Chesterfield Canal

The Chesterfield Canal Trust has been awarded £5.3m as its share of the Staveley Town Deal which is part of the Government’s Levelling Up agenda. Preparatory work – such as appointing staff, obtaining permissions and preparing tenders – is currently underway with the first actual construction being the new Trans-Pennine Trail bridge at Lowgates towards the end of 2023. The bulk of the construction will take place in 2024. This will include a new lock, another new bridge, a syphon pipe, the restoration of about 900m of canal across the reconstructed Staveley Puddlebank, and about 2.6km of new multiuser towpath. If funding allows, it is hoped that work will also take place on the foundations for the new Doe Lea Aqueduct. The trust has been awarded £91,000 by Chesterfield Borough Council from its Community Infrastructure Levy fund for the design of this aqueduct.

The trust’s work party has finished its project at Staveley by cladding the lock tail-bridge. Over the course of 10 years these volunteers have built the 600m-long retaining wall from Mill Green to Staveley Town Basin, the new Staveley Town Lock, the 400m-long Hartington Harbour and the huge Hartington spill weir, as well as digging out the Hartington railway bridge.

The work party’s next major project is at Renishaw. After a superb start with mass vegetation clearance, strongly assisted by many local residents, this has been held up while permissions have been finalised with Derbyshire County Council. It is very much hoped that work can restart early in 2023.

Derbyshire County Council has been awarded £2.2m from the Staveley Town Deal for the first stage of the development of Staveley Town Basin, now renamed Staveley Waterside. This work is expected to start in the summer of 2023.

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