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Sheffield's close-knit canal boating community nestled amongst high rises and busy roads


Alan de Enfield

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Sheffield's close-knit canal boating community nestled amongst high rises and busy roads - YorkshireLive (examinerlive.co.uk)

 

 

There are a number of towns and cities across the UK - and beyond - that I associate with canal boating.

Sheffield is not one of them.

 

Despite this, on a grey and rainy Thursday afternoon I headed down to the city's Victoria Quays to talk to locals about life on the canal, and found that Sheffield is far better known in the boating world than I could have imagined.

 

I will admit that my knowledge about canals is certainly nothing to write home about; though living on a canal boat (if only for a short time) is on my bucket list, and I have been known to enjoy the odd episode of Great Canal Journeys with Prunella Scales and Timothy West.

 

There is something quaint and romantic about the notion of drifting down a quiet canal, watching the dragonflies darting around you and the birds soaring overhead, à la Wind in the Willows.

To this end, Victoria Quays was very different indeed - it is smack bang in the middle of a city, for one and, as such, was a little more busy and bustling than my romanticised riverside scene.

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13 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Sheffield's close-knit canal boating community nestled amongst high rises and busy roads - YorkshireLive (examinerlive.co.uk)

 

 

There are a number of towns and cities across the UK - and beyond - that I associate with canal boating.

Sheffield is not one of them.

 

Despite this, on a grey and rainy Thursday afternoon I headed down to the city's Victoria Quays to talk to locals about life on the canal, and found that Sheffield is far better known in the boating world than I could have imagined.

 

I will admit that my knowledge about canals is certainly nothing to write home about; though living on a canal boat (if only for a short time) is on my bucket list, and I have been known to enjoy the odd episode of Great Canal Journeys with Prunella Scales and Timothy West.

 

There is something quaint and romantic about the notion of drifting down a quiet canal, watching the dragonflies darting around you and the birds soaring overhead, à la Wind in the Willows.

To this end, Victoria Quays was very different indeed - it is smack bang in the middle of a city, for one and, as such, was a little more busy and bustling than my romanticised riverside scene.

Have a look through Peter Scotts many photographs on the "Whats Nice on the Waterways" thread". He features many views of Sheffield - especially Victoria Quays and the Warehouse - and indeed is very familiar with the area.

 

I think the same  perception about canals is felt about other towns and cities in the region including Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield, but the reality is that in many ways the waterways around Yorkshire have been at the heart of canal development and some still carry on the traditions of carrying freight where others gave up years ago.

 

Howard

 

Howard

 

 

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Alan, I thought you DID live on a boat?

I was brought up in Sheffield until age 13.6 and never knew that the Victoria Quays were there, I don't remember seeing a barge in the city or reading about them, so the waterways must have been very low-profile back then.

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20 minutes ago, Athy said:

Alan, I thought you DID live on a boat?

I was brought up in Sheffield until age 13.6 and never knew that the Victoria Quays were there, I don't remember seeing a barge in the city or reading about them, so the waterways must have been very low-profile back then.

 

They were.  I lived in Rotherham until I was 23, I went to what was then Sheffield Polytechnic for four years in the mid 1970's and the canals were pretty much unused and unloved.  Then towards the end of the decade there was a massive injection of capital into the Don navigation with the intention that Rotherham would become a major centre for freight traffic coming across the North Sea.  Of course that never happened, but I guess it did ironically make life a lot easier for leisure boats, if a bit intimidating.   It's a shame the locks through to Sheffield are still only 60' but you would still have to go via the Trent anyway. 

 

But Sheffield has changed out of all recognition in many respects to the city I remember, I get the impression that it has been pretty successful in reinventing itself after the "Full Monty" era, when so many former industrial towns/cities have never really recovered.  The local authority never gave up on the city centre despite the fact that Meadowhall was sucking the life out of it. 

 

It helps that scenically it's an interesting place.  I think it's a myth that it's built on seven hills but the topography does make it more appealing than Manchester for example, and the two universities are very close together so you get the impression that it's a "young" city.   

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 I wouldn’t take any notice of this article, I have lived in the Victoria Quays Basin for the last 12 years, the people in the article do not live there or even have their boat there. They moor up the Canal at the Boat building yard. They have taken their boat out twice in the last 12 years so hardly regular users, I would describe them as Floaters not Boaters. 

 I have never seen the Engineer in the article and I doubt he will be seen again. as he not one recommended by the Marina. The boat in the photo was a potential moorer, but decided she didn’t like being there also couldn’t afford to moor there so has now left.

  I don’t know who arranged this but have an idea it was for the Pubs benefit  as non of the long term boaters there were involved even local Sheffield artist Joe Scarborough who lives there was not even mentioned. As for a community, there are boaters there but we tend to get on with it and are not in each other’s pockets, funny thing is that the the majority of the boaters don’t drink in the pubs there as they tend to go into the City to get away from the place and the inevitable question “Do you live on a boat, we’re thinking of buying one” the couple of boaters from the basin that drink in there don’t know the first thing about the Canal or Narrowboats.

 So a totally “B@ll@x” piece of journalism that does not reflect in anyway the boating life at Victoria Quays.

  

  

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1 hour ago, PD1964 said:

So a totally “B@ll@x” piece of journalism that does not reflect in anyway the boating life at Victoria Quays.

Its the Examiner, lucky they even sent someone, normally glean stories from social media and use Google StreetView as a photographer.

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3 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:

But, has it?

Absolutely, any change is an improvement particularly air quality, thick yellow smog was a regular visitor in my childhood, if mum inadvertently left the washing out overnight, smog or not, she'd have to set to next day and do it all over again. Sheffield was a bit grim then but I had a happy childhood nevertheless. 

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10 minutes ago, nb Innisfree said:

Absolutely, any change is an improvement particularly air quality, thick yellow smog was a regular visitor in my childhood, if mum inadvertently left the washing out overnight, smog or not, she'd have to set to next day and do it all over again. Sheffield was a bit grim then but I had a happy childhood nevertheless. 

I don't remember the smog, but I do remember thinking, as a boy, that the buildings In Sheffield were made of black bricks. After I'd left, they cleaned the Midland Station and, on a return visit, I was amazed to see that it was a sandy colour.

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17 minutes ago, Athy said:

I don't remember the smog, but I do remember thinking, as a boy, that the buildings In Sheffield were made of black bricks. After I'd left, they cleaned the Midland Station and, on a return visit, I was amazed to see that it was a sandy colour.

Same with Huddersfield. I first came across the station building when a group of us from the BCN Society travelled up there by train to walk the Huddersfield Narrow in about 1974. The grand columned frontage was jet black and very impressive. On moving up to Yorkshire 20 years later, the cleaned and restored frontage had somehow lost some of its grandeur.

Undated_photograph_of_Huddersfield_Railw

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9 minutes ago, David Mack said:

Same with Huddersfield. I first came across the station building when a group of us from the BCN Society travelled up there by train to walk the Huddersfield Narrow in about 1974. The grand columned frontage was jet black and very impressive. On moving up to Yorkshire 20 years later, the cleaned and restored frontage had somehow lost some of its grandeur.

Undated_photograph_of_Huddersfield_Railw

Even worse now, with it's imported chinese granite flags, rarely-working water feature and statue of Harold :( 

 

 

Untitled-1.jpg

Edited by Hudds Lad
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2 hours ago, Neil2 said:

So I'm wondering now what sort of article the journalist should have written?

I think this is more or a Promo/Ad thing organised by the pub, as it is nothing to do with any of the boaters that actually live there or any expression of their views or true way of life.

  The engineer? Who’s is he? never seen before or has anything to do with Victoria Quays or even lives on the canal?????

 The most famous resident down there is Joe Scarborough.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Scarborough_(artist)

 He doesn’t even get a mention.

”5pm on the Canal” by Joe

381F8CCA-0AA8-48CE-8E57-22B1CC83C9AB.jpeg.540b87560ef1adce8cb7bec65d7180f7.jpeg

The main person in the article doesn’t live there but lives up the canal and has taken the boat out a couple of times in 12 years and says bought it as an alternative to a house so I would call a floater, nothing wrong with that if you have to work full time.

 It would of been a far better article if they had concentrated on Simon and his partner’s pub “The Dorothy Pax” and how it has developed over the years and brought more people down to Victoria Quays. Which is a good thing for the area.

https://m.facebook.com/thedorothypax/

 That’s what it should of been about not living on a boat there.

 A better photo of Victoria Quays:

35281FB8-F698-47A3-9364-1336D514B0FB.jpeg.95163a07395eb91ff7e937c5904df14e.jpeg

 

Edited by PD1964
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42 minutes ago, David Mack said:

 The grand columned frontage was jet black and very impressive. On moving up to Yorkshire 20 years later, the cleaned and restored frontage had somehow lost some of its grandeur.

Undated_photograph_of_Huddersfield_Railw

I used to think the same about steam freight locomotives: they looked bulkier and more imposing with a coating of grime on them. The O4s out of Darnall shed in Sheffield certainly did.

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1 hour ago, Athy said:

I don't remember the smog, but I do remember thinking, as a boy, that the buildings In Sheffield were made of black bricks. After I'd left, they cleaned the Midland Station and, on a return visit, I was amazed to see that it was a sandy colour.

Wicker Arches were as black as your hat but transformed after cleaning. 

Every building was black! 

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1 hour ago, Athy said:

I don't remember the smog, but I do remember thinking, as a boy, that the buildings In Sheffield were made of black bricks. After I'd left, they cleaned the Midland Station and, on a return visit, I was amazed to see that it was a sandy colour.

Same here, left a black Sheffield in '66 at age 19 and visited in '80 to an already cleaner place.

From our lounge window on the Manor Estate we overlooked the industrial valley between Sheff and Rotherham, at the end of the annual works fortnight holiday, after all had been shut down, Wincobank Hill on the other side of the valley would slowly emerge from the smog. Occasionally, if the wind was strong enough to shift the smog, we could see it then, a rare and welcome treat. 

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Just now, nb Innisfree said:

Same here, left a black Sheffield in '66 at age 19 and visited in '80 to an already cleaner place.

From our lounge window on the Manor Estate we overlooked the industrial valley between Sheff and Rotherham, at the end of the annual works fortnight holiday, after all had been shut down, Wincobank Hill on the other side of the valley would slowly emerge from the smog. Occasionally, if the wind was strong enough to shift the smog, we could see it then, a rare and welcome treat. 

ETA: In the late 50s Sheffield Council had a mad moment and painted the front doors of council houses pastel colours, it was like Hollywood 🤣

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1 hour ago, Athy said:

I don't remember the smog, but I do remember thinking, as a boy, that the buildings In Sheffield were made of black bricks. After I'd left, they cleaned the Midland Station and, on a return visit, I was amazed to see that it was a sandy colour.

 

Believe it or not there was a time when Bath Abbey was black - I dated a girl (slightkly younger than me but brough up here) who remembered it. Rather like you she came home from Uni for the weekend to find it had changed colour!

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8 hours ago, howardang said:

Have a look through Peter Scotts many photographs on the "Whats Nice on the Waterways" thread". He features many views of Sheffield - especially Victoria Quays and the Warehouse - and indeed is very familiar with the area.

 

I think the same  perception about canals is felt about other towns and cities in the region including Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield, but the reality is that in many ways the waterways around Yorkshire have been at the heart of canal development and some still carry on the traditions of carrying freight where others gave up years ago.

 

Howard

 

Howard

 

 

And so many city centres have seen massive investment and redevelopment since the dark days of industrial pollution. Not all is great architecture and built environment but most is. Despite some recent adverse comments (mostly I suspect with an axe to grind) Liverpool is a really great canal destination. Access from the Salthouse moorings is great. Sheffield, too, is interesting but the final  basin is a bit away from the bustling city centre. I could go on . . . 

Edited by Mike Todd
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