Charlie’s Lock

3rd June 2020

The most famous lock on the Chesterfield Canal is number 55 – Forest Middle Top Lock.

This is universally known as Charlie’s Lock after Charlie Mitchell who was the lock-keeper there for many years with his wife Freda.

Charlie Mitchell at work on the Babworth Culvert for the LNER, 1939

Charlie was born in 1917; one of eleven children.

We believe he had six children – four boys and two girls.

Charlie and Freda moved to Lock 55 in 1953.

Charlie died on April 17th 2000 and was buried on May 31st.

There is no doubt that he was a character and stories about him abound.

He always tried to get first timers to wind up the nearside ground paddle quickly. If you did, you got soaked by a fountain of water from the vent hole; much to his amusement.

He once turned up to a posh Retford & Worksop Boat Club dinner dance in a brown cow-gown which concealed trousers held up by string.

Probably the best anecdotes are in David Bownes book Ponds, Tonzs and Boorts, from which we print the extract below.

Charlie was born on the canal side at Clayworth in cottages near the White Hart. His neighbours being the Ottley family and Charlie Smith, a No 1 boatman (he owned his own boat) who kept his boat nearby and whose family ran the White Hart pub. There was also a small blacksmiths shop.

Charlie met and married Freda Wilkinson of farming stock from Langold and they settled in Bawtry and started a family. It was wartime but Charlie did not get called up due to the farm work. He liked a drink at that time and drove an Oliver 90 tractor, part of a lease lend. He had a very bad accident with the tractor while drunk and was banned from the road for life. After that he never drank alcohol but got a liking for fruit and nut chocolate.

When I got to know the family they were living at Forest lock house. Joe Wass had just retired to Harworth and prior to this Charlie and Freda were living in an old van behind the stables which was towed from Misterton by the British Waterways lorry. They were very easy to get on with and would give you their last penny.

Freda did field work for Major Scott at Greenmile and always sorted her wages with the Major personally. She did weeding and striking and also worked on the static pea viner up at the farm.

Freda liked a cigarette and when she was at home she carried a black cat on her shoulder wrapped around like a shawl. There was also a guarding goose called Lucy in attendance at all times. All the family did the large garden at the lock house and gave most of the vegetables away. When we were boating Freda would always make you a cup of tea with sterilised milk and some evenings we would spend a couple of hours with them playing Fan-Tan.

Freda and Margaret, her daughter, would walk one and a half miles to Barnby Moor to catch a bus to Retford on Saturdays to go shopping and then walk the mile and a half back home with the bags of shopping.

Charlie’s main job was cutting the towing path from one end to the other, twice a year, with an Allen scythe. He was a good friend to the newly formed Retford and Worksop Boat Club. In those days British Waterways were sabotaging the ‘cut’ by dropping water levels and putting stop planks in at the head of Gringley, West Retford, Forest and Osberton locks to prevent passage by boats.

They had not, however, reckoned on the tenacity of those early boaters led by Bessie Bunker of the Inland Waterways Protection Society and Cliff Clarke of the Retford and Worksop Boat Club and by organising regular club cruises the boaters were able to remove the stop planks, take the boats through, and replace the planks again with the minimum of effort.

Charlie would have insider knowledge of plans to turn off the water supply in advance of club cruises and this enabled him and one or two other members of staff who could see a future for the canal to ensure that the cruises took place as intended and the canal slowly returned to life, which of course did happen with the 1968 Transport Act of Parliament during Barbara Castle’s reign.

Sadly Charlie and the Canal Foreman had an argument which resulted in his dismissal but the Boat Club supported Charlie and he was allowed to stay in the house. Not long afterwards poor Freda got cancer and died at the early age of 61 years. Charlie was never the same again, even when his daughter married and they came to live with him. At one time it was impossible to arrive at the house day or night without Charlie knowing you were on the way but now he often did not even come to the door.

When I next saw Margaret I was working with my brother on Hurst Road in Retford. She recognised me and showed me a photo of myself at the boatyard and told me that Charlie was living in a bungalow at Harworth and had permission from the Council to plough up the lawn with a Rotavator. I left the job soon after and never saw him again.

Both Charlie and Freda did their bit for the ‘cut ‘and I just hope that we will always have a Charlie’s Lock in memory of them.