For many years a favoured leisure activity, for visitors and locals alike, has been hiring a rowing boat and boating on the River Derwent. Rowers are able to travel for a reasonable distance both up and down stream before they need to turn round and row back. By following the current you can go down towards the weir at Masson Mill, where warning notices are suspended from wire that stretches across the river. It is the same if rowers venture upstream. The river looks peaceful and calm but it can be treacherous for the unwary.

The ladies in the fuller boat are all wearing hats. They are close to the landing stage behind the Grand Pavilion (now the Mining Museum) and may have hired their boats from there, although there was more than one place at that time where boats could be hired. The entrance to the Derwent Gardens is behind the boating shed and the Switchback Railway sign is just beyond. Lovers' Walks is on the opposite bank and the limestone outcrop of Cat Tor is downstream.

It isn't easy to date this postcard as it was never used, so has no postmark, but the picture was probably taken in the inter war period. However, the existence of the Switchback Railway building means it was taken before 1934^[1].

The following was printed in a tourist guides that is roughly contemporary with this card:

"Boats are let out to hire, at 9d. per. person per. hour, on the length of the river flowing southwards along the Parade at Matlock Bath, but the utmost care should be taken not to row beyond the board which gives notice of the peril incurred by those who pass that boundary mark. There is a Weir about a hundred yards below, which creates a strong undercurrent, and there have been several accidents of boating parties disregarding the warning"^[2].

Below is a list of those known to have accidentally drowned in the Derwent at Matlock Bath^[3]:

• 16 Jan 1852
  Dr James Cumming, aged 48 and his son James Macdonald Cumming, aged 13, of Buxton
  Both buried Matlock 31 Jan 1852^[4]
  
  
• 11 Aug 1892
  Harry Marriott, aged 13. From Farnsfield, NTT, visiting with members of church choir and vicar
  Buried Matlock Bath 13 Aug 1892
  
  
• 16 Apr 1897 (Good Friday)
  Annie Holmes and Lizzie Holmes, her sister, from Higham. Orphaned, with one brother living.
  Arthur Whittaker and Henry Smith. Both from Westhouses, near Alfreton
  Annie's body was never recovered
  
  
• 5 Apr 1901 (Good Friday)
  Luke Brown, aged 21 and Benjamin Brown, aged 18 brothers of Alma, Selston, NTT

Although the above names only those who drowned at Matlock Bath, Matlock's parish register names others who have drowned^[5].