page_title: Barnsley Canal
section_title: Decline
hierarchical_section_title: Barnsley Canal / History / Decline
caption_attribution_description: Looking SE.
context_page_description: The Barnsley Canal is a canal that ran from Barnby Basin, through Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England to a junction with the Aire and Calder Navigation near Wakefield, West Yorkshire. It was built in the 1790s, to provide a transport link from coal reserves at Barnsley to a wider market. Both the Aire and Calder Navigation and the River Don Navigation took a keen interest in the project, the former buying many of the initial shares, and the latter constructing the Dearne and Dove Canal to link the canal to their waterway. Water supply issues meant that the Aire and Calder proposed pumping all of the water for the canal from the River Calder, using steam pumps, but a reservoir was built at Cold Hiendley instead, increasing the construction costs, but reducing the running costs. The canal as built was 14.5 miles long and included 15 locks.
  Traffic came initially from the colliery at Barnby Furnace, but this failed in 1806, and the company found itself with no money and little traffic. Gradually, tramways to other mines were built, and traffic increased, enough to pay dividends to the shareholders from 1810 onwards.
context_section_description: A major breach of the canal occurred on 20 November 1911, when subsidence caused part of the aqueduct and the adjacent embankment to fail. Repairs were not completed until 10 July 1912, when the canal was reopened. The canal had to close for four months at the end of 1922 due to drought conditions. In 1934, the County Council installed an electric lift bridge at Royston. Traffic continued to fall, and maintenance costs increased as the effects of subsidence damaged the infrastructure, but the canal remained profitable until 1942. The following year, the Royston bridge was operated 856 times to allow boats to pass. Mottram Wood colliery was flooded on 13 June 1945, when another leak occurred near the aqueduct, and in 1946, 53 million imperial gallons (240,000 m³) of water escaped from the canal on 22 November, flooding a housing estate and the surrounding countryside. The Aire and Calder applied to abandon the canal in May 1947, and although the fledgeling Inland Waterways Association campaigned for its retention, the Docks and Inland Waterways Executive (DIWE) expressed "grave doubts as to whether it would be in the national interest to reinstate the waterway." The DIWE then offered compensation to carriers who were affected by the closure, and the abandonment order was finally granted in 1953. The aqueduct was demolished immediately, as it was deemed to be unsafe.
caption: Looking southeast along the canal and towpath
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