Rivers & Canals
Canal Boats
The Bridges of Rotherham
The Chesterfield Canal
The Dearne & Dove Canal
The Fitzwilliam Canal
The River Don in Rotherham
The River Rother in Rotherham
The Sheffield &
South Yorkshire Navigation Canal
Waddingtons of Swinton
The town of Rotherham was originally built near the confluence of the River Rother and the River Don. However the town centre has migrated a bit downstream and it is the River Don that flows through the centre of town.
The River Rother rises in Derbyshire near Pilsley and flows by North Wingfield and Wingerworth, past Chesterfield, Staveley, Eckington and Beighton and down through Treeton and Whiston to Rotherham.
The River Don rises in Yorkshire in the Peak District, passes Penistone, Thurgoland, Wadsley Bridge, Crookes, to central Sheffield. Then it flows through Darnall and Tinsley to Rotherham. From Rotherham the Don flows east and then north towards Swinton where it leaves the Borough of Rotherham heading down the Don Valley to guess where - you're right - Doncaster and onwards in a generally northerly direction to the Humber. The history of the River Don since the 1720s has been inextricably linked with Don Navigation Canal.
North of Rotherham the River Dearne flows via Barnsley into the Borough where it sojourns very briefly before it heads off Doncaster way. The villages of Brampton, West Melton and the town of Wath upon Dearne are situated in the Dearne Valley.
Before I started doing research for these pages I never realised just what a complicated history the canals around here had so if you enter be prepared for a journey as long and slow as a barge trip.
The River Don was partly navigable and in the 18th Century canal companies were formed to canalise the river and to make cuts where necessary to facilitate the travel of boats upriver. The Don Navigation Canal was begun in 1722 working upstream and downstream from Doncaster. This reached Rotherham in 1744 and Tinsley, the Head of Navigation in 1751. The Sheffield Canal completing the journey up into the centre of Sheffield was opened in 1819 but that really doesn't concern us here. In its heyday (i.e. until the railways arrived) the navigation (i.e. the canal) seems to have been a constantly evolving beast judging by the number of new cuts and locks that kept being built. It evolved into the South Yorkshire Railway and River Dun (they couldn't spell Don in those days) Company when merged with the railway company. Eventually it became the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation Canal by which name it is known today.
The Dearne and Dove Canal which is now disused runs right on the northern boundary of the borough near Cortonwood Colliery (now partly reclaimed for shops and housing).
The Fitzwilliam Canal is a stretch of canal about a quarter of a mile long which runs from Parkgate to the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation Canal. This appears to be all that is left of the Greasbrough Canal - its all I can find anyway.
Right down in the south the Chesterfield Canal passes through the Borough by Turnerwood, Thorpe Salvin and Kiveton Park on its way from Worksop to Chesterfield.
I have also added a bit about the types of boats used on the local canals. Here was me thinking only of barges and narrowboats but the differing types and names of boats used on the various canals up and down the country could form the subject of a master's degree; in fact it probably has.
If you are interested in canals and you must be to have read this far, please also take a look at the page on the canal boat company Waddingtons of Swinton.