South Yorkshire Times July 30, 1949

Not drought, but drainage, part of a mile stretch at Swinton where, this week, repairs are being carried out to lock gates.

Swinton Canal Section Emptied for Repairs

The scene at Swinton locks on Sunday, after over 3,000,000 gallons of water had been run off into adjacent sections of the canal, was reminiscent of Bridlington Harbour with the tide out.

Barges heeled over and settled firmly in the mud. Interested spectators lounged on the banks late into a glorious summer evening, an within half an hour of the canal being drained, children were catching more sticklebacks than they had ever dreamed existed.

The canal has been drained to enable repair work to be carried out on six lock gates. A mile long stretch of the Dearne and Dove Canal is affected, reaching from Swinton to Manvers Main Colliery.

The Dock and Inland Waterways Executive took advantage of the fact that Manvers Colliery was closed this week to start repair work. Heaviest traffic on the canal comes from the colliery arid little dislocation is expected as a result of the work.

Thirty men are employed on the repairs, which include patching up of damaged or rotted lock gates. The work is expected to be completed this week-end.

It is over 30 years since the locks were built and 10 years since they were last repaired.

From the anglers’ point of view the loss of fish will not be as great as might be expected. Although thousands of stickleback and small fish have died, only a few roach have been trapped.

The firm of Messrs. E. V. Waddington, timber merchants, have a number of barges lying high and dry, and are taking the opportunity of completing chipping and scraping of some of the boats. Work on the barge ” Pioneer ” is almost complete. The whole of the mid ship section is being rebuilt with stainless steel plates, and when complete will be the first of its kind in this country.