Family of teenager who drowned in Castleford to unveil throw line along river

The family of a 16-year-old boy who died in a Castleford river are installing a safety throw line at the spot where he drowned.

Tyler Wilson had gone to the River Calder after school with his friends during the hot weather last May, and ended up getting into difficulty in the water.

“He was very bubbly, very loving,” says his grandad Michael Scott.

“He was going to be a brickie. He used to come and help me, over the last few years I’d go on jobs and he’d be helping me do them. Very happy, would help anybody. It’s all gone now.”

Tyler was due to start college that September to do bricklaying and Michael already had a job lined up for him.

“He’d gone to school, come home, his mum said his tea’s ready but he said ‘no I’m going out, I’m going out’. He went down to the river with his mates and his shorts and all that, red hot day. It will have been a prank or something like that, I don’t know, I’ll never know to this day what happened. But he’s jumped in and this is where we are now.

“I’ll never forget it, it was 10 to 7 and I got a phone call off my daughter screaming. I couldn’t understand what she was saying, she just kept saying ‘river, river’.

“I’ve not got the words for it, it’s affected us every single day. Especially my daughter, my wife. It’s in my head every time I wake up.”

Almost a year on from his death, the family have now arranged for a plaque to be installed at the place where he went into the water as well as a safety throw line which could be used to help somebody else in a similar situation.

The family have been helped by Sam's Army Mission 1 Life, started by Simon Haycock who lost his son to drowning in Rotherham in 2021.

He raises money for lifesaving aids near open water as well as going into schools to give talks about water safety.

The plaque and throwline in memory of Tyler will be unveiled on Saturday morning.