Yorkshire Ring - Timeline

Timeline

1793

The possibility of a complete ring is realised when the Barnsley Canal and the Dearne & Dove Canal are both authorised by Acts of Parliament passed on the same day.

1804

The Dearne and Dove Canal is completed, five years after the Barnsley Canal. Only a short section of the ring remains to be constructed between the Stainforth and Keadby Canal and the Aire and Calder Navigation.

1888

The Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation Company is created, and eventually succeeds in taking over control of the River Don Navigation, Stainforth and Keadby Canal, Dearne and Dove Canal and the Sheffield Canal from the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company in 1895.

1891

The Aire and Calder Canal company obtain an Act of Parliament to authorise construction of the New Junction Canal. However, the project was to be jointly funded and owned by the newly-formed Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation, and could not start until they had obtained their waterways from the railway company. The construction did not therefore start until after 1 March 1895.

1905

The New Junction Canal is completed thus also completing the Yorkshire Ring.

1934

The ring is broken again by the closure of the central section of the Dearne and Dove Canal, as a result of problems caused by mining subsidence.

1953

The Barnsley Canal is officially closed

1961

The Dearne and Dove Canal is also closed

1984

There is possibility of the complete ring being resurrected by the Barnsley Canal Group which has been formed with the intention of restoring the Barnsley and Dearne & Dove Canals.