South Yorkshire Navigations to Sheffield

This is the story of the last few days first on the River Don Navigation and then on the Sheffield and Tinsley Canal which collectively are referred to as part of the South Yorkshire Navigations.  We pick up the story last Sunday (23rd) when we left Bramwith on the Stainforth and Keadby Canal.

A short way below our mooring at Bramwith we came to the junction with the New Junction Canal and turned left towards Doncaster.  In a mile or so we came to Barnby Dunn where we had to lift the bridge shown here.  Fortunately it is electric so simply a case of pressing the button, or so Helen tells me.  The problem is, having put the bridge back down after going through and released all the traffic, it is impossible to cross the road to get back to the boat.

After working up through Long Sandall Lock we came into Doncaster.  The big church is the parish church of St George or Doncaster Minster.  It was built by Gilbert Scott.  We moored on the small public mooring and enjoyed a visit from Sue who lives not far away and came to us by train.  We had a good couple of hours catching up with her news and sharing lunch onboard before Helen accompanied her back to the station and Ian washed up.  We then set off again into Doncaster Lock.

Running over the bottom gates of the lock was a family of mink (or at least that's what we think they were).  The mother was carrying the smallest one in her mouth for some of the time.  All the locks as far as Rotheram are large (200 foot long) and electric.  The huge size accommodates the oil barges that still run up here coming in from Rotterdam via Goole and the Humber.  We've been told they run once or twice a week depending on the tides.  We haven't enountered one yet and hope we don't.

Above Doncaster we were out on the River and passed under the A1.  We were travelling again with Martin and Sue (a different Sue) on Braggabout which is the boat behind us shown here.

We moored for the night at Sprotbrough which is a nice place but the rain came down quite heavily in the evening. Martin and Sue invited us aboard Braggabout to try some interesting cheeses they had bought in Doncaster Market.  On Monday we carried on with Braggabout up the Don to Eastwood Lock.  We passed under the many arched railway viaduct at Conisbrough shown in the picture.  Although it is no longer a railway it is on a cycleway which must have excellent views.

The next locks are first Mexborough Low then Mexborough Top Locks and here you see us following two boats into the Low lock.  Being 200 feet long and about 20 feet wide quite a few narrowboats would fit in this lock.

We even shared the Top Lock with a family of swans, but there is plenty of room.

At Swinton we came to what is now called Waddington's Lock.  This is named after the firm of Waddington which ran a great many barges around here.  Some still remain either moored below the lock as here or in what remains of the old Dearne and Dove Canal above the lock.  Many of the old barges have been sold off and have gone down to London as homes for those who can't afford a bricks and mortar version in the capital.  The Dearne and Dove used to go to Barnsley where the Barnsley Canal joined it and took boats on to Wakefield on the River Calder.  The first two locks are now used by Waddingtons but not much remains of the rest.

From Eastwood we had booked (with Braggabout) to go up the Tinsley Locks into Sheffield on Tuesday.  Unfortunately the weather was dreadful but, having booked, we felt we ought to go.  At first it was not too bad and we cruised into Rotherham past this steel stockholder with bars of the stuff on the side of the canal.

Our appointment was at Holmes Lock and we then carried on to Jordan's Lock.  Above this lock we had to cross above a big weir on the River Don.  This could be quite intimidating if there was significant flow in the river but on Tuesday it was quite placid.

The rain fell down in bucket loads as we climbed the Tinsley Lock flight.  There are 11 locks numbered 1 to 12.  No, that's not a mistake.  Locks 7 and 8 have been combined as changes were made to the railway that made this essential.  We did not take many pictures because of the bad weather and I will try to do some better pictures on the way back in a later posting.

Part way up the flight we passed under the M1 close to Meadowhall.

Here we are in the deep combined lock 7/8.

And here we are in the top lock with its own garden of flowers.

Above the Tinsley Locks we said goodbye to our CRT helpers and carried on for the last 2 and a bit miles into the city.  This picture is of Bacon Lane Bridge, no 6, which features in the opening sequence of the film of the Full Monty.

And this is Victoria Quays, the basin at the end of the canal.

At the end of the navigation is the Straddle Warehouse which sits on piers above the water.  It has now been converted into flats.

 It is getting late now and it has been a hard day coming back down the locks from Sheffield.  So I'll do a posting soon with all that we got up to in Sheffield where we stayed for 3 nights and also feature some sunnier pictures of our return down the Tinsley Locks. 

We've enjoyed our visit to Sheffield and encourage others to make the effort to climb the locks into the city.  Some of the lock gates were very stiff but we had the benefit of a CRT person to help and if you can arrange to share the locks it is much easier.