Yorkshire Ring

The Yorkshire Ring is a canal ring in South and West Yorkshire, England. It was completed in 1905 with the construction of the New Junction Canal. It lasted for under thirty years before the closure of part of the Dearne and Dove Canal and subsequently the complete Barnsley Canal. Both these canals are currently under restoration.

[edit] Timeline

1793: The possibility of a complete ring is realised when the Barnsley Canal and Dearn & Dove Canal are authorised.
1804: The Dearne and Dove Canal is completed. Only a short land needs to be bridged between the Stainforth and Keable Canal and the Aire and Calder Navigation.
1889: The Don Navigation, Stainforth and Keable Canal, Dearne and Dove Canal, and Barnsley Canal become known as the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation along with the Sheffield Canal.
1892: Construction of the New Junction Canal is authorised.
1896: Construction on the New Junction Canal starts.
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.
1954: 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 is formed with the intention of restoring the Bansley and Dearne & Dove Canals.

Canals on the Yorkshire Ring - anticlockwise from the north