Urban canal connection was liquid gold
THE IDEA for a canal to connect Sheffield with Rotherham – and other areas beyond – gathered support during the early 19th century. This was because the upper reaches of the River Don were not navigable beyond Rotherham.
Whitby-born engineer William Chapman surveyed a route and extensive details were given in ‘Report of William Chapman Civil Engineer on the Proposed Canal from Castle Orchards, Sheffield to the River Dun Below Tinsley.’ This was published in Sheffield during 1814 and he suggested routes could be established on either, the north, or the south side of the River Don.
The Sheffield Canal was enacted on June 7, 1815 with a total of 182 subscribers. The estimated cost of the project, which required two sets of locks at Tinsley and Carbrook, was around £76,000. The foundation stone for the canal basin on the former site of the Sheffield Castle orchards was laid by Hugh Parker of Woodthorpe Hall on June 16, 1816.
The Sheffield & Tinsley Canal was opened on February 11, 1819 – a general holiday in the town – and 11 vessels arrived at precisely 2pm in the basin to be welcomed by a crowd estimated at around 60,000. On no other occasion was it remembered that such a large crowd had assembled. R. Pearson & Co of Thorne led a flotilla with their sloop, the Industry, festooned with flags and streamers. On board was the Sheffield Canal Committee along with some of their friends. The proprietors and a number of prominent townsfolk occupied the vessels that followed. The military band belonging to the Sheffield Local Militia, was placed prominently and added much entertainent during the day.
Preparations for entering the basin began as soon as the last vessel had passed the last bridge. This included raising the masts, spreading the sails, elevating the flags, loading the cannon, the fire of these being returned by two others sited at Park Hill.
Another newspaper added that from the opening day ‘a direct navigable communication was commenced from Sheffield to every river, sea, and continent of the known world.’ The opening was a victory for the burgesses, industrialists and cutlers who had long campaigned for the waterway. Afterwards, festivities were adjourned to the King’s Head and the Tontine public houses in Sheffield’s Haymarket.
In the ensuing years, services from Sheffield connected to the Hull and London steamers. Other services ran to Gainsborough and Leeds and from the early days coal was brought to the Sheffield Canal Basin by wagon-ways for onward shipment by canal.
A little later, the canal’s profitability was under threat from the railways. Within sections of the ‘Prospectus of the Proposed Railway from Sheffield to Rotherham’ printed in the Sheffield Independent on October 22, 1834 the canal’s function was heavily questioned. ‘By means of high dues, the Canal operates injuriously upon the Trade of Sheffield, as well as on the traffic of the River Dun. By its numerous locks, it increases the charge for freight, destroys the vessels, wastes time of the watermen, and diminishes the returns of the owners’, claimed the prospectus, before adding: ‘The Northern side of the River is now chosen [for the railway]; and it is found that there will be thereon an average fall of only twelve feet per mile, with the reduced distance of five miles and a quarter, being more than a mile shorter than the Navigation; and instead of occupying a whole day, (as is present the case by water) it may be traversed in a quarter of an hour.’
The Sheffield to Rotherham Railway was opened on October 31, 1838 and badly hit trade on the canal. The navigation was taken over by the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway in 1864 and formed part of a new company the Sheffield & South Yorkshire Navigation (S&SYN) in 1895. This included the River Don Navigation and the Stainforth & Keadby Canal. The S&SYN was joined by the New Junction Canal in 1905, accessing the Knottingley and Goole section of the Aire & Calder Navigation.
Hard times were endured on Britain’s canals in the First World War when they were nationalised and little maintenance work was undertaken. During the Second World War, on the night of December 15, 1940, lock no.
5 of the Tinsley flight suffered considerable bomb damage.
It was adjacent to the steel works and factories, involved in munitions work, targeted by the Luftwaffe. Fortunately, the lock was quickly reconstructed and a stone monument with a plaque mentions the S&SYN staff worked hard to keep the waterway open under hazardous and extremely difficult conditions throughout the hostilities.
Nationalisation of the waterways occurred in 1948 but this did little to increase traffic as it slumped in the post-war years. Yet, in 1969 the glory of 150 years earlier, when Sheffield was linked to the Britain’s waterways and beyond, was marvellously celebrated on Saturday May 17, 1969. A 28-year-old coal barge, the Victory, carried an assorted band of councillors, local authority officials, librarians, and canal conservationists along the S&SYN to Sheffield Canal Basin. Around 50 voyagers were perched on hard
planks, dodging perilously low bridges, for nearly four hours – half of this in pouring rain.
In 1969, the route was not one for scenic beauty, surroundings being mostly on the lines of derelict sites, scrap yards, and nondescript backs of steelworks, Holmes Farm sewage works and Sheffield Corporation’s dustcart
depot. The most interesting aspect of the scene was the water itself, changing from a healthy dark blue of the Don at Rotherham, growing progressively green on the way to Tinsley and a darkening brown with rust and refuse on the way to the Sheffield Basin. But the weekend sailors remained cheerful on the slow wet passage through locks and countless bridges with Percy Bunker providing a guide to local landmarks, and skipper Joe Batty shouting, ‘Mind your heads.’
A barge captain since the age of 18, 41-year-old Joe, worked for Swinton barge operator Victor Waddington, who lent the barge to the society. Shortly afterwards, the Basin ceased operation as a cargo port and fell into a pitiful state with the warehouses an awful sight to the observer.
On September 5 1975, the Darnall canal aqueduct and adjoining raised footways of the former Sheffield & Tinsley Canal were given Grade II listing building status.
In the 1990s, the Sheffield Basin, like similar canal facilities in the UK, was restored.
This included the ‘Straddle’ warehouse, originally built over the canal to make loading and unloading easier, but now an office complex. Also renovated was the terminal and grain warehouses as well as the merchants’ houses. The Georgian Terminal Warehouse is recognised as a good example of a specialised canal building.
Renamed Victoria Quays, the area is presently a busy waterfront destination with a variety of facilities available. The waterway achieved some recognition in 1997 when featured in the opening shots in the ‘The Full Monty’ movie. During 2014, the canal towpath underwent improvements and presently forms part of the route known as the Blue Loop extending from Meadowhall Shopping Centre into Sheffield City Centre.
...But the weekend sailors remained cheerful on the slow wet passage.