Sunshine and Storms to Sheffield

I'm typing this as the rain beats down outside and Leo rests for a few days in the Canal Basin at Sheffield.

We left Goole last Sunday, having waited all morning for the rain to stop, which it did.  We stopped overnight just past the turn onto the New Junction Canal.  On Monday morning we headed down the New Junction onto the South Yorkshire Navigation and turned right towards Doncaster, Rotheram and Sheffield.

Just before turning onto the New Junction, we saw this Roe Deer swimming across the canal.  We had already seen three dead deer who presumably had not managed to get out because of the heavy industrial piling along much of the canal.  We used the boat to 'herd' this one to the more friendly bank and we think he did get out.

This is the aqueduct over the River Went.  With the canal having a water depth of 9 feet, the bottom of the aqueduct is often submerged in the river.

The large electric swing bridges on the New Junction Canal make the scenery reminiscent of Holland. The New Junction is also dead straight for five and a half miles.  You get some idea of this looking under the bridge.

At the Southern end of the New Junction is a second aqueduct, this time over the River Don, whose valley we then followed all the way to Sheffield.

As you cross the Don aqueduct the wash from the boat overflows into the River below.

The huge parish church in Doncaster dominates the view around here.  It was designed by Gilbert Scott and we hope to visit it on our return from Sheffield.

All the locks to Rotheram are nearly 200 feet long, for commercial craft.  This view looks back at Doncaster Lock as Leo comes out of the top gates.  This lock also has a curious kink near the lower gates.

On Monday we moored above Sprotborough Lock and walked up to the village centre.  One house there had some wonderful corbels which had each been carefully picked out and painted, including this one of the devil with bad teeth!

This fine stone building is in fact one side of the Boat Inn.  It is a lovely building, but the pub clearly requires a change of management.  It had run out of beer on a Bank Holiday and had insufficient staff to serve meals in the lovely courtyard outside.







Most of Monday night it rained and we woke up nearly a foot higher as the River Don rose.  Sections of this navigation are on the river itself and when we came to the first lock we were surprised to see that we were cruising on red, which you are advised not to do.

We came under the Conisborough Viaduct which is high above the river and has many arches.  Sadly it is now disused.











The river levels were falling during the day and we were back on green by the evening.  Going under one railway bridge was a bit tricky with fast flowing water but generally the river level was not much of a problem.  However the wind was a different story and, around lunchtime, the herb trough on the roof blew over (other plants were already down below) and with every gust Leo heeled over like a sailing dinghy.  We've never known that happen before and we were going diagonally down some reaches, so we decided to exercise some discretion and stopped for lunch.  Lunch was tempered by sea sickness as Leo rocked from side to side in the gusts.  Afterwards we walked down to the flood lock ahead of us to check the water level.  It was back on amber so we decided to carry on but stop again if the wind was too strong. In fact the afternoon was better and we made it to Eastwood Lock our starting point for the locks into Sheffield.

The Tinsley flight of 11 locks into Sheffield must be booked and a couple of CRT chaps, Nigel and Derek, helped us through. The reason for the booking was partly concern about vandalism (the locks have some very strong anti-vandal locks) and also the need to ensure sufficient water levels.  Here Leo and Christal Haze (our partners for these locks) wait for Rotheram Lock.

Above Rotheram Lock you join the River Don again for a short way and here Leo follows Christal Haze in turning off the river on a cut towards Ickles Lock.  Neither of us expected the mud bank at the turn.

Above Jordan Lock you have to cross the top of a large weir, but the River was down enough not to have to worry about the pull of the weir.

 The lock flight winds about a lot and here we come round the corner to Lock 10 (numbered from the top).  After this one you go under the M1 and pass Meadowhall shopping complex, but there is no time for retail therapy as the climb into Sheffield continues.

There is about 3 miles of flat canal from the top lock into the city.  We passed this broadbeam which has a memorable name (for us as the Wrights anyway).

At the end of the canal is Victoria Quays and this photo shows the very end of the waterway by a huge Grain Warehouse.

After the basin was built and opened in 1819 it became clear there was insufficient warehouse space so they built this 'Straddle Warehouse' over the top of the canal.  Today we took Leo under here and turned round in the basin at the end.

Here you can see Leo moored by Sheaf Quay.















 We decided to spend several days in Sheffield and we are setting off with Christal Haze tomorrow (Saturday) morning down the locks to continue our journey.  We had a lovely evening on Wednesday when we arrived with our friends Nick and Wendy including a meal out at a very good Italian restaurant that they know.  As well as touring around the city we've had a trip by train today to Conisbrough and Rotheram both of which are difficult to visit from the water due to lack of safe moorings on this river navigation.  So here are some highlights:

In Sheffield Cathedral is this wonderful steel (what else in Sheffield?) representation of the nativity.  Intriguingly Joseph rather than Mary is holding the baby and the lowly shepherd has the central position in the tableau.

This intriguing sculpture is called 'the Barking Mad Tree'.  Buttons produce the noise of a dog barking or move various parts of the sculpture.  But it is what the sculpture is made of that was most intriguing (see below).

In this detail you can see that the sculpture is made up of cutlery, again how characteristic of Sheffield.

Sheffield Cathedral is quite a low structure compared with the Town Hall shown here.  This view is taken from the Peace Garden created much more recently.  Each side of the Town Hall is impressive.

A frieze along the front of the Town Hall records trades associated with the city.  This part shows stonemasons on the left and coal miners on the right.

Here is Conisbrough Castle built in the 1180s.  It was advanced for its time with en suite loos, piped water supply and well heated rooms for comfort.  It fell into ruin in the 16th century, but the keep especially looks in a fine state of repair now.

This is the Chantry Chapel on the old bridge over the River Don in Rotheram.  We just had to go to see this.  There are four chapels on river bridges in England and we've now visited all of them on Leo.  The others are at St. Ives (in Cambridgeshire), Wakefield, and Bradford on Avon.






So tomorrow, when hopefully the rain will have stopped and the River Don is not flooding the surrounding countryside, we will set off back down to the flat lands in the Trent Valley.  We hope to go up the tidal Trent mid week, so watch this space.