Back out of Sheffield

We had quite a pleasant stay in Sheffield’s Victoria Quays. It was pretty quiet for a city centre location, not many people wandering about and very few boats coming and going.

Friday I spent doing oil and filter changes on the engine and gearbox, and adjusting the stern gland. Then Saturday was a chilling out day, feet up in preparation for the race on Sunday.

I maybe should have kept them up a bit longer, my time was once again down on my personal best for the 10K. I must be getting old…..
Still, I was placed 619th out of 7500, and 20th in my age group, so it’s not all bad.

Heading for the finish of the Great Yorkshire Run

As we walked back to the boat, these guys have about 1Km to go.

Neil and Val arrived late afternoon, delivered by his sister Ruth and fella Rodney, from their pub in Salford. They brought their football mad grandsons with them, the oldest, Connell, is training with the juniors at Burnley. We had a good catch up with the news before they set off back, leaving us with 2 extra crewmembers for the next 10 days.

Meg and I had had enough of the limited walking opportunities from the basin (you can only sniff along one stretch of towpath so many times…) and we were expected at Tinsley Top Lock at 09:00 today to meet the lockie, so we decided to move out last evening, and moored on the lock landing for the night.

Leaving Victoria Quays.
We’ll be back, but probably not to stay for so long. A couple of nights would be enough.

We were ready and waiting for the lockie, and he turned up promptly at 9 o’clock. A different one this time, Dave was in Birmingham, so we had Graham instead.

After the first lock we were joined by another boat. Howard had picked up his new boat in Sheffield on Sunday, and came down to stop at the marina overnight. He was crewed by his mate Chris.

Sharing the Tinsley flight.
With Neil and Chris on the tillers, Howard and I going down to set up the locks, and Graham closing up and padlocking behind, we made short work of the flight, arriving at the bottom after just 2½ hours. Then we had Jordans and Holmes lock to do before saying goodbye to our chaperone.

Seyella above the weir at Jordans Lock

Two more sensibly sized locks and 2½ miles later and we arrived at the first of the oversized barge locks.

In Eastwood Lock

Neil was suitably impressed, he’ll be more so if we meet any of the boats that the lock were built for….

With plenty of crew, both boats rattled along downstream, through Aldwarke, Waddington and both Mexborough Locks, arriving at Sprotborough at 17:00.

Old mill near Mexborough
Cruising on Mexborough Cut
A long day by our standards, 8 hours, but Neil’s been on the tiller most of the day, and Mags has been able to put her feet up, so it’s not been too hard. The weather has helped enormously, we’ve had the best day for a couple of weeks, warm, dry and sunny. I hope the rest of the week is as kind….

Locks 20, miles 14½

Up the big hill to Sheffield

We spent yesterday at Eastwood, above the lock. I called the BW lock keeper for the Tinsley Flight, and arranged passage for today. Scrubbed the back half of the roof. Had a couple of walks with Meg, but a bit limited on options in that respect. Mags spoke to son Neil about arrangements for them joining us. He and his wife Val are over from Canada and are in Ireland at the moment, visiting Howard. The original idea was for them to meet us in Sheffield on Saturday, but their return from the Emerald Isle has been postponed by a couple of days, so we’ll have to pick them up somewhere on the way back.

And finally I got to take a picture of one of the remaining commercial carriers on this stretch, coming out of Eastwood Lock.

Whittaker’s Humber Princess leaving Eastwood Lock….

And heading for Rotherham.
We woke up this morning at 05:00 as she arrived back at the lock, empty now, and heading back to Goole. Then we rolled over and went back to sleep till the alarm went off at 06:30.

We needed to be off at 08:00, to meet Dave the lockie at Holmes Lock at 09:30, but almost called him up to postpone. It was blowing up a gale and the rain was horizontal. But by the time we were ready to go at least the rain had stopped.

So off we went, into the 25mph wind.

Away from Eastwood.

We didn’t seem to see much of Rotherham, just the backs of factories. Amongst the few boats moored up was the ugliest conversion I’ve ever seen.

Portakabin??

Just around the corner is Rotherham Town Lock, tucked away behind walls, almost as if the locals are ashamed of it. Which is a shame because it’s a pleasant little lock.

Rotherham Town Lock
Following this is a short section of river (the level indicator now on amber after the last couple of day's rain), then Ickles Lock. A further stretch of canal saw us at Holmes Lock, where we pulled in to wait for Dave the Lockie.

Holmes Lock

All the locks from here to Sheffield, 13 in all, are locked and have to be undone by Dave. Water supply can be a problem as it’s pumped back up to the top, so care has to be taken. And keeping them locked avoids the dry pounds often encountered when lock flights and bored kids exist in close proximity…

The river is met again at Jordans Lock, at a huge weir.

Jordans Lock Weir
After this the 11 locks of the Tinsley Flight start the final climb up to Sheffield.

The first 2 or 3 are in an industrial landscape, passing under the double-deck M1 bridge and railway bridges.

M1 bridge
Lock 9
But as the flight climbs, the views open out and the scenery more rural, with trees and wide grassy banks.

Either side of Lock 2 there’re BW moorings, where space can usually be found for boaters not wishing to stop in the town centre.

Tinsley Marina and Lock 3
We pushed on, through the last couple of locks to emerge onto the summit, 120 feet higher and 3½ hours later.

In Lock 1, Dave the Lockie posing.

Dave has been a star, cycling ahead to set up the locks, then coming back to help and offer advice about potential hazards on the flight, as well as sharing his extensive knowledge of the canal. He’s worked on this section for over 20 years. I suppose we were lucky in being the only boat on the flight. He had time to keep us company.

Heading into Sheffield properly now, and the canal, like that of so many cities, is lined with abandoned and derelict factories.

Just one wall left, a demolished factory through the smashed windows.
There are some new industries along the navigation, in modern sheet metal rather than red brick.

Old and new.

Don’t get me wrong, a lot of the old buildings are still in use, by small specialist manufacturers. The unique smell of steel being machined, and of hot cutting oil, came from open doorways, reminding me of my engineering apprenticeship.

2½ miles from the top lock and we arrived at our destination and mooring for the next few days, Victoria Quays.

Approaching Victoria Quays
This is the end of line of the Sheffield and Tinsley Canal, and must have been bustling with activity during it’s heyday. Now it’s a peaceful haven in the city centre, overlooked by hotels and office blocks.

Locks 15, miles 7½

A surprising journey into an industrial heartland

I had a walk back downstream with Meg this morning to have a closer look at an iron railway bridge over the river to the east of Sprotborough.

The support pillars are constructed of riveted iron plates, as are the trusses and the span.

It sort of looks “right”, if you see what I mean.

Not so sure about the A1 bridge nearby, though.
I was a bit concerned about a handful of guys across the canal late last night, a bit shouty and loud, but they stayed on that side and cleared off before midnight.
After that we had a quiet night, and were away this morning before 10.
3 miles of very pleasant scenery through the Don Gorge took us to the start of the industrial sprawl at Mexborough.

Wooded slopes of the Don Gorge

Under Conisborough Viaduct, an impressive structure but no longer in use.

Almost as impressive is the nerve of Daz, Fisher and Mel who’ve managed to paint their names on the span, around 70’ above the river.

Conisborough Castle, just visible over the trees, seems to have escaped their artistic aspirations.
Arriving at Mexborough, there are 2 locks to be negotiated, and both had to be emptied before we could use them. The painters were busy doing the bollards and ladders, so we experimented with not tying up, Mags holding the boat steady using tiller and engine. It worked really well, and saved me a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, so we did the same on the rest of the locks today.

In Mexborough Top Lock

We probably would have felt obliged to rope up if we had to share the locks, but we only saw 3 other boats today, and they were going the other way.

Just below Waddington Lock there’s a BW Sanitary Station we’d planned to use, so pulled in on the wharf. The tap to fill the tank was considerably further away than the length of our combined hoses, so a chap on the mooring lent us his so we could fill. Loo tank emptied and rubbish disposed of, we threaded our way through the laid up fleet of EV Waddingtons bulk carriers.

Approaching Waddington Lock

Waddingtons use the first pound and lock of the derelict Dearne and Dove Canal as a maintenance yard and dock, and are still running some boats on the canal, carrying oil. We’ve not seen any yet though, just this forlorn reminder of a lost opportunity to use the waterway as it was meant to be used.

Part of Waddingtons fleet, waiting for orders.
Waddingtons were instrumental in keeping the waterway serviceable, chasing contracts and lobbying for improvements. In recognition of their efforts, the rebuilt Swinton Lock was renamed Waddington Lock.

Leaving Swinton behind, the river is rejoined at Kilnhurst Flood Lock which was wide open at both ends as expected.

Yorkshire Spelling.....

Zipping through Kilnhurst Flood Lock

And back onto the river
Industry lines both banks, using the river water, but very little can be seen over the trees.

Glimpses of industry
We met our only group of boats at Aldwarke Lock, coming in as we arrived.

Aldwarke Lock
I helped them down, then we went up, alone again, naturally. Just a mile further on is the last of the big locks, at Eastwood.

In Eastwood Lock.
We pulled onto the Visitor Moorings above the lock, just 1½ spaces available.

Eastwood VM

It’s not exactly rural here, being surrounded by industrial estates, but it’s fairly quiet, and secure behind locked gates which fence off the lock and residential moorings alongside.

It’s not been a bad day, just one heavy shower at Aldwarke. It’s the persistent wind which is a pain. Since we’ve moored we’ve had a couple more thundery showers.

Locks 5, miles 10

Onto fresh waters.

After spending yesterday tied to the bank and watching the boats go past, today was our first day on The Don.

Thorpe Marsh Power Station

It’s been a rather good day in fact. Our first potential obstacle was the lift bridge at Barnby Dun, carrying a fairly busy B road.
Cruising slowly up to look for the landing, we saw someone waving from the bank. It turned out to be “Bob the Gas”, who we met at Torksey, and who we followed on the Trent to Keadby. He cruises with his Mum, during the summer, on their boat “Leet Gi’in II” , and had moored just short of the bridge last night.

He was kind enough to open the bridge for us, and waved us through.

“Bob the Gas” stopping the traffic.
Through Barmby Dun Lift Bridge.
We followed the broad, deep navigation for a couple of miles, past Sandall Grove, and arrived at the first of the barge locks heading up to Rotherham.

Long Sandall Lock.

I was delighted to see that the traffic lights on the lock were on red and green, indicating that the lock was manned but empty. As we approached the red went out and the gates opened. We were in and the gates shut behind us, and the lockie peered out of his control tower over head. “ Orl Reet?” “Aye” I replied. Well, we are in Yorkshire now, aren't we.

While we were rising the 3’ in a lock that’s 230 feet long by 20 feet wide, I asked him why the lock was manned, when we were expecting ‘Boater Operation’. “Bank Holiday” was the reply, “Gonna be busy…”

At this point we’d not seen a boat moving, but we did see 2 cruisers coming the other way before we reached Doncaster. That’d keep him going for another 10 minutes…..

We pulled onto the pontoon moorings below Doncaster Town Lock so I could get some groceries from the Tesco just a couple of minutes away, had a spot of lunch, then were into the lock, after waiting for a boat to come out. Another one!

On the Visitor Moorings at Doncaster. A handy spot in the middle of town, but not pooch friendly.
Didn’t have a chance to pass the time of day with this lock keeper, he was too busy putting the world to rights with a colleague. Just pushed the appropriate buttons and gave us a wave as we pulled away 5 minutes later.


Doncaster Town Lock, hiding under road and rail bridges.
Leaving the lock
From this point on we were off the artificial cut and onto the River Don.

3 Bridges over the Don – railway, dismantled railway and the A1.
We saw another narrowboat, then a rather larger vessel came into view.

Trip Boat Wyre Lady.
I’d been disappointed not to see any commercial boats at all yet, so had to make do with this. Registered at Fleetwood, she’s a long way from home. Built in 1938 on the Clyde, she acted as a tender during the trials of the 2 Cunard "Queens", then as a ferry at Fleetwood and is rumoured to have been at Dunkirk! She now does Bank Holiday and Sunday trips from Sprotborough to Doncaster and the other way to Conisborough in graceful semi-retirement.

Through Sprotborough Lock with no less than 3 narrowboats waiting to go down river, then we moored on the Visitor Moorings a couple of hundred yards along.

Sprotborough VM

This is a pleasant spot, actually on the lock island. It’s popular with the locals, with some walks and a nature reserve and pub on the opposite bank. A lot quieter this side, though.

The Wyre Lady is based here, and embarks passengers just opposite.

Another batch of passengers for a cruise.
I guess with the Bank Holiday over and traffic back to normal levels!! we'll have to do our own locks tomorrow. Ah well.

Locks 3, Miles 9