Originally Stainforth was called Stain Ford due to the shallows in the River Don, or Dun, in the area. The River Don had a very fractured escape as some went into the Trent and some went north into the Aire and then to the Ouse. In the 1600 Charles I got Dutchman Vermuyden to drain the land better and he cut of the river from the Trent and pushed all the water to flow to the Aire. This caused massive flooding so he cut a new outlet that entered the Ouse at a place that became Goole much later, and this has been called Dutch River. The shallows at Stainforth made it the head of navigation from towards Doncaster and Sheffield. It wasn't until 1726 when the Company of Cutlers from Sheffield started to make improvements in the river at Tinsley close to the city. A year later Docaster Corporation approved work from Thorne to Doncaster and by 1740 the River Don from Doncaster to Fishlake had been cleared and deepened. Therefore Stainforth became an important maritime place. At this time a lock was constructed from the River Don to create a cut from Stainforth to Bramwith to miss out the shallows of the original ford. The river is tidal and as the waterway is very conflicted the currents run very fast.
In 1793 The Stainforth and Keadby Canal was approved and started to be dug from the Trent to join up with the cut at Stainforth. The new canal opened along its length in 1802 but the lock down into the River Don was retained.
Stainforth was the place on the navigation where the masts were taken down and the crane in this picture was used, with masts laid at its foot as proof. The house in the distance was the lock keepers house and the lock was just a little further away.
the Lock house can be more clearly seen in this picture.
The lock consisted of a basin, some of which you can see here, that appeared to have a dry dock off it. The actual lock into the Don would have been at the same angle as the cut from the canal, marked by the stones by the sign, and would be under the trees on the extreme right of the photo.
This is all that is left of the lock down into the river.
By 1849 the Stainforth and Keadby Canal had been acquired by the Don Navigation Company, and a year later by a railway company that after several iterations became the Great Central Railway. This lasted until 1895 when the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Railway acquired the navigation so as to provide competition for the railways. However the purchase price of £1,140,000 was made up of £600,000 cash and the rest in shares of the new company. The railways therefore provided half of the board of directors so nothing much changed. There were big plans to improve the navigation and some work did go on. However it was the opening of the New Junction Canal that restored the connection with the Ouse at the Port of Goole that was the main achievement, although the Aire and Calder Company helped pay for it. It was opened in 1905. This then meant that using the the Dutch River was less inviting as, while shorter, it was much more hazardous.
This is the Dutch River close to Goole. You can almost see the strength of the current and period of navigation would be very restricted to an hour or two either side of high water, and with the differences between spring and neap tides loads able to be carried would be very varied.
In this view we have the wide River Ouse running across the middle of the picture. The Dutch River is the left hand waterway, next widest, that angles of the Ouse and heads up the picture and crossed by Old Goole Bridge and Goole Railway bridge in the distance. The Aire and Calder Canal is the narrower waterway that runs to the right of the Dutch River. The docks and locks of Goole can clearly be seen too.
This old postcard shows the old Vermuyden Terrace that was on the Goole side of the Dutch River just before its confluence with the Ouse that can be seen in the distance. It is taken from the Old Goole Bridge. I like the line of cog boats on the mud flats.
By 1932 there were reports that the lock at Stainforth were silted up and impassable even for a small pleasure cruiser., but by 1937 there were newspaper reports that the clearing and cleansing of the River Don was hoped to lead to industries coming to Stainforth and bring jobs for the out of work rural labourers. However by 1937 it was discovered that the canal company had applied to have the lock at Stainforth disused. When this discovered it was almost too late. It seems that they had to wait four years, and if nothing was done to prevent it, it would be a fait accompli. Thorne and Stainforth Rural Councils quickly got into action to do their bets to prevent it. Mr. Tom Williams Mp and the local members of the County Council joined the other local Councillors in calling a meeting by all interested parties. Several were held. The main arguments were that as the cost of maintaining the lock was very small compared to the benefits that could accrue if the waterway was developed it should be maintained. It was also noted that this was the only toll free route from the area to the sea. Trying to play on the nervousness of the times it was stated that if either Keadby or Goole were bombed it would the only water route from Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster to the sea. The over riding feeling though was that it would be a great loss to the heritage of the area. A subcommittee of the Thorne and Srainforth Councils was formed and representation to the County Council to agree to keep it open to be made. In January 1939 there were great flood in the area with 6'7" extra water in the River Don and it over topping Stainforth Lock. The campaign seems to have floundered as by June 1939 the lock was closed and it now forms the basin of Thorne Cruising Club. The Dutch River did remain navigable, certainly near to Goole. Between the Old Goole Bridge and the Railway, on the left back as seen in the aerial photo above, was a factory belonging to Fisons. I remember several ships in the 1990's going up to it. One got jammed in the bridge for several weeks and that meant a very long round trip for vehicles. I think a scaffold alk way was built for pedestrians. I'm glad I wasn't that pilot!
In September 1910 there was a tragedy when three young women and a child along with a dog and a horse were drowned very close to the first to photos. They had been attending a funeral of a man who had drowned near by. They had gone to the home of one of their brothers who was the lock keeper. One of their finances had come to collect them in a carriage to take them back to Thorne. There were two gates before getting to the bridge. He had got out to open them when a scream made him look back and the horse had edged back a little and as the road was very narrow it was in danger of tipping over the edge and down to the river.. Despite the best efforts this is what happened. The horse broke it's neck and as the river was in spate the passengers were soon lost to sight. I young man had heard the screams and he and the fiance nearly lost their own lives in the river and had to be dragged out by others as they were exhausted. The next day the river was dragged and the three women were found not too far away. They were only kissing their hats! One report states that the mother was found with her arms out stretched as if the child had been ripped from her arms. The young lads body was never found. The horse and trap were recovered, the trap with hardly any damage. The dog was never found either.
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