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History Summary of the Chesterfield Canal
by Christine Richardson, on behalf of the Chesterfield Canal Trust
By 1766 the first canal-building boom had started and Chesterfield
and Retford enthusiastically embraced the idea of a new waterway.
The nationally famous engineer James Brindley was asked to lead
the project.
The first public meeting was held at Worksop’s Red Lion on 24
August 1769. Brindley was present and he confirmed that a canal
from Chesterfield to the River Trent was viable. Of all the proposed
cargoes coal was considered the most important because the fledgling
Canal Company aimed to undersell the rival south Yorkshire coalfields.
An Act of Parliament was sought. It gave powers to raise £100,000
in £100 shares, and £50,000 more if necessary. Shareholders were
mainly local people, plus some investors in London. The capital
was fully subscribed by July 1771.
Brindley’s assistant, John Varley, was make Clerk of the Works
[Resident Engineer]. Work started in October 1771 at Norwood Tunnel,
the digging of which was to be a four-year task. Meanwhile the canal
was built eastwards towards Worksop and Retford.
Just as the work was making good progress, news was received in
September 1772 that James Brindley had died. The Company really
had no alternative but to allow John Varley to carry on for a while,
even though this was his first large project. Later Hugh Henshall,
Brindley’s brother-in-law, was made Inspector of the Works although
Varley continued to bear the day-to-day responsibilities.
Construction Problems
In the summer of 1773 Henshall found that some of the work done
in Norwood Tunnel was unsatisfactory; unfortunately for John Varley
the culprits included his father and two brothers. Soon other examples
of suspicious contractual arrangements and slack management came
to light. The part played by John Varley in these deceptions is
a matter of opinion he could have been too busy elsewhere on the
canal to control the tunnel work; he could have been giving work
to his family. Over 200 years later there is no proof either way,
but it should be borne in mind that similar revelations dogged many
projects in this very early phase of canal building. In 1774 Hugh
Henshall was made Chief Engineer, but Varley remained Resident Engineer.
In May 1775 it was agreed that although the canal was to be narrow
from Chesterfield to Retford it should, nevertheless, be built larger
between Retford and the Trent so that it could carry wide-beam river-boats.
Norwood Tunnel was officially opened on 9 May 1775, and it was
2884 yards long, 9ft 3ins wide, and 12ft high. By that time work
was also progressing towards Chesterfield. By August 1776 the canal
was completed between West Stockwith and Norbriggs, near Staveley.
The entire canal was officially opened on 4 June 1777.
During the 1780s the canal’s trading suffered from the national
recession caused by the American War of Independence, therefore
the first dividend to shareholders was not paid until 1789. After
that the Canal Company was reasonably prosperous, and continued
to be so until the middle of the 19th century.
The cargoes were varied, but the most famous item carried was
stone to rebuild the Houses of Parliament in the 1840s. The quarry
was in North Anston and the stone was loaded into canal boats at
Dog Kennels Bridge, Kiveton Park. From there it was carried to West
Stockwith, and transferred to Trent sloops for the rest of the journey
to Westminster, via the Humber, North Sea, and Thames.
The Railway Years and Decline
 The
Chesterfield Canal Company was one of the few to embrace the new
railway age, which most other waterway interests kept at arms length.
They formed the clumsily titled Manchester & Lincoln Union Railway
and Chesterfield & Gainsborough Canal Company (M&LUR/C&GCC). That
concern was swallowed up by the giant Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire
Railway (MSLR) on 9 July 1847. The canal therefore passed into railway
ownership.
In 1890-91 the MSLR built a new railway between Beighton and Annesley,
the line of which cut across the canal. As a result the canal was
straightened in the Renishaw area, and half a mile chopped from
its length.
In October 1907 the roof of Norwood Tunnel fell in and it was
not re-opened. As a result the canal was cut in two, and eventually
working boats went no further than Shireoaks. The coal cargoes from
Shireoaks colliery ceased after the Second World War. Then the only
boat traffic was occasional cargoes to Worksop, and the carrying
of bricks from the kilns at Walkeringham. The brick cargoes ceased
in 1955. The last working boats on the canal carried silt from the
Trent to Walkeringham where it was dried and sieved, the finished
product (warp) was used to polish silver. This traffic ceased about
1962. To the end, all the working boats on the Chesterfield Canal
were horse-drawn.
Revival
 The
canal was saved by the 1968 Transport Act which said the 26 miles
between Stockwith and Worksop were to be maintained as a “Cruiseway”.
This success was the result of vigorous campaigning by the Retford
& Worksop Boat Club. However, some people felt that the other 20
miles of the canal should be restored and in 1976 the Chesterfield
Canal Society (CCS) was formed to achieve that end. In 1998 the
organisation became the Chesterfield Canal Trust (CCT) One of the
ways in which public awareness of the canal is heightened is the
operation by the CCT of two trip-boats, one of which has a wheelchair
lift.
Years of campaigning have now resulted in major restoration projects
taking place. There is also the exciting possibility of giving the
canal a second outlet for the first time in its history - by making
the River Rother navigable between Killamarsh and Rotherham, thereby
linking the Chesterfield Canal to the South Yorkshire Navigation.
June 2001
Further Reading
- A Walkers’ & Boaters’ Guide to the Chesterfield Canal and Cuckoo
Way. Christine Richardson and John Lower. 1994. ISBN 1-874718-25-3.
Detailed maps, text and illustrations of the whole canal.
- The Waterways Revolution - From the Peaks to the Trent, 1768-1778.
Christine Richardson. 1992.
- ISBN 1-85421-161-7. A social history of the construction of
the Chesterfield Canal - the people involved, their problems and
successes.
- The Chesterfield Canal. Chesterfield Canal Trust. 1997.Concise
history and guide to the canal.
- Minutes of the Chesterfield Canal Company, 1771-80. Editor,
Christine Richardson.1996.
- ISBN 0-946324-20-4. Transcription of the Company’s only surviving
minute-book. The only one published of an 18th century canal.
- The contentious subject of Norwood Tunnel’s length is covered
in Brindley’s Triumph, issue 4, Jan 1996.
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