148 History of Inland Transport 



offers a striking example of that conflict of rival interests, 

 even in the case of rivers, which later on was to give rise 

 to many a Parliamentary battle in the days, first of canals, 

 and then of railways. 



How the cutlers of Sheffield and the steel manufacturers 

 and others of Hallamshire in general had been accustomed 

 to forward their goods by road to the inland port of Bawtry, 

 thence to be sent down the Idle and on by the Trent and the 

 Humber to Hull, has already been told. (See pp. 123-4.) There 

 came a time, however, when this preliminary land journey 

 of twenty miles from Sheffield to Bawtry was found of great 

 disadvantage to the trade of the district ; and in 1697 leave 

 was given to bring in a Bill to allow of the Don, already 

 navigable to Doncaster, being rendered navigable to Sheffield, 

 in order that merchandise might be sent by that stream direct 

 from Sheffield to the Ouse, and so on to the Humber and the 

 port of Hull. But the opposition offered by representatives 

 of the Bawtry, Trent and other interests who rightly fore- 

 saw in the scheme impending ruin for most of the traffic 

 on the Idle was so powerful that the Bill was thrown out. 

 A further Bill, with a like object, was introduced, and strongly 

 supported, in the following Session. It was still more vigor- 

 ously opposed, there being what Hunter describes as "a 

 war of petitions," and it was not proceeded with. 



For a time nothing further was done ; but in the mean- 

 while Sheffield was rapidly advancing to the position of one 

 of the leading industrial centres in the country, and the 

 compulsory twenty-mile journey by road to the chief port 

 of consignment for Sheffield goods sent to London or abroad 

 when there was a river flowing through Sheffield itself, was 

 felt to be an intolerable infliction, as well as a serious pre- 

 judice to the local industries. 



In 1722, therefore twenty-four years after the last of the 

 earlier attempts the Master Cutler of Sheffield and the 

 Cutlers' Company petitioned Parliament to allow the im- 

 provement of the Don navigation to proceed. The corpora- 

 tion of Doncaster sent a like petition, and so did the corpora- 

 tions of Manchester, Stockport and several other places. 

 But the established interests still controlled the situation, 

 and the design once more failed. 



Four years later (1726) the Sheffield cutlers made still 



