Stainforth and Keadby Canal

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Stainforth and Keadby Canal

legend River Trent Keadby lock Keadby swing bridge B1392 Sliding Railway bridge Vazon swing bridge A161 Crowle bridge Godnow swing bridge Crook o'Moor swing bridge Maud's swing bridge Moor's swing bridge Wykewell lift bridge A614 Thorne bridge Thorne lock swing bridge Railway bridge M18 motorway River Don Stainforth bridge Bramwith swing bridge Bramwith lock New Junction Canal River Don Navigation

The Stainforth and Keadby Canal is a navigable canal in South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, England. It connects the River Don Navigation at Stainforth to the River Trent at Keadby, by way of Thorne and Ealand, near Crowle.

When the canal was opened in 1802, it allowed safer navigation for goods from South Yorkshire, by bypassing the shoals of the River Dun (lower reaches of the River Don) and the Dutch River (Vermuyden's artificial drain paralleling the Dun). Goods from Sheffield, Rotherham, and Doncaster could now use the Trent to reach the River Ouse and the Humber, or travel south to the English Midlands.

However, boats still had to deal with the high (or, more problematical, low) tides of the Trent and the difficulties of rounding Trent Falls (where the Trent and Ouse meet to form the Humber). Therefore the S&K canal was itself largely superseded when the New Junction Canal opened in 1905 to connect the River Don Navigation northwards to the Aire and Calder Navigation. South Yorkshire traffic could now reach the Ouse (and thence York or Hull) at Goole Docks, by way of non-tidal waters instead of the Trent; or save many miles on a westward journey to or beyond Leeds, Wakefield or Huddersfield.

The S&K canal is now part of the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation. It is little used for commercial carrying, but as it is part of the fully-connected network of English and Welsh canals, narrowboating holidaymakers can reach Keadby from as far away as Bristol, Llangollen, Lancaster, Ripon or London.

[edit] See also

• Canals of Great Britain
• History of the British canal system