New Junction Canal - Sykehouse Lock - Sykehouse, UK - Waterway Locks, Planes and Lifts on Waymarking.com

The New Junction Canal is a canal in South Yorkshire, England. It is part of the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation (S&SYN), although it was jointly funded by the Aire and Calder Navigation, and was opened in 1905. It links the River Don Navigation and the Stainforth and Keadby Canal with the Aire and Calder Navigation (Knottingley Canal). It is completely straight, and was the last canal built in England for commercial purposes.

The canal has one lock, which was sized to allow the compartment boats of the Aire and Calder to use it, but the owning company failed to raise enough money to upgrade the River Don Navigation beyond, and Long Sandall lock prevented working of such boats through to Doncaster until it was rebuilt in 1959. There is still some commercial traffic on the canal, but most use is now by leisure boaters. One notable feature is the aqueduct over the River Don which is protected by large guillotine gates, which can be lowered when the Don is in spate, to prevent the surrounding countryside from being flooded.

The Lock
The lock was built to accommodate the large 300 and 400 ton boats used on the Aire and Calder Navigation and also the compartment boat trains that at the time were unique to the Aire and Calder.

This system allowed a number of smaller compartments to be joined together like carriages on a train. The maximum size was a string of 17 compartments, which this lock could handle, but unfortunately the older locks south of here on the River Don Navigation were not as long and the compartments had to be split into smaller loads for those locks.

In 1983 the navigation was the subject of one of the last major attempts in the UK to attract commercial freight to the waterways. It was upgraded to the 700-tonne Eurobarge standard by deepening the channels and enlarging the locks as far as Rotherham. The new locks are 198 by 20 feet (60.4 by 6.1 m), and the navigation accommodates boats with a draught of 8.2 feet (2.5 m) and needing headroom of 10.5 feet (3.2 m).

This lock is controlled by a lock keeper in a brick built control tower which gives good views of the large size lock.

The middle of the lock is crossed by an accommodation swing bridge for a nearby farm. Although the lock operation is automated a safety switch on the bridge prevents it being operated until the swing bridge has been manually opened.

Waterway Name: New Junction Canal Connected Points: It connects with the Aire and Calder Navigation at its north end. The southern end is at the junction of the River Don Navigation (known as the River Dun Navigation at that point) Type: Lock Date Opened: 01/02/1905 Elevation Difference (meters): 2.00 Site Status: Operational Web Site: [Web Link] Date Closed (if applicable): Not listed

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