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 (250 years ago); is hugely popular with walkers; features an underground canal at Hollingwood and ends up at what will be the £310 million Waterside development in Chesterfield.
Since 1989, 12 miles of the canal have been restored along with 37 locks and 11 bridges; 2 new marinas have been built. The latest section, Hartington Harbour, was opened at our Festival in 2018.
There are less than nine miles left to restore. In 2018 the Chesterfield Canal Trust set itself an ambitious target of 2027 for the completion of the restoration because this is the 250th Anniversary of the opening of the canal, though that target is now extremely unlikely.
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, which had been formed in 1976.
In 2017, the Trust received the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, click here.
The aims of the Chesterfield Canal 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 four trip boats (one in Ranby, one in Shireoaks, one in Hollingwood and the fourth in Chesterfield); we run Work Parties on the canal on Thursdays and Sundays; we have a 93-year old ex BW working boat, Python, that we use for maintenance work in support of the Canal & River Trust; we have a promotional trailer, the James Brindley, that attends events and town centres throughout the year and we have built Dawn Rose, the first new Cuckoo boat (unique to the canal) for over 80 years. Our base is in the restored and extended Hollingwood Lock House, now called Hollingwood Hub, in Chesterfield which includes Katey’s Coffee Shop and our own Information Centre & Shop.
The Trust has over 2000 members, who, for a small membership fee, receive regular copies of the Trust’s award-winning magazine Cuckoo and monthly E-Newsletters. To join the Trust, click here.
For information about Donations, Legacies, Sponsorship and Corporate Social Responsibility opportunities, click here.
To see our Chesterfield Canal Online Archive site, click here.
You are welcome to download any unattributed photographs from this website. If you need a larger version, or for permission to use attributed photos, email publicity@chesterfield-canal-trust.org.uk.
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