Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation

Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation
A section of the lock flight up to Sheffield
Specifications
Navigation authority	Canal and River Trust
History
Original owner	(Took over existing waterways)
Date of act	1889
Date of first use	1895
Geography
Start point	Sheffield
End point	Keadby or Aire and Calder Navigation
Connects to	River Trent, Aire and Calder 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 43 miles (69 km) and has 27 locks. It connects Sheffield, Rotherham, and Doncaster with the River Trent at Keadby and (via the New Junction Canal) the Aire and Calder Navigation.

The system consisted of five parts, four of which are still open to navigation today:-

The River Don is known to have been navigable up to Doncaster as early as 1343, when a commission looked at the problems caused by bridges and weirs. It underwent major changes in the 1620s, when Cornelius Vermuyden closed the channel which crossed Hatfield Chase to reach the River Trent at Adlingfleet, and diverted all of the water northwards to the River Aire. Following flooding and riots, a new outlet was cut from Newbridge to Goole, which was known as the Dutch River. Serious thought was given to improving the river from 1691, but disagreements between groups from Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield prevented progress. Finally, the Sheffield Cutlers obtained an Act of Parliament in 1726 to improve the river up to Tinsley. Doncaster Corporation then obtained an Act in 1727 to authorise improvements below Doncaster.

The Dutch River was difficult to navigate, and in 1793, the Stainforth and Keadby Canal was authorised, to provide a link from the Don at Stainforth to the Trent at Keadby. Although notionally independent, it was effectively under the control of the Don Navigation when it opened, probably in 1802. The Dearne and Dove Canal was also authorised in 1793, from Swinton to Barnsley, and was again under Don Navigation control, since most of the shareholders were also shareholders in the Don. A canal from Tinsley into Sheffield was delayed for years by opposition from the Don Navigation, but was authorised in 1815 and opened in 1819.