Canal News – Chesterfield Canal Festival

Canal News

Chesterfield Canal Festival

Address

Staveley Town Basin
Chesterfield

 29 – 30 Jun 2013
11:00 am – 5:00 pm

A host of attractions and activities promise to make the Chesterfield Canal Festival go with a swing.

Lots of attractions have been lined up for this 2-day canal extravaganza. There will be music and dance all day both in the huge entertainment marquee and outside. The Raptor Foundation will be doing flying displays and there will be a fun Dog Show. Children can have a trip on a miniature train plus lots of other rides. You can expect dozens of stalls of every type, food and drink and a Real Ale bar. There will be a major concert featuring the Swing Commanders on the Saturday night.

The Festival is combining with Open Days at Barrow Hill Roundhouse where you can have a ride behind a steam train and see the only surviving working turntable in the country. The two sites are only a mile apart and will be linked by a free vintage bus service.

The Chesterfield Canal Trust will have all three of its tripboats in operation. Two of these boats will be brought by truck from the Nottinghamshire end of the canal and lowered in by crane. Enterprising narrowboat owners are welcome to use this crane to put their own boat on the canal and cruise a waterway which would otherwise be inaccessible. Don’t worry, the crane will be back to get them out again!

Chesterfield Canal – Bluebank Lock  Looking east along the canal.

The Chesterfield canal is a 46 mile long navigable channel from the Derbyshire town of Chesterfield to the River Trent, passing through Staveley, Shireoaks, Worksop and Retford. The sections between West Stockwith junction on the Trent and Kiveton Park near Rotherham and from Staveley to just short of Chesterfield are navigable. The 10 miles from Norwood tunnel to Staveley are disused, Norwood tunnel has partly collapsed. The Chesterfield Canal trust plan to restore this section, but it requires a major diversion around Killamarsh.

The route is a typical James Brindley contour canal. An application was made to Parliament and the Act of Parliament received the Royal Assent on 28 March 1771. The canal was a success when it opened in 1777, however the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway opened a parallel line in 1849. The last commercial traffic was in 1908.  © Copyright Ashley Dace and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

 

 

Canal News – Chesterfield Canal Festival

Chesterfield Canal Festival

  The Chesterfield Canal Trust will be holding its Festival at the new Staveley Town Basin near Chesterfield.

Tour the area by boat, vintage bus and steam train, try the minature train ride or have a go on a Segway. Plus, stalls, canal societies, children’s rides, canoeing, a clown, food and a real ale bar.

The entertainment marquee will being putting on music and fun all weekend, with a concert on the Saturday night featuring The Swing Commanders.

Staveley is on the western section of the Chesterfield Canal, which is not connected to the network, so this festival will be mainly for trail boats using the brand new slipway. However, there is a craning pad which the Trust will be using. Time for this facility can be booked.

For further information, or to book a stall or boat, please contact festival@chesterfield-canal-trust.org.uk or 01246 477569

With both broad and narrow locks, rare wildlife, and impressive feats of engineering as the canal climbs into Derbyshire, the Chesterfield Canal has much to offer.

Known locally as ‘Cuckoo Dyke’, it runs from Chesterfield, through Worksop, to the River Trent at West Stockwith. The 46-mile canal has 59 narrow locks, six wide locks, and two tunnels – one of which, Norwood, collapsed at the start of the 20th century.

Fortunately, even though commercial traffic was scarce, the lower reaches were saved and have been popular with pleasure boats ever since. Much of the rest of the canal has been restored, and work is underway to once again create a water highway from Chesterfield to the Trent.