An unofficial website about the Town and Borough of RotherhamThis is just a short walk along the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation Canal where it passes through the Borough of Rotherham.
Out starting point is the new Halfpenny Bridge over the River Don at Tinsley looking towards the towers of the now disused Blackburn Meadows Power Station. Its not strictly in the Borough of Rotherham but I'm sure you'll forgive me for using it as a starting point. Go right towards Rotherham.
About half a mile or so past Halfpenny Bridge you reach the point where the River Don goes over a weir and into a big meander around the old sewage works and round the back of the steelworks. The line of drums you can just see on the photograph is a barrage to stop boats coming to grief that way. Old maps show it as Jordan Dam.
At this point the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation Canal leaves the Don and heads on a direct easterly route into Rotherham along the New Cut. Hereabouts the water from Holmes Goit leaves the system. I mention this because my father learned to swim in Holmes Goit when he were a lad bunking off school. Looking at Holmes Goit today it is a ditch full of weeds in which I would not even dip my toes let alone swim. The goit was a mill lade providing water and power for the Holmes iron and steel mills. It now terminates at the ruined Holmes Mill, and the lack of a through flow has led to considerable pollution near the mill. I'm sure it used to run all the way to rejoin the river near Rotherham but at some time the route was cut leaving Holmes Tail Goit exiting the canal below Holmes rolling mills, parallelling the canal until it got to New York when it made a big curve to supply water to various works in the area. This section of goit seems to have all but dispppeared.
This is one of the lock gates on the New Cut. I have carefully forgotten to write down its name but it must be near Jordan Bridge as the works far up on the top right are up on Meadowbank Road.
Below is Holmes Lock at the end of Steel Street where it crosses the canal and becomes Deadman's Hole Lane. The old Roman fort at Templeborough or what remained of it before the steelworks were built over the top was off to the left here. According to the Aged Parent who is a Tinsley lass, Deadman's Hole Lane runs alongside the old Roman cemetery. It got its name because whenever the Don flooded, the river used to back up through the burial ground and skeletons used to float out and down the river. Naturally all the kids were forbidden to play there so of course they always did.
Below is a view looking towards the site of the Roman Fort. Templeborough Rolling Mills (centre of photo and back), now the Magna Centre, were built on top of it.
This is the derelict old building you can just catch sight of in the photos above. Rod has informed me that "This building is all that remains of the Holmes Blast Furnaces site. There were two blast furnaces here operated by Parkgate Forge up until about 1905." 2003 an espondent has informed me that these have now been demolished.
The cranes on the photograph below are in the scrapyards so popular in this area of town. Millmoor, the Rotherham United Football Ground is just to the right of the scrapyards.
The cut rejoins the River Don along here and the River Rother adds its halfpennyworth.
We'll take a little break here before going on to the next bit of the walk. Get out your Thermos and your sandwiches.