The Sheffield & Tinsley Canal

 

Tinsley Marina on the Sheffield & Tinsley Canal

In week 26 of the COVID-19 Pandemic, towards the middle of September 2020, the weather was still fine and I therefore made the most of a warm, sunny day by heading off to Sheffield to explore the Sheffield and Tinsley Canal.

The route of the Sheffield & Tinsley Canal

After exploring the Chesterfield Canal from the Norwood Tunnel at Kiveton Park to Worksop and very briefly in Retford, where there were some very attractive sections, I was interested to see how this canal, running through Sheffield’s old steel producing and engineering district, would compare.

 

Sheffield Cathedral

 

Having once been on a boat from Victoria Quays with my Spanish students at the Heart of England language school, along an unattractive industrial section where the highlight was seeing a heron, I didn’t hold my hopes high for seeing much subject material for this Language of Stone Blog; however, starting my journey at the Cathedral tram stop in Sheffield city centre, the grotesques on the gate posts never cease to fascinate me.

 

Gateposts at Sheffield Cathedral

 

Arriving at Meadowhall South tram stop, I made my way to the canal and, after heading off eastwards under the M1 motorway, only seeing that the canal walls were lined with blocks of sandstone and nothing else of much interest, I didn’t carry on to the locks that take it down to the River Don and retraced my footsteps.

 

The canal to the east of the M1 motorway.

 

Although a steel built structure, the two tiered Tinsley Viaduct is an impressive feat of engineering and was the first of its kind in the UK. This part of the Lower Don Valley, as well as having the canal, the River Don and a railway line, was densely occupied by profitable industry and therefore needed a solution that would preserve this.

 

Views of Tinsley Viaduct

Walking towards Sheffield along the towpath for a few hundred metres, with nothing of great merit to see, I thought that this stretch of the canal – which is on the Trans Pennine Trail – could do with some public sculpture to brighten up the very bleak post-industrial surroundings.

 

A commemorative plaque

At Lock 7 & 8, which were combined into one in 1959, there is a simple commemoration plaque, which is dedicated to the workers that repaired the lock after severe bomb damage in WWII and who continued to maintain the canal under very dangerous conditions.

 

Salvaged stones by the towpath

There is also a collection of large slabs of sandstone next to the towpath, some of which contain iron fittings, which I assume have been salvaged from the rebuilding of the original lock here; however, although they have been set aside in an area landscaped with gravel, I didn't see any information about them.

 

A view of Tinsley Marina

 

Arriving at Tinsley Marina, where numerous narrowboats and other boats used for the maintenance of the canal were moored, I noted that large blocks of coarse grained Carboniferous sandstone have been used in the construction of the banks and walls.

'Marble Players' by Vega Bermejo

With nearly 4 km until the end of the canal at Victoria Quays, by the time I had reached the Broughton Lane without seeing anything that particularly interested me, I decided to leave the canal at this point to go the supermarket at Meadowhall Retail Park. Stopping only to photograph ‘Marble Players’ by Vega Bermejo, which was bathed in sunlight, I ended my walk here and caught the bus back to Sheffield.

 

The route of my walk