Rainbow Bridge

Picturing the Past: NarrowBoat, Winter 2024

Christopher M Jones

Chris M. Jones looks at two views of the same location, showing traffic on the Sheffield & South Yorkshire Navigation

The location of these two images is Conisbrough, where the Sheffield & South Yorkshire Navigation passes beneath the railway supported on the massive 600-ton iron bridge. This was originally known as Cliff Bridge when built by the South Yorkshire, Doncaster & Goole Railway between Doncaster and Swinton, where it joined the North Midland Railway on 10th November 1849. Further extensions to the line were opened over the following years. In 1874 it became part of the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway, which in turn came under the control of the Great Central Railway. The section over the bridge was its Barnsley-to-Barnetby branch and, when these images were taken in around 1906, it had become known as Rainbow Bridge. It was replaced in 1928 by a stronger structure but it was nothing like as attractive. The wooded hillside on the opposite bank became known as Conisbrough Cliff where a number of quarries exploited the limestone. By the mid-1920s a large dolomite and …