Barnsley Canal
Once part of industrial Yorkshire's extensive network of waterways, the Barnsley Canal was closed in the 1950s - but is now proposed for restoration.
The passage of time has not been kind to Barnsley's waterways. The town once had two canals - the Barnsley Canal, which headed north to Wakefield and the Aire & Calder Navigation, and the Dearne & Dove Navigation, which ran south to Sheffield.
The Barnsley Canal opened at the start of the 19th century to service local coalfields. But it suffered from the success of those very mines, and gradually subsided into the ground. Closed in the 1950s, much of the route was lost in the 1960s and 1970s to unsympathetic development. The saddest loss was the demolition of the great Barnsley Aqueduct.
Local enthusiasts are now proposing the restoration of the canal, and several sections survive.
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