Barnsley canal restoration

[Adam]

Hi,

Has anybody got any news on the proposed restoration of the barnsley canal, i tried the website but couldnt really find anything. its a great shortcut up to the trent isnt it. Also anybody know how you can get to some of the old locks by road?

 

Regards Adam

[MartinClark]

Has anybody got any news on the proposed restoration of the barnsley canal, i tried the website but couldnt really find anything. its a great shortcut up to the trent isnt it. Also anybody know how you can get to some of the old locks by road?

The only lock on the Barnsley Canal that is still intact is Lock 15, just north of the golf club house between Walton and Walton Hall. See map at this link.

It is a bit buried in the undergrowth, as you can see in this photo:

 

Some of the stonework of Lock 14, a few yards north, can still be seen:

 

You can also see the stop lock, where the Barsnsley Canal linked with the Dearne and Dove Canal, for which you will have to walk a little way from Twibell Street, opposite Asda in Barnsley.

Its location can be found on this map near the bottom-left end of the large S in the word Barnsley.

 

You can take a "virtual walk" along the canal route here, on my website.

 

There are several locks still to be seen at the Swinton end of the Dearne and Dove Canal. Photos here.

[Adam]

The only lock on the Barnsley Canal that is still intact is Lock 15, just north of the golf club house between Walton and Walton Hall. See map at this link.

It is a bit buried in the undergrowth, as you can see in this photo:

 

Some of the stonework of Lock 14, a few yards north, can still be seen:

 

You can also see the stop lock, where the Barsnsley Canal linked with the Dearne and Dove Canal, for which you will have to walk a little way from Twibell Street, opposite Asda in Barnsley.

Its location can be found on this map near the bottom-left end of the large S in the word Barnsley.

 

You can take a "virtual walk" along the canal route here, on my website.

 

There are several locks still to be seen at the Swinton end of the Dearne and Dove Canal. Photos here.

 

ok thanks for that you dont know when the restortion is starting do you?

 

i have seen the entrance i might go and mooe up and look at the canal

 

Regards Adam

[MartinClark]

ok thanks for that you dont know when the restortion is starting do you?

I don't think anybody knows at the moment. It is still a long way off.

 

i have seen the entrance i might go and mooe up and look at the canal

If you mean the entrance to the Barnsley Canal from the Aire and Calder, there isn't anything to see for nearly a mile, as the canal was filled in when they built the (now demolished) power station.

 

If you moor up in Wakefield and catch a (frequent) bus to Walton, you can have a good walk along the canal to Royston, and get a (less frequent) bus back. The route from Royston to Barnsley is not as easy to follow, but can be done if you have a copy of an old map and a new map. Anyone thinking of walking the canal route can also follow the route from Asda, Barnsley, up to Barugh.

 

The Dearne and Dove Canal is more difficult to follow, with some sections of the route being completely blocked off.

[Nige]

I don't think anybody knows at the moment. It is still a long way off.

If you mean the entrance to the Barnsley Canal from the Aire and Calder, there isn't anything to see for nearly a mile, as the canal was filled in when they built the (now demolished) power station.

 

If you moor up in Wakefield and catch a (frequent) bus to Walton, you can have a good walk along the canal to Royston, and get a (less frequent) bus back. The route from Royston to Barnsley is not as easy to follow, but can be done if you have a copy of an old map and a new map. Anyone thinking of walking the canal route can also follow the route from Asda, Barnsley, up to Barugh.

 

The Dearne and Dove Canal is more difficult to follow, with some sections of the route being completely blocked off.

 

 

Hi Guys,

i haven't got any pics as I dont live there anymore, but if you do the AA routefinder for a street called "The Grove" at Walton, near Wakefield, you can see a big section including locks etc there. It's a Cul-De-Sac, so you need to pull up right to the bottom and park up near the school. Walk past the school and past the sheltered housing and there is a small alley way that leads out into the fields - you can find the canal area to the left. I used to walk there regularly with my parents on a weekend (They used to live at no 30 - but not any more).

Nige

[Halo]

I used to live in Walton.

Some of the route is built on now(houses and a road) it could be re routed quite easily in those areas though.

 

Adam: its no where near the Trent deary its in the Wakefield/Barnsely sort of area, the Trent is much further across the county. In fact its in Lincolnshire/Nottinghamshire area(Trent)

Edited May 3, 2007 by Halo

[Nige]

I used to live in Walton.

Some of the route is built on now(houses and a road) it could be re routed quite easily in those areas though.

 

Adam: its no where near the Trent deary its in the Wakefield/Barnsely sort of area, the Trent is much further across the county. In fact its in Lincolnshire/Nottinghamshire area(Trent)

 

Hi Halo,

 

Which bits have been built on? I used to walk past the infilled locks and down towards the bridge. It still had water in it back then - totally silted up though of course. I don't get over that way now, my parents moved up to Hall Green.

Cheers,

Nige

[MartinClark]

Which bits have been built on?

This bit, for a start!

 

These houses, built on the line of the locks, north of Shay Lane, are even called "Walton Locks"!

[Halo]

Hi Halo,

 

Which bits have been built on? I used to walk past the infilled locks and down towards the bridge. It still had water in it back then - totally silted up though of course. I don't get over that way now, my parents moved up to Hall Green.

Cheers,

Nige

 

Hi, righty, from the canal which is still in water in Haw Park woods, it adjoins what is now "Cherry Tree" housing estate? all that remains of the canal there is a small footpath, as houses gardens are taking up what I presume was the route of the canal, then you hit the road called "Shay Lane" which goes through to Crofton, and then the route of the canal is now blocked by some very nice newly built stone type large houses called aptly "The Locks", the route then take you through what is now allotments (which have planning permission currently waiting to be granted, as far as I know), and then into fields which winds towards what was the site of the Colliery (Walton).

 

As I say, the route could easily be re routed, it would probably involve a flight of locks to take it down the back of what is know as "Brooklands Estate" but its all fields from there on.

 

As far as I am aware, a feasibility study has been done fairly recently? so it must be do-able

[Adam]

Hi halo i know i ment a shortcut through to the trent

 

it would be wouldnt it?

 

Regards Adam

[MartinClark]

i know i ment a shortcut through to the trent

 

it would be wouldnt it?

It would be an alternative route to the Trent from Wakefield, rather than a shortcut. Going by way of Barnsley, Swinton and Doncaster to get to the Stainforth and Keadby Canal, instead of by way of Castleford, Ferrybridge and the New Junction. It would be a more interesting route but would take longer. It would have around 25 more locks, for a start!

[Halo]

No afraid not, not unless I've totally lost the plot and there's a proposed restoration that I dont know about

 

Here is the history of the canal:- http://www.bddct.org.uk/history/history_b.html

 

Its no where near the Trent Adam.

[Adam]

I have been once from selby that took about 1 and a half days

 

I was speaking to somebody in my marina they said they got to keadby in a day

 

must of had a speed boat lol

 

Regards Adam

[Skye]

ok lets make a start by restoring an old thread.

Any one out there interested in restoring this old canal?

 

Email me on david_marshall@btopenworld.com

 

I have just received an email from one of the directors of the Barnsley, Dearne and Dove Canals trust, and it looks like this happy bunch of volunteers require the help of local people to move the dream forward.

 

Please get in touch and lets make this project akin to the Huddersfield narrow success.

[Mick and Maggie]

The Elsecar branch off the Dearne and Dove canal runs along the bottom of my garden. Someone has been along a nearby silted up section with a chain saw and removed some big willows. My guess is this is the next section to be worked on.