The Chesterfield Canal is a really beautiful especially after Shireoaks. The visitor mooring used to be inside the basin but now they are outside. You still have to enter to obtain water etc, but there is a gate for use of the showers/rubbish etc. Quite a nice spot for permanent moorings I would think.
Last time we were this way they were still building Dawn. It is a cuckoo boat that was built here in the basin by enthusiasts using the old techniques. A cuckoo was the type used on the Chesterfield canal only, but were suitable for plying their trade on the Trent and to Lincoln using a sail. There are no original boats left although I think there is a much shortened one around and I also think they have found the remains of one buried on the other side of Norwood Tunnel.
There are 23 locks from Shireoaks to the summit pound, 8 before the picturesque Turnerwood Basin. The ice cream shop/cafe wasn't open due to COVID but we stopped for a cup of tea anyway. All the locks may explain why right from the beginning there was a shortage of water at the summit. The canal was built with just Pebley Reservoir serving the Norwood summit, but by 1786 they realised they needed to increase the water supply and put out to tender the work to construct a new reservoir in April 1786. After setting off again from Turnerwood Basin you get a nice warm up with the two Turnerwood locks that go round a shall bend and the come to Brown's Lock where you get a view up the hill where there are another 16 locks in less than a mile.
There are double locks at Turnerwood Doubles and Brickyard locks. Here we are about half to the summit at the start of the first set of trebles, Thorpe Low treble. The tow path is well used so there is always somebody to have a chat with, at a distance obviously, and the scenery is just lovely. The locks are nicely spaced so it is easy to walk backwards and forwards, but as there was three of us it was even easier
The water of the summit is shallow and the weeds are encroaching into the channel, but when there is such little traffic it is hardly surprising. The occasional glimpses of hills and fields through the trees just spice up the summit pound.
Before arriving at Kiveton Park and Dog Kennel Bridge is the wharf where the stone that was used on the Houses of Parliament were loaded into narrow boats to start their journey to London. I think the crenelations on the wall are where the beams were secured to slide the stone across the tow path to the boats.
Unfortunately there is no winding hoe at the eastern portal of the Norwood Tunnel and to turn you have to utilise the area where the feeder from Harthill Reservoir drops down into the canal. Still more water was required and, the contract for constructing it was let out in April 1796. Even with further capacity by October 1844 there were severe shortages of water at the summit and consequently right down the canal, causing big delays to vessels.
These are the visitor moorings between Kiveton and the tunnel. In 1846 the railways had an idea to builder over much of the canal. Luckily a rival route came along and the two combined and the canal was saved. However it was bought and a new company formed snappily called the Manchester & Lincoln Union Railway & Chesterfield & Gainsborough Canal Co. For a time they invested money and repaired defects and also installed more reservoirs for the summit feeders. Still they were worried about the loss of water and canal officials were known to take boatmen to court if they were found to be drawing the paddles before the gates were closed behind them. In 1852 the canal had been blocked for a while and a Judge at Worksop warned that there was plenty of petty cases caused by construction worker on the railway nearby and by boatmen who have no work to do so were getting up to mischief!
We walked up to the eastern portal of the 13/4 mile Norwood Tunnel. You can just see the archof the entrance where the red bricks are. There is a brick missing to allow bats in and out. By 1886 there was such subsidence due to mining below the tunnel that the headroom was greatly reduced. A petition was sent to the Board of Trade after failing to get any action from the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, owners of the canal. Part of the evidence was that a boat had been stuck in the tunnel 36 hours in considerable danger with his two boats of lime. Another said they were stuck for 12 hours and couldn't get to the cabin so were half starving when they finally cleared. Passages of 7 or 8 hours were common and one boatman resorted to filling the cabin with 7" of water to lower the cabin sufficiently to pass through. Morris Chemicals of Stockwith reported they had lost several contracts as the freight was too high due to only part loads been able to pass up the canal. The BOT told the company that it would be best to open up the tunnel, but they were worried that water would just cascade in and make it unstable. They did agree to make repairs and these were going on night and day. The boat men were skeptical. By `1890 there was only 4'10" headroom, and the boater referred to the tunnel as the Rat Hole.
On 18th October 1907 there was further subsidence and this time the canal did not reopen. Retford Council complained to the Canal owners that they were experiencing great expense at not being able to access the tunnel for freight from the other side of the tunnel for such things as slag for road mending. The railway company agreed to a trial of carrying their freight from Rennishaw to Kiverton Park, either end of the tunnel, for free so long as the boats paid canal toll. The picture above reveals the line of the collapsed tunnel where the brown seed heads can be seen.
In 1921 there was a plan put forward by local councils to use the route of the canal from Chesterfield to the summit for a new road. This would open up the land either side of the canal and provide employment for people. A water main would also be laid to supply those that needed it, and the canal could be filled with the waste from the Staveley Steel Works and the the colliery waste heaps. The road was to be a private initiative. A company was set up called the Chesterfield Canal and Road Development Co and the project was to be financed by charging tolls for the use of the road. A preliminary Parliamentary Bill was written but after talks with various ministers it was never presented. In the end it seems that the Railway company Great Central Railway (Later LNER), the owners of the canal wouldmonoy seel the 11 miles of the canal if it included the collapsed Norwood Tunnel. I assume that this was to rid themselves of any future expense that may come their way. Also the Staveley Coal and Iron Company had extraction rights of water to from the canal of several 1000 gallons a day and would require the canal to be maintained or an alternative provided. Lastly the era for charging tolls had passed and Parliament were therefore reluctant to pass such a bill. It was partially resurrected in 1935, but once again nothing came of it. I am looking forward to the time that we will be able to once again access at least part of the tunnel route to go up and over the summit Norwood and down to Chesterfield.
To be honest the Chesterfield past Shireoaks is the most beautiful stretch of canal on the system so is well worth while heading that way, but to head down to Chesterfield would be a real added bonus. If they ever do build the link with through to Rotherham it will be such a busy route. I hope they do it in my lifetime, and by hook or by crook I'll give it a go.
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