Chesterfield Canal

The Chesterfield Canal is a product of Britain’s first canal-building boom. By 1768, the business community in Chesterfield had seen the success of the Duke of Bridgewater’s Canal in reducing the price of coal in Manchester. Chesterfield, in north-east Derbyshire, was at that time a major producer of coal. Lying on the edge of the Peak District, other heavy goods were produced in the area such as lead and millstones.

For Chesterfield to prosper, it needed to reduce the cost of exporting these goods. In the mid-18th century heavy goods were transported on the major rivers and round the coast, but Chesterfield was more than thirty miles from the River Trent. The traditional route used was by packhorse to Bawtry, which was then an inland port, and thence 11 miles along the River Idle to West Stockwith on the tidal Trent.

During late 1768, a group of Chesterfield’s leading citizens concluded that a canal should be built to Bawtry, and contacted the most famous canal engineer of that era, James Brindley. Brindley was busy with other projects, so delegated the survey to John Varley, a 29-year-old surveyor whom he had trained on the canals then being built in Cheshire. The survey was carried out the following April.

Narrowboat Pride, partially loaded with limestone which has presumably been delivered on the tramway from Steetley’s quarry at Shireoaks. The gentleman on the right is sitting on one of the parapets of the aqueduct over the River Ryton. In the background, through Cinderhill Bridge, is the first of the 22 locks of the “Giant’s Staircase” which lift the canal to its summit. If attempting to take the same picture today, the photographer would be standing alongside the head gate of Boundary Lock 41a, newly built to counteract mining subsidence.

Varley’s plan was for a canal 28 miles long with a channel width of 28ft, suitable for use by narrowboats 70ft long and 7ft wide. It would follow the River Rother northwards down the valley as far as Killamarsh, then turn eastwards, passing through hills in a tunnel at Norwood, then descend to Shireoaks from whence it would follow the River Ryton valley to Bawtry. Brindley announced that the cost would be £100,000.

The citizens of Retford became aware of the plan and suggested it would be beneficial to both Chesterfield and Retford if a more southerly route were adopted which would pass through Worksop and Retford, bypass the River Idle, and head directly to the Trent. Proposals were made for a junction at West Stockwith, or 5 miles further upstream at Gainsborough, but this latter would have cost more and involved a long tunnel east of Retford, so it was rejected.

The reader may wonder why the simplest, shortest and cheapest route for a canal was not adopted. It would have been possible to build a 15-mile lightly locked waterway down the River Rother Valley to link with the Don Navigation at Rotherham. However, this is to ignore the commercial reality of the situation: the Chesterfield promoters did not want to have to pay the expensive tolls on the Don – indeed they considered that with their new and efficient waterway, they would be able to undercut their rivals from Rotherham and Sheffield.

At a surprisingly late stage, John Lister, owner of the navigation rights on the River Idle, realised that he was going to lose much of his trade if the canal was built through Retford. He commissioned the Lincolnshire surveyor John Grundy to produce plans for a canal from Chesterfield to Bawtry which would somehow include Worksop and Retford. His proposals were published in August 1770 but it was wasted work; the canal promoters of Chesterfield and Retford were not interested in changing their plans to save Bawtry’s trade, and as a result have to pay tolls on the River Idle.

Act of Parliament

In February 1770, a petition was laid before the House of Commons for the construction of the canal. This was, however, a false start; the promoters realised that their application was insufficient and it was withdrawn less than a fortnight later. After much more work, a second petition was submitted on 23rd January 1771. Brindley gave evidence that the cost of construction would be £97,000 and traffic would amply justify the expense. Objections regarding water supply to the Don Navigation and to Staveley Forge were overcome, and the Act was passed on 28th March. Anthony Lax rode as quickly as possible from London with the news and reached Chesterfield on 30th March – there was much celebration and ringing of bells in the town.

The Act authorised the canal company to raise £100,000 in £100 shares and a further £50,000 if required. The first meeting of the committee and general assembly was called on 18th April and it quickly set about taking subscriptions for shares, not only in Chesterfield and Retford but also in London. These were fully subscribed by July. Notable among the shareholders were the dukes of Devonshire and Newcastle, local lead merchants and James Brindley himself, who was appointed as chief engineer on a salary of £300 per annum. Many local tradesmen purchased a single share; £100 was a considerable sum at the time. At the same meeting, Anthony Lax was appointed as ‘Clerk and Sollicitor (sic)’.

A Shireoaks Colliery Company narrowboat at their sales wharf above Worksop Town Lock.

Building the Canal

On 5th September 1771, the second general assembly appointed the principal officers and paymasters to be responsible for building the canal. James Brindley’s ‘apprentice’ John Varley was appointed as ‘Clerk of the Works’ on an annual salary of £100. The meeting also heard that the tunnel at Norwood would be built substantially longer than originally planned, but there is no explanation in the minutes as to why.

Construction of the canal began in October, once the harvest had finished, as most of the labourers would be local farm hands. Norwood Tunnel was now the largest element of the scheme so work started here. It was also the highest point on the canal and work commenced on the nearby reservoir, Pebley Pond, which incidentally is claimed to be Canal & River Trust’s oldest reservoir still in use.

Brindley’s construction method was to build the canal downhill from the reservoir, so that as each length was completed, it could be used to transport construction materials to the next section. Fortuitously in this area, many of the materials required could be found. Woods were purchased to provide timber for boat building, lock frames and gates, and props in the tunnel. Brickworks were set up: local clay for bricks could be fired using local coal. Sand and limestone were also available for mortar and stonework. The remains of some of the pits, quarries and lime kilns can still be found in the woods alongside the summit pound.

Chesterfield terminal basin, prior to the construction of the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway in 1890 which cut through at right angles and caused its abandonment and the construction of a new basin. The photographer was standing on the towpath on the banks of the River Rother which was used as part of the navigation for a short distance. On the left, a footbridge carried the towpath over the river. Floodgates protected the basin from river flooding. The basin split into two arms and had three substantial warehouses, one of which straddled the arm. The white building was Canal House.

Staircase Locks

A photograph published in a 1905 pamphlet showing the highest treble staircase at Norwood. The buildings on the right were used by the canal company’s carpenters.

When the Chesterfield Canal was built, there was no experience of operating long-distance canals with long flights of locks from one river basin to the next. They did not know that it was not a good idea to build lock flights with a mixture of single locks and staircases. 

The “Giant’s Staircase” was the contemporary name given to the flight of 22 locks (now known as Thorpe and Turnerwood flights) which lower the canal from Norwood Tunnel down to Shireoaks. Mixed in among the single chambers are two 3-rise staircases and two 2-rises. This lock flight is also unusual in that all the chambers are shallow, with an average rise of only 4ft 2in. 

At the other end of the tunnel, to descend into the Rother Valley, staircase locks were also used, in this case one 4-rise and then three 3-rises with an average rise of 5ft 2in.

By September 1772, work on the tunnel and reservoir was advancing well and the summit pound eastwards was completed and in use for construction traffic. Materials for the 22 locks which lower the canal to Shireoaks had been stockpiled, and brick production was going well. The committee was pleased with progress and even deferred a call on the shares.

Then, early in October, the news reached Chesterfield that James Brindley had died. The committee were unsure whether John Varley would be capable of building the canal without his mentor, but they had little choice but to continue. Fortunately Brindley had been on site recently and had given his instruction as to how work should proceed over the winter. In November they approached Hugh Henshall (Brindley’s brother-in-law) who was asked to oversee the work.

Henshall discovered that some of the work done by contractors in Norwood Tunnel was unsatisfactory and needed to be re-done. Unfortunately for Varley, these contractors were his father and two brothers. Evidence of improper payments also came to light. Varley appeared before the committee and was allowed to continue, but his freedom to order materials and agree rates with contractors was restricted and carefully monitored by the company’s treasurers.

By November 1774, the canal was complete as far as Retford. At last some income could be made by carrying coal from Killamarsh, though this had to be carted past the Norwood Tunnel works. The tunnel was finally opened on 9th May 1775. To celebrate, three boats, carrying 300 people, were legged through in 1 hour and 5 minutes. Norwood Tunnel was 2,884 yards long, exactly the same length as Brindley’s better-known tunnel at Harecastle. When opened it was the UK’s longest tunnel.

Once the tunnel was complete, advanced works and stockpiling of bricks and materials began westwards towards Chesterfield. However the company’s major push was towards the Trent; the connection was considered imperative as it would generate more income. After the enthusiasm early in the project, it was now found that money was running out. Added to that, construction materials became more expensive as the country was plunged into a recession. This was a result of worsening relations with the American colonies which became the War of Independence, and hostilities with France and Spain. Further calls had to be made on the shares as the company raised the additional finance allowed by the Act.

In April 1776, the canal was opened to West Stockwith, though the basin and lock into the river were not completed until later. In August that same year, the canal was extended in one level pond westwards with a short arm to Norbriggs (near Staveley) and the turnpike road. Some 6 miles from Chesterfield, this was to serve as the temporary terminus whilst the final section was completed.

The canal rises through five locks as it follows the River Rother up to Chesterfield. The engineering here was straightforward, but between Norbriggs and Staveley the route crossed the River Doe Lea, a tributary of the Rother. This involved the construction of a high embankment, over ½ mile long, across the valley, known locally as Staveley Puddle Bank, which took around 9 months to build.

After a massive push, the canal was finally completed to a temporary terminus somewhere on the River Rother near Chesterfield. The opening was specially arranged to coincide with the King’s birthday on 4th June 1777. The first boat carrying goods from West Stockwith was met at Tapton Lock by a great crowd. The goods were loaded into wagons and dragged into the town where there were great celebrations.

Operating the Canal

Pebley soon proved insufficient to supply the summit pound. By 1790, two new reservoirs were built to the west of the tunnel: at Woodhall and Killamarsh. Then three more were constructed east of the tunnel at Harthill by 1806. More recently, the Harthill reservoirs have been combined into one large reservoir and this, together with Pebley, still serves the canal. Woodhall and Killamarsh have been lost to mining subsidence, though Killamarsh is still used for fishing.

New wharf facilities were gradually added along the route and extensive basins and warehouses formed a new terminus in Chesterfield. A number of branch canals and arms was built, one at Staveley of which no records remain. The most significant was the privately built Lady Lee Arm running for ¾ mile from below Stret Lock near Worksop to quarries near Worksop Manor. A number of tramways was built in the Rother Valley, linking local pits and factories to the canal. Remains of two of the more significant of these can still be found in New Whittington and Eckington. As a result of the need to borrow additional money when building the canal and the poor financial conditions of the time, the first dividend (1%) was not paid until 1789. From then on the waterway was moderately successful until the coming of the railways. The principal cargo was coal which was exported from the Derbyshire collieries into Nottinghamshire and further afield; regular loads were carried by narrowboat to Gainsborough and Lincoln. Other significant cargoes included lead and millstones from the nearby Peak District, lime, iron, timber and corn. Chesterfield’s pottery industry now had a safer mode of transport for exporting its goods. In addition all types of general goods were carried and a market packet boat operated between Misterton and Retford. Perhaps the most well-known cargo carried was the stone used to build the Houses of Parliament. In 1834, many of London’s old parliament buildings were destroyed in a massive fire. Stone for the new buildings was chosen from a quarry at North Anston, some 2 miles from the Chesterfield Canal at Kiveton Park. The limestone was dragged along the lanes on wooden bogies to a canal wharf, where it was dressed. It was then loaded into narrowboats for the journey to West Stockwith where it was transhipped. Humber sloops (fore and aft rigged sailing vessels) completed the journey via the Trent and Humber, round the coast and up the River Thames for directly unloading on site. Anston stone was used in other London buildings, and it is thought some 200,000 tons of stone were carried down the Chesterfield Canal between 1840 and 1860.

In 1956 the maintenance boat Norah, which was built by the canal company, is tied at the Straddle Warehouse in Worksop. The front of this boat became Ike Argent’s cruiser Dawn. Stan Heaton

Tapton Lock No 1 at Chesterfield on the occasion of the Inland Waterways Protection Society’s inspection in November 1958, probably photographed by E.K. Edgeley. Note that the top gate was still in existence. The house was still occupied by a lengthsman whose duty was to maintain the water supply down the canal; at that time there was a number of industrial users in addition to Staveley Works. The lock house was demolished and a new one built around 1961. It is now used as Tapton Lock Visitor Centre.

Belk Lane Lock at Killamarsh. The copings of this lock can still be seen in a garden at Sheffield Road, Killamarsh but the lock cottage has been demolished. The proposals for diverting the canal at Killamarsh mean this lock is unlikely to be restored.

Railways

Competition from the railways began with the building of George Stephenson’s North Midland Railway from Derby to Leeds, which opened in 1840. This followed the Rother Valley through Chesterfield and paralleled the canal as far as Killamarsh. Then in 1844 a line was proposed from Sheffield to Gainsborough, the Sheffield & Lincolnshire Junction Railway. This would serve the coalfields in the Killamarsh area and pass through Shireoaks, Worksop and Retford, thus directly competing with the canal. To counter this proposal, the canal proprietors formed the Manchester & Lincoln Union Railway which would use parts of the canal route. Eventually the two railway companies agreed to amalgamate and lease the canal. Thus the canal passed into railway ownership to the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway Company in 1847. The Act specified that the canal must be retained operable in good order with just tolls, so a programme of improvements was set about the following year which resulted in increased revenue.

A working boat at Manface (or, more properly, Lady) Bridge at Wiseton. It was unusual for a lady to be steering the boat as they usually had all male crews. This ornamental bridge carries the driveway to Wiseton Hall.

In the 1890s, the MS&LR rebranded itself as the Great Central Railway and set about completing an ambitious new main line railway from Sheffield to London (Marylebone) with a branch to Staveley and Chesterfield. The canal had to be diverted in several places to accommodate these new lines and as a result several contour loops were cut off and the canal shortened by nearly a mile.

Norwood Tunnel Collapses

The ridge through which Norwood Tunnel passed was rich with coal. From 1864 a colliery was developed at Kiveton Park, which began to mine the deep seams beneath the tunnel. Subsidence of the tunnel caused headroom to be reduced to as little as 4ft. Complaints from boat crews resulted in a longrunning legal dispute between the canal’s owners and the Kiveton Park Colliery Co. From 1871 the MS&LR spent substantial sums in raising the roof. A section of tunnel in colliery land collapsed and was opened out as a cutting. On 18th October 1907, a further section collapsed and the decision was taken not to carry out repairs.

The western section of the canal towards Chesterfield was cut off. To the east, the canal between the tunnel and Shireoaks Colliery, including the 22 Thorpe and Turnerwood locks, fell into disuse as there was no traffic from this remote area.

Death Throes

In the last years of its useful carrying life, there were two principal traffics on the canal: downhill there was coal from Shireoaks; uphill, imported grain from West Stockwith (brought there by barge from the Humber ports) to the canalside Smith’s mill in Worksop. This grain traffic ceased as a result of the canal freezing up in the bad winter of 1947. Lorries had to be hired in to keep the mill working, so Furley’s who operated the boats decided to buy their own lorries. As a result, carrying of coal became uneconomical with no back loads and also ceased – traffic had only comprised three boats a week: to Smith’s mill in Worksop, the Worksop sewerage pumping station and Walkeringham brickworks.

Two years later, in March 1949, one final load of coal was carried from Shireoaks to Walkeringham. This only happened because the narrowboat Ruth, which lay abandoned in the canal yard at Worksop, was sold and needed moving to West Stockwith. The canal was by now in such a poor state that only 16 tons could be loaded.

There continued a limited trade in warp, fine silty mud dredged from the Trent and taken to Walkeringham brickworks, to be made into polishing powder for the Sheffield cutlery industry. The final 22-ton load was carried in Lord Milton in July 1955.

Some boats were pulled out of the canal at Worksop. Eight were tied up along the canal at West Stockwith and eventually burnt. One is thought to have been moved to the Basingstoke Canal and used as a houseboat. It is not surprising that trade petered out – with competition first from railways and then the motor lorry. The canal stood in a time warp with no modernisation in more than a century; to the very end the wooden narrowboats were horse drawn.

A public enquiry into the future of the canal was held in Chesterfield on 24th May 1960, and it was legally abandoned for its entire length from Chesterfield to West Stockwith in a British Transport Commission Bill in summer 1962.

Save the Canal

Local people did not want to see the canal filled in and began to campaign for its retention. The Inland Waterways Protection Society (then based in Holmesfield, near Chesterfield) carried out a detailed inspection of the entire route over the winter of 1958–9 and held some campaign rallies using small boats and canoes. A small motor cruiser Pleiades managed to reach Worksop from the Trent in 1960, but volunteers pulling on a tow rope were more use than the motor.

A postcard view of a horse-drawn narrowboat, probably carrying sacks of wheat for Smith’s mill at Worksop, heading upstream at Misterton Wharf Bridge. The wharf house on the right is nowadays hidden by a hedge and the farm on the left has been replaced by housing.

A photograph published in a 1905 pamphlet showing the western portal of Norwood Tunnel.

In 1962, Retford & Worksop Boat Club was formed and encouraged people to bring their boats on to the canal. They held work parties, cleared and repaired locks and built a weedcutting machine and slipways. They brought the former hotel butty boat Nelson onto the canal as a floating club room, forcing it through the weed and dereliction. Their campaign was a success; in the 1968 Transport Act, 26 miles of the canal from the Trent to Worksop were designated as a Cruiseway, reversing the act of 1962. As such, it has since been maintained and continually improved by British Waterways, now CRT.

The unloved 20 miles from Worksop to Chesterfield were designated a Remainder waterway, to be dealt with as cheaply as possible commensurate with public health and safety, or eliminated or sold off.

Chesterfield Canal Society

Enthusiasts considered that the Remainder canal should not be lost, that navigation could be extended up to Norwood Tunnel and that, over in Derbyshire, what was left should be conserved as a country park for public enjoyment. Thus a meeting was called in Worksop in September 1976 at which the Chesterfield Canal Society was formed.

In the meantime, much destruction had taken place along the canal. The great flights of locks at Norwood, Thorpe and Turnerwood and down to Worksop had been cascaded. From Norwood Tunnel to Staveley, the canal was sold off, drained and long lengths filled in. Houses were built on a ¼mile section at Killamarsh. However the canal from the tunnel down to Worksop had to remain in water and in BW’s ownership as it carried the water supply from the reservoirs down to the Cruiseway.

The canal between Chesterfield and Staveley was likewise retained as, in the original Act, there was a statutory obligation on the canal company to supply water to Staveley Forge. Its successors, the Stanton & Staveley Ironworks, still used that supply.

Initially the society tried to promote restoration of the canal above Worksop, but an indifferent BW obstructed every proposal. Then in 1985, the Chesterfield to Staveley section of the canal came under threat from a proposed new road which would cut acutely through this 5-mile section in four places, destroying any possibility of future restoration. Ironically, it was this threat which galvanised the canal society volunteers into action. All efforts were now focused at Chesterfield. A petition raised 18,000 signatures against the bypass plans in a matter of weeks. Ad hoc volunteer restoration work started on various locks, dredging and towpath improvements, sometimes with official permission and often without. Derbyshire County Council purchased the canal in 1988 in order to build the road and, without the obstruction of BW, lock restoration began in earnest.

Restoration

Tapton Lock No 1 in Chesterfield was reopened in April 1990 and a further three locks were completed by 1995 including the completely new, volunteerbuilt, Dixon’s Lock at Brimington. This success gave the Society a high profile and negotiations began to restore the canal above Worksop, a process greatly assisted by a new and now supportive management at BW.

A partnership between BW, local authorities and British Coal began work above Worksop in 1995, and symbolically Morse Lock reopened for one weekend only in 1996. After successive openings, Shireoaks Marina was reached with a grand reopening by the Duke of Gloucester in May 2000. A major contract saw the 22 locks above Shireoaks all restored in 54 weeks! What the Canal Society had set out to achieve in 1976 finally reopened in June 2003 – 6 miles of canal and 30 locks up to the Norwood Tunnel. (An additional lock, 41a, was added at Shireoaks to counter past mining subsidence.)

Simultaneously, between Chesterfield and Staveley, the volunteers completed the locks, and DCC obtained derelict land grants to dredge and replace two highway bridges. An accommodation bridge at Cow Lane, Brimington, was finally rebuilt in 2002 and the reopening of this 5-mile, 5-lock section was celebrated by hosting the Inland Waterways Association’s National Trailboat Festival in July that year.

West Stockwith Lock photographed from the basin bridge in 1959 on the IWPS survey, probably by E.K. Edgeley. The warehouse still had three storeys – the upper storey has now been removed.

A similar view to the previous picture, taken by Peter Hawkins in 1960. Note the upper warehouse floor has been removed. Grain from the Humber ports continued to be delivered by barge to West Stockwith or Gainsborough, but was carried onward to Smith’s mill at Worksop by lorry.

A model ‘Cuckoo’ with mast, sail and leeboard, lies inside the full-size boat that is being built at Shireoaks.

Unique Narrowboats 

Initially, boats were built to carry the construction materials for the canal. Little is known about these craft, other than that they were double ended – it is likely that they were the first to be used for trade on the canal. The Chesterfield Canal was isolated from the rest of the English canals and passed into railway ownership at an early date – thus it is likely that there was little development or modernisation of the waterway and its craft after the mid-1850s.

The narrowboats from living memory and for which photographs exist were rudimentary flat bottomed, hard chined and horse drawn. They were single-ended and ruggedly constructed in timber with iron frames (knees). They had a unique appearance because of the heavy wooden fenders fore and aft. The fore and aft cabins were very low, with the cabin roofs flush with the gunwales. They could be steered from the cabin top, or by standing in the hatchway on the cross bed below. The cabins were licensed as accommodation with the local authorities.

These boats often ventured out onto the tidal River Trent and some were reported as trading across the Wash as far as Spalding. On the Trent they would travel with the tide, sometimes using long sweeps for control. A long heavy chain was often carried which could be dragged on the river bed to give steerage. Some of the boats were equipped with mast, sail, leeboards and winches.

The boats of the Chesterfield Canal are often nowadays referred to as ‘Cuckoos’, but it is interesting to note the term was never used by ‘Boatie’ Clark in his book. It is thought it may be a disparaging name coined by other Trent users!

None of the original boats survives; the last commercial craft was Ida, which was abandoned half-full of coal at Shireoaks Colliery Wharf in Worksop. She was broken up by BW in 1977 when it dredged the canal in preparation for the Bicentenary Rally held there. Also recently broken up at the National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port was the bow section of a former maintenance craft, which had been converted as a pleasure boat by Ike Argent and named Dawn.

Chesterfield Canal Trust is presently well advanced in the construction of a completely new, full-size Chesterfield Canal narrowboat at Shireoaks, known as the ‘New Dawn’ project (see December 2012 Waterways World).

Since those heady days, visible restoration has slowed, but steady progress continues behind the scenes. Engineering studies have been prepared for all the outstanding work required, together with studies into environmental impact, water supply, heritage, land ownership and a host of other topics. In Chesterfield, a waterside development has been agreed and a start made on a new terminal basin. At Staveley, volunteers have restored ½ mile of filled-in canal in conjunction with a new marina built by the Canal Partnership. Three new road bridges have also been built here. At Renishaw, an isolated ½ mile of canal has been restored and it is hoped to raise funding to extend this in the near future.

Now, in late 2012, 8 miles of canal between Staveley and Kiveton are still to be restored. At Norwood Tunnel, a new route is envisaged ‘over the top’ at a higher level, reminiscent of Brindley’s original design. A diversion will also be necessary around the housing estates in Killamarsh.

Enthusiasm for the canal in the locality continues to increase, as does the membership of the Chesterfield Canal Trust. It is certain that this will ensure that, in the future, Brindley’s historic route from Chesterfield to the Trent will once again be fully navigable.

The Pleiades, the first ‘modern’ cruiser to visit the Chesterfield Canal, in 1960 with IWPS’s Bessie Bunker on board. It was taken at Lady (or Manface) Bridge, Wiseton, by Peter Bunker. Note that although this is a motor boat, it is being ropehauled by volunteers.