The Chesterfield Canal is widely recognised as one of the most beautiful and varied waterways in England.

It runs for 46 miles from the River Trent to the middle of Chesterfield, linking Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire and Derbyshire.

Every yard of the canal can be walked on the towpath known as The Cuckoo Way.

It goes through tranquil countryside where scarcely a house can be seen; has some of the earliest staircase locks ever built (240 years ago); is hugely popular with walkers; has some of the best canal fishing in the country and ends up at what will be the £310 million Waterside development in Chesterfield.

Quote from a recent visiting boater "Crew who had not seen the Turnerwood and Thorpe flights before were absolutely delighted with their location, beauty, tradition and interest. This is one of the best stretches of canal anywhere in the UK."

Since 1989 over 11 miles of the canal have been restored along with 36 locks and 11 bridges. A further 700 metres opened early in 2012 with the flooding of the new Staveley Town Basin.

We only have nine miles left to restore. Detailed plans already exist for every bridge, lock and aqueduct on this stretch. The Chesterfield Canal Trust is currently running a campaign called Closing the Gap in order to achieve this aim.

The Chesterfield Canal Trust is a charitable company run entirely by volunteers, incorporated in July 1997. In 1998 it took over the assets of the former Chesterfield Canal Society (founded 1976).

The aims of the Trust are to promote the full restoration and appropriate development of the Chesterfield Canal, and to campaign for the construction of the Rother Valley Link, a navigable waterway to join the Chesterfield Canal to the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation.

Amongst other activities we run two trip boats (one in Retford, the other in Chesterfield); we run Work Parties on the canal on most Sundays and Thursdays; we have an 80-year old working boat, Python, that we will use as a Learning Boat; we have a promotional trailer, the James Brindley, that attends events and town centres throughout the year; we are rebuilding and extending Hollingwood Lock House and turning it into a local community hub and we are building the first new Cuckoo boat (unique to the canal) for nearly 80 years. In addition there are regular meetings, social events, a Festival ..... you can find out about everything on this website - check with the Events Diary.

The Trust has well over one thousand members, who for a small membership fee, receive regular copies of the Trust's award-winning magazine Cuckoo, so called because of the local name for the canal, the 'Cuckoo Dyke'. To join, click on Membership above.

We have left some of the historical content on our old website as the effort to migrate it is significant and much of the older content will be accessed infrequently.

Please keep checking back here for all things related to the Chesterfield Canal.

If you're looking for information on the old web site, please try here. Old news is here.