Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation Cruise

Thur 2 June Back to Strawberry Island

the very handy Mexborough LIDL with wharf alongside

Mexborough Top Lock

Mexborough gardens

Mexborough gardens

men at work at Conisbrough

Conisbrough Castle

Conisbrough Viaduct

the bosky River Don between Conisbrough and Sprotborough

men at work on the Sprotborough work boats

Liana using the landing below Sprotborough Lock

Police safety/diving boat by A1(M) bridge, Doncaster

Police Divers under the A1(M) bridge

Doncaster Town Lock

looking back at the moorings below Doncaster Town Lock

With Annie secure at Strawberry Island Boat Club, we left Doncaster for a long weekend organising and helping at our local Market Rasen Gardeners Fayre. John organises a School Planters Competition for seven local primary schools, to encourage their young gardeners and make a lovely display to attract visitors.

Wed 1 June Down Tinsley Locks to Swinton with Country Explorer

Annie back at Tinsley Marina, where we were made very welcome

CRT man Dave arrived to see us down the remaining nine Tinsley locks

leaky gates1

A fine morning saw Annie sitting in Tinsley Lock 3 with Country Explorer, steered by long term cruisers Dave and his friendly wife, whose name we didn't catch, sadly. CRT man Dave took us down the locks, working hard and cheerfully to make the ladies' job far easier. Thanks, Dave, you are a credit to CRT!

Dave has a few yarns to tell!

the deep Tinsley lock 7/8 where John broke the tiller on those overhanging beams, on the way up. Beware!

leaving deep lock 7/8

CRT man Dave walked down the flight with the ladies

Lock 9

Dave working hard.

It is easy with two boats in these wide locks, with a couple of feet or more width spare: Shame the gates are so hard to move in places!

the ever-helpful and cheery CRT man, Dave bidding us farewell at Tinsley bottom lock

crossing the weir before Jordan's lock

passing a cruiser before entering Jordan's lock with Country Explorer ahead

Liana and Dave's wife (Country Explorer) working well together

Passing the wide weir near Jordan's Lock, we had to wait for a cruiser to leave it, so we were glad there was no great pull towards it, with low river levels.

the moorings above Ickles lock were chock-a-block

following Country Explorer (sic) into Ickles Lock

We moored up above Rotherham Lock and had a walk around the town centre, which had a mixture of shops.

we moored by the Law Courts, Rotherham

Rotherham's impressive church

a swarm of swans?

John dressed for the cooler early evening weather

In the late afternoon sun, we continued the few miles to Eastwood Lock, but the moorings were full up, so we continued under overcast skies down the Don and onto the Kilnhurst Cut to Swinton Lock and moored next to the barges by the CRT services.  In the deep water, Dave lost his lovely brass Eagle tiller pin, which had no steel for our magnet to attract. We slept well after a lovely day on the cut.

Dave on Country Explorer following us into Aldwarke Lock

on lock moorings opposite Waddingtons yard and the Dearne and Dove Canal, above Swinton Lock

moored below Swinton Lock

Country Explorer moored by the Waddingtons boats

Tuesday 31 May 2016 Victoria Quays, Sheffield

Yesterday, John and Min, Angela's husband, went on a bell ringing tour near Retford, while Liana and Angela use the Supertram to visit Sheffield. Today, strong wind and overcast skies saw Annie setting off up the last two Tinsley locks, helped by our friendly CRT man, Dave, who clearly wanted us to have a good experience.

Annie in Tinsley Lock 2, showing the other part of Tinsley Marina

bridges on the green corridor into Sheffield

We motored steadily through this green corridor into the heart of Sheffield. Nearing the end brought more industry, including atmospheric old buildings. A young angler dozed just too long, so John had to stop to avoid him losing his rods. We were thanked.

On the way, we passed an empty, unused and overgrown mooring setup complete with pontoons, which seemed strange. Bridge six, Bacon Lane Bridge, achieved fame in The Full Monty film.

Bacon Lane Bridge, of Full Monty fame

Under a number of expensive bridges built for the Supertram, often seen passing, we arrived at Victoria Quays.

our first view of Victoria Quays: visitor moorings on right, swing bridge and services ahead on left.

Liana operating the swing bridge for the friendly boaters on

After the visitor moorings, Liana operated the swing bridge so that a narrowboat could leave the CRT water point and services (just after the bridge on the left) and return to the visitor moorings, while we took their place. The nice couple  told us all about their Ribble Link adventures while we waited for them to complete their watering up.

Sheffield Quays: you need to pass through the swing bridge to reach the services just inside on the left.

After emptying our holding tanks and filling the water tank, Liana rinsed the side, which had lots of rope marks from the locks, as she walked back with the hose. Sadly, a rude fellow from the Marina opposite arrived and made a fuss, saying we should have moored, gone to the marina office and asked his permission first! I pointed out that we needed to use the services first, before mooring, the bridge and services were CRT's, not his, and we had paid our license fee. It was rather a shame that a boorish jobsworth did such a bad job of welcoming visitors to Sheffield! Thank goodness such behaviour is very unusual. Once moored on the CRT visitor moorings back through the bridge, we saw a sign saying after mooring, to introduce yourself at the marina office, but decided we did not want to renew the acquaintance!

Annie moored under the bridge. The visitor moorings were a bit neglected, with long grass and an underwater obstruction

Victoria Quays are surrounded by buildings and roads.

Liana in front of the Straddle Warehouse.

Liana admiring the impressive warehouse

The city centre is a short walk from the visitors moorings, which were a bit overgrown, with an underwater lump which prevented our boat mooring normally.  We stocked up on bits and pieces, then ate decent cheap food (steak tuesday!) at Wetherspoons. How do they sell a 14oz steak plus real ale pint for just over £9 and make a profit? After our wanderings, dark clouds persuaded us to set off back to Tinsley Marina before the locks closed at about 5PM.

we surprised the workmen painting the bridge!

you don't see this often! To the workman left literally high and dry on his ladder, John said "There are times when you get to know who your friends are!"

.... there was a lot of laughter as the boat returned!

A cloudburst happened after we moored, happily!
Time to catch up on the blog, read and watch tv before we set off back to Strawberry Island at 8AM tomorrow (organised with Dave), ahead of a couple of boats leaving later.

Sunday May 29 Heading for Sheffield with Angela

Day dawned cool, misty and 10/10 cloud, but not wet, thank goodness. An early plastic boat passed us and entered Eastwood (Sir Frank Price) Lock. All the locks above this have not been enlarged. With two locks and two miles to reach Holmes Lock before 10AM, as agreed with CRT, we set off at 8AM to Rotherham Lock, through a pretty section before we reached the mainly post-industrial parts of Rotherham. Above Rotherham Lock, an unreconstructed lock made for 61.5 feet long keel boats, although including the width of the gates when open, they must be about full length, 70 feet, I would guess. We passed the new law courts and rejoined the river. The river was low today, with the marker well into the green.
We reached Holmes Lock and waited for Nigel, the CRT man, who had a special key for the special locks which were on the Tinsley Locks and Holmes lock, too. Nigel left us to go through Jordans Lock by ourselves. Passing a wide weir, we arrived at the Bottom Lock 11of the Tinsley flight. Nigel, Liana and Angela worked hard, as the gates were often stiff and hard to budge alone. Nigel commented that this put people off! In lock 5, I made my big boo boo of the day: As the lock filled, I got distracted by the camera memory card becoming filled, and started deleteing a few images. Bad Idea. Looking up, I realised that the tiller was trapped under the bottom gate walkway, and was getting crushed. I asked Angela to shut the paddles, but I was too late to save the Z bar. It was a much flatter Z, and snapped off at the bottom weld. Nigel suggested going up two more locks to Tinsley Marina, above lock 3, to get it fixed, which we did. This is the first time I have steered a narrowboat with a 19mm spanner on the tiller boss nut!
Even though it was Sunday, Alan, one of the Marina boaters, got out his arc welder and angle grinder and made a repair, which was very good of him.

The other resident boaters were very welcoming, too, and directed us to the local shops. In fact, Meadowhall and a local shopping centre are within walking distance.

Sunshine blessed all of us as the local boaters canoed and played with toy remote-controlled boats in the short pound containing the small marina. The new plan is to go up the last two locks and 3 miles to Sheffield's Victoria Basin in the morning, and omit the bell ringing I was going to do. CRT man Dave kindly said we could stay at the marina both before and after visiting Victoria basin, if we wished. Nigel returned later to check all was ok, and to advise us to telephone 24 hours before descending the flight.