim and I can't. Yet if those two policemen hadn't done what they did, that little boy would have eventually lost his grip on the sandstone cliffs and been swept away and drowned. It took more courage on their behalf than I'll ever possess and, although they've practically been forgotten about by now, they must have been regarded as heroes at the time.