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South Yorkshire Navigation Canal

It's history started from 1697 when attempts to connect land-locked Sheffield to the sea began. The first attempts, to make the River Don navigable were unsuccessful. But following Acts passed in 1726 and 1727, work began, and in 1731 boats reached Aldewarke, below Rotherham. They had access to Rotherham in 1740, and in 1751 the uppermost section to Tinsley was opened. From here a toll road connected with Sheffield. The Navigation prospered, and in 1793 two independent canals were joined to it - the Dearne & Dove and the Stainforth and Keadby.

After the Napoleonic Wars the Sheffield Canal was built from Tinsley to Sheffield but it was financially unsuccessful. The Sheffield Canal was a 3 mile, 12 lock, broad canal from the River Don at Tinsley to Sheffield. In July 1813 William Chapman reported his proposals for the canal from Rotherham to Sheffield having surveyed lines north and south of the river. The Sheffield and Tinsley Canal was opened in 1814 to carry boats between the navigable River Don at Tinsley and a new basin close to the heart of Sheffield. Before this date, goods had to be carried over poor roads to Tinsley Wharf on the River Don. By 1819 The Cutlers Company of Sheffield managed to get a canal into the city centre.

The coming of the railways brought an amalgamation in 1850, and ownership by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company in 1864.

Later the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation Company was established to remove the entire Don-based waterway system from railway interests, but it was never able to raise sufficient capital to purchase the majority interest in the waterways, and improvement was not possible.

In 1905 however, the New Junction Canal was built to connect with the Aire and Calder Navigation, and provide access to the port of Goole.

In 1961 a new terminal at Rotherham was built and in 1974 British Waterways was authorised to upgrade the navigation between Doncaster and Rotherham.

         

Sheffield Canal Basin, now known as Victoria Quays, is at the head of the Sheffield and Tinsley Canal, close to Sheffield City Centre. The whole area received a new lease of life in the 1990s, when the warehouses were restored and new buildings were added. The Sheaf works were turned into a pub, the derelict railway arches were converted into shop units and a marina was created on one side of the basin.

The canal is now 42 miles long , from Sheffield, to Keadby Lock, where it joins the River Trent

See also our feature and images of the River Don and Rotherham Lock

Dearne & Dove Canal

The construction of the Dearne & Dove Canal received Royal assent in June 1793 and connected with the Dun Navigation at Swinton. Completed in 1804, it principally aided the exploitation of coal deposits in the area around Barnsley and opened at a cost of £100,000. Severe subsidence problems resulting from the extensive underground working made maintenance a constant and costly problem. The Dearne & Dove eventually passed into the control of the Dun Navigation in 1844 and then on to Railway control in 1850. The last vessels to pass along its length were in 1934, although its lower end served the Manvers Colliery until 1952.

Chesterfield Canal

In 1777 the Chesterfield Canal (46 miles) was completed. It follows the line of the Rother and provided transportation of coal and iron in large quantities to the River Trent.

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