Underground Canals Unearthed

Reader's Letters & Queries: NarrowBoat, Spring 2012

In the article ‘Boxes by Boat’ in Spring 2011 NB, mention was made of the small container boats used on the Hollingwood Common Canal, from which coal was transferred to the Chesterfield Canal. This was an underground canal that ran for nearly two miles beneath what is now the Hollingwood Estate and Ringwood Hall to Westwood. It was not connected to the main canal, but met it at a lower level where the coal was transhipped from the 21ft tunnel boats to full-size 70ft boats on the main canal at a wharf. This was on the old line of the canal which was infilled after the new cut was built in 1892 to accommodate the Chesterfield Loop line of the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway. It was at this time that the existing Hollingwood Lock was built on the new line. There are very few traces of the Hollingwood Common Canal on the surface, but the tunnel is still there. Recent Chesterfield Canal Trust work parties have revealed part of the canal, where it crossed the r…