The Chesterfield Canal Trust has taken out a five year lease on a historic ex-British Waterways workboat called Python.

Python is a ex-working boat. She is a coppered steel construction craft built by Yarwoods in Northwich and fitted out at Uxbridge. She was commissioned in February 1930. Her fleet number was 249 and her registration number was UXB 572. She came into the hands of the British Transport Commission (which eventually became British Waterways) in 1949. They shortened her in the 1980's to her current 53'. She had been out of service for a year before the handover. Her sister boat, Panther, is owned by the Coventry Canal Society.

In late May 2009, Arthur Naylor of the Chesterfield Canal Trust and Tony Mann of the Coventry Canal Society collected Python from Adelaide Dock in London. They took her up the Grand Union to attend the Stoke Bruerne Festival and the Braunston Historic Boat Rally in partnership with Panther as they were 80 years old that year. She was then be taken to Redhill Marina on the River Soar to be taken out of the water for a thorough check over and to have essential work done. She then attended the IWA National Rally before being taken down the River Trent to the Chesterfield Canal and her permanent mooring near Shireoaks.

The Chesterfield Canal Trust officially received the Learning Boat from British Waterways on Friday 9^th October.The brief ceremony took place at Shireoaks Bottom Lock. Sean McGinley, the Area Manager of British Waterways, officially handed over the boat, called Python, to Robin Stonebridge, the Chair of the Chesterfield Canal Trust.

The Learning Boat Project is a long-held vision of Dr. Geraint Coles, the Development Manager for the Chesterfield Canal Partnership. The plan is to use Python as a resource, not a trip boat. She will stop at village and town wharves along the length of the canal and will be used as a flexible, multi-purpose platform with workspace, exhibitions, artefacts, a stage and lockers full of resources, costumes and props.

Over the coming months, work modules will be developed for children of different ages. Eventually there will be resources for adult learning as well.

In the age of high speed internet games, many children are not inspired by a cruise down a waterway, however beautiful, at 4 m.p.h. However, get them to re-enact a scene from 1879 when the murderer Charlie Peace jumped out of a train window right by the canal or teach them some physics by getting a six stone girl to open a two ton lock gate or pull a fifteen ton boat and we may catch their interest and imagination.

Python will probably be used for canal work in the winter and as a learning resource in the summer. She will also be on hand for rallies and festivals, performances and events. It is hoped that by the time the five year lease is up, the people living on or near the Chesterfield Canal will insist that she stays having become an essential part of their lives.

Robin Stonebridge (left), Chair of the Chesterfield Canal Trust, officially receives Python from Sean McGinley, Area Manager of British Waterways.