Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/240

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218
DUN RIVER NAVIGATION

The length of the navigation from Tinsley to Doncaster, by the old course, is twenty-one miles, and by the course as it is intended to be improved, it will be eighteen miles only, with a fall of 67 feet 6 inches, by eleven locks. From Doncaster Mill the course of the navigation is very circuitous to Milethorne, or Redcliffe Lock, where there is a short cut; thence passing by Wheatley (the residence of Sir W. B. Cooke, Bart.) in a crooked course to about midway between Wheatley and Long Sandall, where a new channel for the rivera nearly three furlongs in length, is directed to be made on the west side of the river, which shortens it considerably. The river is again the navigation to Long Sandall Cut, where it will be diverted to the west side of its present line, and the old bed of the river will become the continuation of the Kirk Sandall Cut, from Long Sandall Lock to the cut last-mentioned; thence taking a direct course to Barmby Dun, and across the low grounds to South Bramwith and Stainforth, a distance of five miles, where it locks down into the river, and also communicates with the Stainforth and Keadby Canal. From this point the river proceeds to Fishlake Ferry, from which place the navigation company have the power to charge dues. The navigation hence proceeds in an eastwardly course to Thorne Quay, whence it runs directly north, to New Bridge; it then proceeds eastwardly, and in nearly a straight line, until it enters the Ouze, at the port of Goole. From New Bridge, the original course of the Dun was by Turnbridge, to the River Aire, into which it entered about three quarters of a mile west of Rawcliffe; but, since its waters have been directed into the Dutch River, the ancient course has been suffered to silt up. The present line of the navigation, from New Bridge to Goole, was formerly two parallel drains, cut by Sir Cornelius Vermuueden, a Dutchman, in the beginning of the reign of Charles the First, for the purpose of draining the low lands in the vicinity of Hatfield Chase; and his successors, now called the participants, levy an acre-age rent upon the lands so benefited. A great flood happening about the year 1688, the sluices at Goole were carried away, and the tides having free access to these drains, they had the effect of destroying the division between them; so that as nothing but the outward banks remain, it assumes the appearance of a very wide canal, which, at high water, in spring tides, is