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

A blowey trip to Bramwith

We topped up the tanks before leaving Keadby this morning at around 09:45. It was a cloudy, windswept day, and we were in 2 minds whether to stay or to go. But I’d rather be ahead than behind schedule, and though windy, at least it was forecast to be dry.

The first obstacle was Vazon Sliding Swing Bridge. This area must have had an inventive civil engineer, like Keadby Bridge this is another ingenious solution to a problem. The railway crosses the canal at an angle, so the bridge deck, complete with the lines, was designed to slide at 90° to the track, to clear the navigation. More info here.

Waiting for Vazon Sliding Rail Bridge
It took a trip up onto the line to let the bridge keeper know we were there, then a few minutes to wind the bridge back into it’s recess, before we could go through.

The bridge closing behind us.

Immediately after this is the first of the boater operated swing or lift bridges on the stretch.

This is a proper commercial navigation, broad, deep, and straight. The South Yorkshire area is well suited to canal transport, on the one hand having a need for bulk transport of material like coal, steel and grain, on the other being blessed with several natural watercourses which had been used for transport for centuries and lent themselves well to development. This particular navigation, the Stainforth and Keadby Canal, was built in 1802 and will only accommodate 61’ x 17’ vessels. The New Junction Canal, however, built in 1905 and upgraded in 1983 is able to take 700 ton boats, with locks of 200’ x 20’. The section we’re to cruise next, the River Dun Navigation, can take vessels 230’ long! Them’s big locks!

Cruising on the Stainforth and Keadby.
Wykehouse Lift Bridge is the last before the canal starts to bend around a bit through Thorne.

Wykehouse Lift Bridge

Through Thorne and a pedestrian swing bridge, built 5 years ago and according to a local lady often breaking down, and the first lock of the day is reached.

Thorne Lock and Swing Bridge.

Of course, being in the land of unusual canal structures, they had to go and complicate things by putting a swing bridge across the head of the lock.

You have to fill the lock, open the top gates, then the swing bridge, exit the lock, close the gates, then the bridge.

Out of the lock and through the bridge.

Through Stainforth, avoiding the anglers, and Bramwith Lock is the second and last of the day. A bit of a shock to the system – I had to use a windlass! (This is the wrench used to wind up the paddles to fill and empty locks). It’s been languishing in the locker since Ratcliffe Lock on The Soar.

It can go away again now for a bit. The huge barge locks to Rotherham are all push-button.
Just a quarter of a mile further on and we pulled in on a quiet bit of towpath right on Bramwith Junction.

Moored at Bramwith Junction

We’ll be turning left here, heading for Doncaster, Rotherham and finally Sheffield for Friday. But we’ll be coming back this way, going past the junction and onto the Aire and Calder, destination Leeds and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

It's always quiet on these canals, but being a Bank Holiday weekend we expected there to be more traffic. We've only seen half a dozen boats moving all day.

My face is glowing tonight. We’ve motored into the fresh breeze all day, heading west. It’s given Mags a few problems waiting for me to open and close the bridges. But we’ve only had a few spots of rain.

Locks 2, miles 14½.

The Tidal Trent – Day 2

It was pitch black when my alarm went off at 5 o’clock this morning. Even Meg, who’s always ready for a walk, looked at me a little strangely when I suggested that we go out.
There was a lightening in the sky to the east as we got back, revealing a cloudless morning.

We had a quick breakfast and a cup of coffee to kickstart the circulation, then prepared to move out. We had to wait for our breasted-up neighbour to go before we could reverse back to the junction and out onto the river.

Reversing out of Torksey Cut at sparrow f**t.
Waiting for the neighbours, then carefully reversing without waking too many people up took a little time, and by the time we’d got going downriver, there were none of our fellow travellers to be seen.

Lonely out on the river.
It was quite cold, with a brisk wind from the south-west, but the sun slowly rose to the right and made things seem warmer. I didn’t take my jacket off for the whole trip though. A good job, I needed it’s waterproof properties later.

Once again, the river is of limited interest from the low deck of a narrowboat. Only things at the water’s edge are visible.

There’s not a lot to see of the Roman ford at Littleborough.
This is where King Harold led his ill-fated army across the river, after trouncing the Danes at Stamford Bridge. Unfortunately he was not so lucky at Hastings….
In his defense, he’d already marched an army 200 miles north, defeated a Viking army, and now had to march south again to meet the threat of a Norman invasion. Amazingly he was back in London in 4 days, consolidated his forces and arrived at Hastings just 18 days after Stamford Bridge. The following day, on October 14th 1066, battle commenced. The rest, as they say, is History.
There’s an excellent website describing events before, during and after The Battle here.

Back to the present, and the next major landmark is the power station at West Burton. There’s a new gas powered facility being built here.

West Burton

We overhauled the wide-beam shortly after. At a comfortable 1100 RPM we were covering the ground at an average of 7 MPH. Not bad, hey.

Not much of Gainsborough can be seen from the river. The town is protected by high wharves, now of course disused.

Gainsborough Arches
The only mooring in Gainsborough for our sized boats.
West Stockwith Lock is the entrance to the Chesterfield Canal, which we had a look at last year with Carol on NB Corbierre.

West Stockwith Lock. Several of the overnighters at Torksey are heading here later.
At this point we’d covered 14½ miles since Torksey, and were just over half-way to Keadby.

We were overtaken in our turn by the cruiser Penrose, who’d also left Torksey this morning. With more horses under his counter, he’d had a bit of a lie in before leaving.

Penrose showing off.
The open flat countryside is ideally suited to wind power. There are several ex-windmills on the banks, some converted….
And some not.
Only one windfarm yet, though.

The approach to Keadby is heralded by the sight of the unusual road and rail bridge.

Keadby Bridge. Black clouds gathering.
The structure on the right hand end is a tank which is filled with river water to counterbalance the bridge deck and lift it for large vessels. It's been fixed in a closed position since 1955.
There are some excellent old photos here.

Then we arrived at the lock. I’d rung the lockie, and he’d told me that the tide was slack and I’d be able to come straight in. So I did, completely disregarding the red light glaring at me from the lockside.

Heading for Keadby Lock, Penrose is waiting on the high wall.

Into the entrance, and of course the gates were shut! There were three narrowboats in already, rising up onto the canal.

No entry.
We backed out into the river, and did a couple of gentle circuits while waiting for the lock to be emptied again, before being invited to come in by the lock-keeper.
By this time it was absolutely slinging it down, the first of the very heavy showers we’ve had this afternoon.

In Keadby Lock, second time of trying. The cruiser, Penrose, is on the right.
Up to the level of the canal, waiting for the swing bridge to open.
There was a queue of cruisers waiting to go into the lock, to catch the flood back upstream. So we hung around till the moorings were free and we could get in.

And that’s it for the day. 26 miles in 4½ hours. It’s been OK coming down, but Mags is glad to be off the river. And Meg was desperate for a pee by the time we’d tied up.

Locks 1, miles 26