11th July

The Waterway Recovery Group is helping the Chesterfield Canal Trust to build a new lock at Staveley.

There have been two week-long workcamps. Each time about 18 volunteers have come to stay in Staveley to lay bricks and blocks. They are building the front walls of the new lock. The Chesterfield Canal Trust’s volunteer Work Party will build the rest.

The new lock (Staveley Town Lock, no. 5A) will enable the canal to get under a railway line a few hundred metres further on. There will be a twin lock (Railway Lock, no. 5B) on the other side of the railway line to raise the canal again. The two sections will be joined by a pipe to siphon the water from one section to the other.

The base pad for the lock has been paid for through grants from Lafarge and the Inland Waterways Association. It was built as part of the new Staveley Town Basin and has been overseen by engineers from Derbyshire County Council and the Chesterfield Canal Partnership.

Work on the basin is progressing ahead of schedule. Meanwhile the Trust’s Work Party is completing a washwall from Mill Green to the Basin. When this is done, the canal bed will be dug out and the whole section will be filled with water sometime during the Autumn. This will give an extra kilometre of canal.

The whole project has aroused enormous interest in Staveley, many of whose citizens remember it as a muddy ditch. They are delighted by the prospect of having canal boats moored on their doorstep. The Chesterfield Canal Trust is planning to hold a Canal Festival on the site next summer.

The Trust is very grateful to Staveley Town Council for allowing the volunteers to stay in the Stables accommodation at Staveley Hall.

There is still much work to be done. Supporters can help by donating bricks towards the cost of the lock. To donate a brick costs £5, a hodful of bricks is £50 and a barrowload of bricks is £100. For further details email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or write to The Treasurer, Chesterfield Canal Trust, 47 Whitecotes Park, Walton, Chesterfield, S40 3RT. All donors are listed in the Trust’s award-winning magazine Cuckoo, unless requested otherwise.