![NewJunctionSykehouseLock](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/NewJunctionSykehouseLock.jpg)
The New Junction Canal is a
canal
Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow un ...
in
South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham.
In N ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. It is part of the
Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation
The Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation (S&SY) is a system of navigable inland waterways (canals and canalised rivers) in South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, England.
Chiefly based on the River Don, it runs for a length of and has 27 locks ...
(S&SYN), although it was jointly funded by the
Aire and Calder Navigation
The Aire and Calder Navigation is the canalised section of the Rivers Aire and Calder in West Yorkshire, England. The first improvements to the rivers above Knottingley were completed in 1704 when the Aire was made navigable to Leeds and the ...
, and was opened in 1905. It links the
River Don Navigation
The River Don Navigation was the result of early efforts to make the River Don in South Yorkshire, England, navigable between Fishlake and Sheffield. The Dutch engineer Cornelius Vermuyden had re-routed the mouth of the river in 1626, to impr ...
and the
Stainforth and Keadby Canal
The Stainforth and Keadby Canal is a navigable canal in South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, England. It connects the River Don Navigation at Bramwith to the River Trent at Keadby, by way of Stainforth, Thorne and Ealand, near Crowle. It ope ...
with the Aire and Calder Navigation (Knottingley Canal). It is completely straight, and was the last canal built in England for commercial purposes.
The canal has one lock, which was sized to allow the compartment boats of the Aire and Calder to use it, but the owning company failed to raise enough money to upgrade the River Don Navigation beyond, and Long Sandall lock prevented working of such boats through to
Doncaster
Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...
until it was rebuilt in 1959. There is still some commercial traffic on the canal, but most use is now by leisure boaters. One notable feature is the aqueduct over the
River Don which is protected by large guillotine gates, which can be lowered when the Don is in spate, to prevent the surrounding countryside from being flooded.
History
The New Junction Canal was conceived at a time when there was dissatisfaction with the state of the waterways in Sheffield and Doncaster, which were then under the ownership of the
Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway
The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) was formed in 1847 when the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway joined with authorised but unbuilt railway companies, forming a proposed network from Manchester to Grimsb ...
. Steam-powered boats were still prohibited from using the waterways in 1888, even though they had been in use on the neighbouring
Aire and Calder Navigation
The Aire and Calder Navigation is the canalised section of the Rivers Aire and Calder in West Yorkshire, England. The first improvements to the rivers above Knottingley were completed in 1704 when the Aire was made navigable to Leeds and the ...
for over 50 years, and the railway company had set rates for using the canal considerably higher than those for using the railway. The President of the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce invited the engineer
Charles Hawksley and B. P. Broomhead, an influential Sheffield solicitor, to a meeting of the Chamber on 16 August 1888, at which he outlined the situation. A committee was appointed, which met on 20 August, and decided that a new independent canal was needed to connect Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster to the sea, to maintain the profitability of the local coalfields.
By October, a report had been produced, which suggested that the locks on the canal from Sheffield to Keadby were too small, and that the waterway could be greatly improved by building new locks besides the existing ones, capable of holding boats which could carry 300 or 500 tons. Believing that such locks could be built without disrupting traffic, the estimated costs of the works were £1 million, in addition to which the existing waterways would need to be acquired. The Sheffield and South Yorkshire Canal Company Ltd was registered on 15 November 1888, with the aim of obtaining an
Act of Parliament
Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...
to authorise this work. The Act was passed on 26 August 1889, which created the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation Co., who had powers to raise £1.5 million, and to buy the four South Yorkshire canals, consisting of the
Sheffield Canal
The Sheffield & Tinsley Canal is a canal in the City of Sheffield, England. It runs from Tinsley, where it leaves the River Don, to the Sheffield Canal Basin (now Victoria Quays) in the city centre, passing through 11 locks. The maximum craft ...
, the
River Don Navigation
The River Don Navigation was the result of early efforts to make the River Don in South Yorkshire, England, navigable between Fishlake and Sheffield. The Dutch engineer Cornelius Vermuyden had re-routed the mouth of the river in 1626, to impr ...
, the
Stainforth and Keadby Canal
The Stainforth and Keadby Canal is a navigable canal in South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, England. It connects the River Don Navigation at Bramwith to the River Trent at Keadby, by way of Stainforth, Thorne and Ealand, near Crowle. It ope ...
and the
Dearne and Dove Canal
The Dearne and Dove Canal ran for almost ten miles through South Yorkshire, England from Swinton to Barnsley through nineteen locks, rising . The canal also had two short branches, the Worsbrough branch and the Elsecar branch, both about two ...
. They had nine months to negotiate with the railway owners, and could resort to compulsory purchase after that. In order to demonstrate their resolve, £20,000 had to be deposited within six months of the date of the Act.
By this stage, the plan was to enlarge the waterways to enable 300 or 400 ton barges to navigate, but also to make the locks suitable for
compartment boat trains, as used on the Aire and Calder. New facilities would be built at Keadby, where the canal joined the
River Trent
The Trent is the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, third-longest river in the United Kingdom. Its Source (river or stream), source is in Staffordshire, on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through and drains the North Midland ...
, so that coal could be trans-shipped to larger vessels. Negotiations with the railway company began, but they refused to co-operate, instead waiting nine months until the compulsory purchase option was possible, and then taking court action against the Canal company once the purchase order was served. The Canal company sought assistance from the
Court of the Railway and Canal Commission, who ruled in their favour, and the railway company finally produced the details of their ownership in early 1891.
The concept of using compartment boats led to discussions with the Aire and Calder Navigation Company, as a result of which it was decided to abandon the plan to develop Keadby, and instead use the existing port facilities at Goole. As the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Company had yet to take control of any canals, an agreement was negotiated, which would see the Aire and Calder obtaining an Act of Parliament to authorise construction of a straight canal from Bramwith on the River Don to a point some above Goole. The Act was obtained on 28 July 1891, and specified that the S&SYN could become joint owners and subscribers, once they had acquired the four waterways from the railway company. Transfer of the canals was finally agreed on 31 July 1894, at a cost to the canal company of £1.14 million, of which £600,000 was to be paid in cash. The company managed to raise £625,000 through the issue of preference shares, but the rest of the purchase price was held as ordinary shares by the railway company, who were then able to appoint five of the ten directors. As a consequence of continued railway involvement, the Aire and Calder did not invest in the new company, which took control of the four waterways on 1 March 1895. The Aire and Calder, meanwhile, had not started to build the New Junction Canal, but they had extended the time allowed to purchase land for its construction through another Act of Parliament.
The new company struggled to raise the finance for the New Junction construction, and for improvements to the River Don Navigation, to allow larger boats to use it. The canal was completed on 2 January 1905, at a total cost of £300,000, shared between the Sheffield and South Yorkshire and the Aire and Calder companies. It was the last canal to be built in England for commercial purposes.
Operation
The canal helped to increase traffic on the River Don from 835,982 tons to 961,774 tons between
1905 and 1913. Income from tolls over the same period rose from £48,981 to £53,586. Although the River Don was straightened at Doncaster in 1905 and at Sprotborough in 1907, traffic on the New Junction canal was hindered by the size of the locks on the river. Doncaster lock was extended in 1909 and 1910, but although trains of 17 compartment boats could then use both Sykehouse and Doncaster locks, they had to be split up at Long Sandall lock, which was between the two, as they could only pass through it three at a time. Traffic to Hatfield Main colliery was improved between 1930 and 1932, when Bramwith lock, the first on the Stainforth and Keady Canal, was lengthened to allow compartment boats from the New Junction to reach it. The work, which included a colliery lay-by, cost £20,000. Doncaster Corporation paid most of the cost of straightening the river there and building a wharf and warehouse, which opened in 1934.
Further improvements had to wait until after the canals were nationalised in 1948. Long Sandall lock was lengthened and widened to in 1959, enabling compartment boats to work through to Doncaster and Hexthorpe without having to be split for the first time. Although traffic is much reduced, there is still some commercial activity on the canal.
Features
![NewJunctionCanalDonAqueduct](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/NewJunctionCanalDonAqueduct.JPG)
The canal is straight for its entire length, and the surrounding countryside is relatively flat.
It has one lock, five swing or
lift bridge
A vertical-lift bridge or just lift bridge is a type of movable bridge in which a span rises vertically while remaining parallel with the deck.
The vertical lift offers several benefits over other movable bridges such as the bascule and swin ...
s and is carried across two
aqueducts. At its northern end it crosses the
River Went
The River Went is a river in Yorkshire, England. It rises close to Featherstone and flows eastward, joining the River Don at Reedholme Common.
A possible site of the Battle of Winwaed is believed to be located somewhere along the valley of th ...
, while at its southern end it crosses the River Don. The River Don aqueduct looks precarious, as the canal regularly overflows the eastern side of the structure, and there only appears to be railings preventing the boats from falling down into the river below. Both ends of the aqueduct are protected by large guillotine gates,
which are there to prevent the river overflowing the canal when it is in spate, and flooding the surrounding countryside.
For the boater, the most notable feature is the complicated operation of
Sykehouse Lock.
The lock is
automated
Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...
but the control system is disabled until the manually operated
swing bridge
A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravity, about which the swing span (turning span) can then pi ...
over the top of it has been opened.
[
The region through which the canal flows is sparsely populated, as there are no major towns, and just two main villages. The ]civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...
of Sykehouse
Sykehouse is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England, on the border with the East Riding of Yorkshire. It was part of the West Riding of Yorkshire until 1974. It had a population of 438 in ...
, which includes a number of outlying settlements, straddles the northern end of the canal, and Kirk Bramwith
Kirk Bramwith is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England. It had a population of 200 in 2001, increasing to 320 at the 2011 Census. The village centre is located on a narrow strip of land ...
is at the southern end. For much of its length, the towpath forms part of the route for the Trans Pennine Trail
The Trans Pennine Trail is a long-distance path running from coast to coast across Northern England entirely on surfaced paths and using only gentle gradients (it runs largely along disused railway lines and canal towpaths). It forms part of ...
which joins it at Top Lane lift bridge, crosses to the east bank at Sykehouse lock, and leaves at Sykehouse lift bridge.[Ordnance Survey, 1:50,000 map]
Points of interest
See also
*Canals of the United Kingdom
The canals of the United Kingdom are a major part of the network of inland waterways in the United Kingdom. They have a varied history, from use for irrigation and transport, through becoming the focus of the Industrial Revolution, to today's ro ...
*History of the British canal system
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
Bibliography
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References
External links
Pennine Waterways - New Junction Canal
1905 establishments in England
Canals in South Yorkshire
Canals in the East Riding of Yorkshire
Canals opened in 1905