Sheffield Canal Basin

SHEFFIELD CANAL BASIN has had a great face lift within the last ten years. It now consists of modern lock-up shops selling mostly small gifts that promote Sheffield, highrise office blocks, the Sheffield Hilton Hotel, a few bars and lots of eating establishments - or if you prefer the older term; Cafes.

The canal itself has had a clean out. Prior to this it was a dumping ground for anything you wanted to burry under water, the water itself used to be covered in a thick layer of oil, but luckily those days are now gone. The canal is clean, so clean in fact that if you go and stand under the shade of the few nearby bridges that cross over the canal you can actually see the large fish that swim in the canal. I'm sorry, I don't know much about fish so I cannot tell you what breed of fish they are.

For anyone who is interested in boats or canal barges there is lots of these moored at the canal basin. Some of the barges are actually lived on throughout the year, so please when visitting respect the barge owners' privacy.

The Sheffield Canal was originally created to carry barges filled with Steel Goods from Sheffield to the docks in Hull by joining up with the South Yorkshire Navigational Canal, which joined up to the River Trent and via the Trent into the River Humber.

Sheffield Canal Basin is well worth a day trip.