Canal Boats
Before I began the research for these pages I will freely admit that knew little about river and canal boats. Narrowboats and barges were about my limit. However every river and every canal had its own specific sizes and types of craft peculiar to its own waterway and what cargoes were carried. The width and length of these was often dictated by the width and length of the canal or river and the locks they had to negotiate. Below is a quick look at some of the craft used on the canals around Rotherham.
Humber Keels
These are technically ships as they are ship-rigged with one mast. Originally they were wooden but were replaced by iron and steel, the latter being built right up to the 1920s.
There were various sizes: to quote local examples:–
- Sheffield 61' x 15'6' which were the most numerous. Capacity usually about 110 tons.
- Manvers 57' x 14'8' (Manvers Colliery was on the Dearne and Dove Canal).
- Barnsley 70' x 14'6'
For river work the keels used sails and leeboard but for canal work the leeboard, mast and cog boat were stowed ashore and the keel was pulled by horse. On the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation Canal the head of sailing was Mexborough because of the numerous low bridges on the way into Rotherham and Sheffield. At Mexborough the keel captain would hire a horse marine and horse and attach a 45 fathom horse line to his craft for the rest of the journey.
Cargoes were most often coal and grain whilst gravel, rice, potatoes, paper, hides and canned goods were also carried. A particular cargo that came up from Hull to Sheffield was ivory for use as handles in the cutlery trade.
Keels survived under sail until 1949 and continued as unrigged motor craft afterwards.
Narrowboats
Narrowboats were originally used on the Midland Canals. Those used on the Chesterfield Canal had a mast and set a square sail like a keel as they were used on the River Trent as well as the canal.
Motor Barges
The river and tidal motor barges of Yorkshire simply called river craft still lead a commercially active existence. There was one on the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation as early as 1906 but they were not common until the 1930s. Sizes and capacities varied - on the Don section of the navigation and on the Sheffield Canal craft were limited to 61ft 6inches which was known as Sheffield size until improvements were made. Craft up to 400 tons can travel up as far as Rotherham.
Recent Times
Scrap metal is still loaded onto barges in Eastwood but where they go with it I don't know. The Waddingtons boat "Resilience" is frequently moored there along with the tug "Kingfisher". Sister ships of the "Resilience" are permanently moored up at Eastwood Lock are open-topped coal barges. When they were in use I believe they had hatches to protect the cargo. They are disappearing one by one to be broken up for scrap. Liz has sent me a photograph of their barge "Earnest" which has been converted into a very nice home.
Up until quite recent times grain barges used to come up the canals to the flour mill at Bow Bridge (nowadays owned by Hovis) which is just about at the confluence of the Rother and the Don. On my way to work in Sheffield about 1975 I once counted eighteen moored up waiting to discharge their cargo. The Hovis mill is now disused and the yard is used for transport.
Steel is still loaded on barges at the Corus steel plant at Aldwarke and sent down river to be transported to other places in the UK and abroad.
January 2005 - The Pedant, in one of his rare chatty moods, has mentioned the enormous oil barge which comes down the canal from Hull to the waste oil reclamation plant at Northfield in Rotherham. It is so large that the walk along the towpath has to be closed to meet health and safety regulations.