Dearne and Dove Canal

In 1949 IWA raised the question of what had happened to the Dearne & Dove Canal? George Westall's standard work INLAND CRUISING remarks: "The scenery of the Dearne valley is gloriously beautiful, and the Canal provides a short cross-route between the two fine systems which it connects (the River Dun and the Barnsley Canal). INLAND CRUISING also described the Dearne & Dove as a very important "commercial navigation," In 1949 it seemed totally impossible for this important and beautiful waterway to be entered by either trading craft or pleasure boat; though it had certainly not been abandoned but it neither seemed usable. Was this legal? IWA thought that the Dearne & Dove could be readily restored. The dense population of the South Yorkshire coalfield, the steelworkers of Sheffield, could all have used a beautiful waterway, even if there was no demand to trade on it (which, closely linked as the waterway was with the busy main line of the Sheffield & South Yorkshire Navigation was hard to believe).

In March 1955 the Board of Survey reported and recommended the disposal of 771 miles of waterway including some canals like the Huddersfield Narrow Canal and the Barnsley Canal that had already been abandoned and closed to traffic. These "Group 3" waterways also included the Ashton, Peak Forest, Macclesfield, Bridgwater and Taunton, Chesterfield, Cromford, Dearne and Dove, Erewash, Forth & Clyde, Grand Western, Grantham, Kennet & Avon, Lancaster, Manchester, Bolton & Bury, Monmouthshire & Brecon, Nottingham, Oxford (southern section), Pocklington, Ripon, Llangollen, Montgomery, Stratford-upon-Avon (southern section), Swansea and Edinburgh & Glasgow Union canals as well as the River Witham.

In response IWA advocate a National Waterway Conservancy to look after all our waterways and point out that it is cheaper to restore and use waterways than to eliminate them.