Pollington Canal Towpath Heritage Board - Pollington, UK - UK Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

TOWPATH HERITAGE BOARD

POLLINGTON CANAL
In the 1820s a new section of the Aire & Calder Navigation was constructed between the River Aire at Ferrybridge and the River Ouse at the new port of Goole.
The new section called the Knottingley & Goole Canal, was 18.7 miles long and was a vital link in the trade route from the West Riding towns to the North Sea.
The port of Goole and the canal were formerly opened in July 1826.
The canal is still used for commercial purposes in 2012. Around 850 loaded barges use the canal annually, carrying mainly oil and sand. Each barge holds the equivalent of 13 lorry loads, keeping around 11,000 loaded lorries off local roads each year. Pollington Lock is one of the largest locks on the waterway system, built originally in 1825, it was extended a number of times, most recently in 1970 to accommodate larger commercial vessels. There are four sets of gates which are all operational and can be used in combination to create a chamber of varying length according to the size of the vessel passing through.
Increasingly the canal is also used for leisure pursuits with many pleasure boaters coming through Pollington, which forms a vital link from Leeds and Wakefield to Doncaster and the River Trent.

SWING BRIDGES
On construction of the Aire and Calder Canal, a number of bridges were constructed to allow local farmers to gain access to their farms and also nearby land. One of these bridges can be seen a few yards east of this sign (No 3 Swing Bridge). This bridge is manually operated and still in use today (2012) to gain access to the field on the other side of the canal. A further swing bridge was built about one mile east of this sign (No. 4 Swing Bridge). At one time this would have been the only access to Balne Croft and Balne Croft Farm.

TOM PUDDING COMPARTMENT BOATS
William Bartholemew, a chief engineer between 1853 and 1895, developed the 'Tom Pudding' compartment boats that were put together in 'trains' pulled by a tug and a half-boat called a Jebus. They transported coal from the Yorkshire collieries to the docks at Goole and later to the power stations, until 1986. It was not uncommon to see 'trains' of 19 boats and sometimes up to 38 were used, each carrying around 35 tons of coal. Surviving 'Tom Puddings' were restored by the Yorkshire Waterways Museum at Goole in 2009. This photograph from July 2010 shows a 'train' of of three restored 'Tom Puddings' pulled by the restored tug 'Wheddale' having negotiated the lock at Pollington, on their way to The Leeds Waterfront Festival, with pupils from Pollington School looking on. All these craft can be seen at the 'Yorkshire Waterways Museum (2012).

MINI-SUBMARINE PASSES THROUGH POLLINGTON LOCK
This photograph shows the mini-submarine, HMS Sprat, passing through the lock gates at Pollington on 19th November 1957. A number of people saw this vessel including our Parish Clerk, Mr. Paul Hodgson.
It is understood that it travelled along the Aire and Calder network through to Leeds, where it was on display at a Royal Navy recruiting campaign.

FISHING
The Aire and Calder Canal provides an ideal venue for coarse fishing to both pleasure anglers and the more serious match fishermen and women. Matches normally take place on a Sunday when the canal is free from heavy water traffic and is visited by anglers from many local fishing clubs. The canal environment provides a wide range of fish including roach, skimmers, eels, perch, chub, bream and gudgeon.

The River Went runs parallel to the Aire and Calder Navigation just over a mile south of this location just north of the village of Sykehouse. Although a generally small waterway it does have quite an extensive flood plain on either side of its normal channel. This creates an ideal habitat for wildlife. During prolonged periods of heavy rain, flood waters extend into the flood plain and are usually contained within the flood bank. From the late 1800s into the early 1900s, the river became extensively polluted due to the growth of the coal mining industry. Mine water containing Ochre was discharged into the river together with a large amount of solid material. This choked the vegetation on the river bed and the fish population was destroyed. The river was without fish up until the 1970s. At this time, water quality in the lower went did improve due to natural purification and a small population of fish began to re-establish itself, most of which were thought to have been swept down from the River Don. Water quality continued to improve into the 1980s when the population of perch, roach, bream and eels became self sustaining. In 1981 the river was stocked with chub and dace, fish which more at home in the faster flowing parts of the river. The River Went is now an excellent coarse fishery and the population of chub and dace are found in the River Don at Doncaster and believed to have originated from the Went.

THE CHURCH OF POLLINGTON-CUM-BALNE
The elevated position from the top of the canal bridge on Bridge Lane provides a good view of St. John the Baptist Church of Pollington-cum-Balne. This church was built by the 7th Viscount Downer, William Henry Dawney, a British Politician, living at Cowick Hall. He was also responsible for the building of the school and the vicarage. The architect chosen was William Butterfield who shared Viscount Downe's vision of the work of the church in the villages of England. The clay for the bricks was excavated at Brick Pond Farm on Balne Moor Road, just a short distance from the site. We are told that the foundation stone for the church was laid on the 4th July 1853. Pollington-cum-Balne Church was completed and consecrated by Dr. Musgrave, Archbishop of York on 14th November 1854.

ALE HOUSES
Many houses situated near to the bridges on the canal system were usually Ale Houses.
When looking from the top of the canal bridge towards the village, the first house on the left near to the canal was an Ale House and known as 'The Jolly Sailor'.

THE HULL AND BARNSLEY RAILWAY
The main railway line was opened on the 20th July 1885 and one of is main purposes was to transport coal from the rich coalfields of South Yorkshire to Hull docks for export. Agriculural tractors and machinery were transported and also there were passenger trains. Up to sixty trains per day travelled in each direction at the peak of its service.The line crossed the canal at Heck, about two miles west of this location.
On 1st May 1916 a branch line was opened crossing the canal about one mile east of this location. A picture of the bridge is shown below.
A short piece of high level banking still remains as evidence of its existence.
There were five passenger stations built on this line including one at Pollington, but a passenger service was never introduced and the line was closed in October 1958.