It became part of the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation, an attempt to remove several canals from railway control, in 1895.

Following the work of the Dutch drainage engineer Cornelius Vermuyden to drain Hatfield Chase, the Adlingfleet outlet was closed off, and the channel to the River Aire, passing through Newbridge, was improved to take all of the flow.

The scheme was not entirely successful, and after severe flooding near Sykehouse, Fishlake and Snaith, accompanied by riots, a new channel was cut between Newbridge and the River Ouse near what became Goole.

From there to the Ouse, boats used the Dutch River, Vermuyden's artificial drain,[3] which was hazardous due to its fast flows, its tides and its shallowness at times.

In 1772 a second survey was made, this time by John Thompson, the Don Navigation's engineer, for a canal from Stainforth to Althorpe, some 1.5 miles (2.4 km) above Keadby on the River Trent.

There was also a plan for a lower Don bypass, to connect direct to the Goole Canal, avoiding the difficult Dutch River.

Neither scheme progressed any further, but the Keadby end of the canal was improved, and a new deep water jetty was constructed on the Trent in 1833.

A bill to authorise the sale was opposed by some of the Stainforth and Keadby shareholders and was rejected by the House of Lords.

After several more abortive plans at amalgamation, where the Stainforth and Keadby pulled out at the last minute, agreement was finally reached, and the Don Navigation took control of the canal on 1 January 1849.

[8] Under the terms of the South Yorkshire Railway and River Dun Company's Vesting Act 1874 (37 & 38 Vict.

Despite the railway competition, traffic levels remained healthy, with the waterways carrying a total of 982,000 tons in 1878, but there was a growing dissatisfaction with the situation, particularly the high tolls compared to the railways, and the refusal to allow steam haulage, which had been in use on the neighbouring Aire and Calder Navigation for over 50 years.

[12] This removed the need to build a new port at Keadby, and the planned upgrade to take larger vessels was also shelved, because the company were unable to raise significant working capital.

The Stainforth and Keadby was designated as a commercial waterway, and traffic was restricted to working boats carrying freight.

With the steady demise of freight traffic, British Waterways encouraged the use of the canals for leisure cruising, walking and fishing, and later recognised their environmental value.

[16] Following the cessation of coal carrying from Hatfield Main colliery, and the closure of Dunston's boatyard at Thorne, all use of the canal is now by leisure boaters.

[17] A further change of ownership took place in 2012 with the creation of the Canal & River Trust, which took over all of the assets of British Waterways.

It included a ropewalk, which made ropes for many industries in the locality, as well as for rigging of the boats, and supplied sails, masts and chandlery to much of the Humber region.

Gradually, carvel-built barges with their smoother hulls replaced clinker-built ones, and boat sizes became more standard, with Sheffield-sized keels and larger sloops.

Shortly after Richard's grandson took over the yard in 1910, it was remodelled to build iron and steel ships, and only one wooden boat was built subsequently.

Sheffield-sized boats were around 61.5 by 15.5 feet (18.7 by 4.7 m), and could leave the yard either by passing through Thorne Lock and on to the Don Navigation, or by travelling to Keadby and entering the Trent.

Sloops were restricted to the Keadby route, because of their larger size, and the largest boats built at Thorne before the 1940s were 700-brake-horsepower (520 kW) tugs, 300-ton coasters and 300-ton lighters.

With the yard at Hessle on the Humber, bought from Henry Scarr in 1932, they were one of the largest un-nationalised shipbuilders in Britain.

[22] Keadby Lock is much shorter than the ship, and so it had to sail through when the river made a level with the canal, and both sets of gates could be opened at the same time.

Subsequently, it has become a housing estate,[25] where a number of the roads reflect the former use of the site, including Capstan Rope Way and Dunstan Drive,[26] although the spelling of "Dunston" is not quite the same.

Its notable buildings include the church of St Mary, much of which dates from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, with a twelfth-century southern doorway.

[32] After a large pipe bridge, the canal widens to form a loading bay where coal from Hatfield Main Colliery was transferred to barges.

[33] About 1 mile (1.6 km) from Stainforth, the Don turns towards the north, while the canal continues to the east, passing under the M18 motorway.

To the north are those of Thorne Moors, while to the south, the drains include Boating Dyke, which was used for the export of peat during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

[38] Just before Godnow Swing Bridge, the northern soak drain crosses to the north side of the railway.

When boats need to pass, the deck is winched sideways, and clears the waterway because it crosses it at an angle.