A challenging but fun way of earning money for a chosen cause, is to book one of our Boat Pulls on a weekend of your choice from April to September. Alternative dates will also be considered subject to crew availability. You raise sponsorship money, by pulling the boat from Shireoaks to the Lock Keeper pub in Worksop or the reverse. You pay £75 for use of the boat and its crew, or £100 if you want to pull it both ways, click here for one way and click here for both ways.

The Chesterfield Canal has never been linked to any other canals and therefore its boats, often referred to as Cuckoo boats, developed differently for those found on many other canals. For example, most journeys were relatively short, so families did not live on them which meant there was no need for large cabins.

The last of these unique boats was built in the 1920s. The last surviving one on the canal, was moored at Shireoaks. It rotted away in 1976, but not before Richard Allsopp had done a thorough survey measuring everything to produce technical drawings. There was another Cuckoo boat at the National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port, but that met its maker in the 1980s. It was called Dawn.

In the early 2000s, a few members of the Chesterfield Canal Trust decided that it would be a good idea to build a new, full-sized Cuckoo boat. The called it the New Dawn Project. The project was launched by an article in the Trust’s magazine in Spring 2004. An appeal for money to buy the wood followed. This proved very successful, so the wood was bought and stored to season in a secret location for several years.

Serious work started in January of 2011. It was led by David Bownes, who worked on Cuckoo boats as a young man. He was one of the very few people alive with real working knowledge of their construction. David has written a book about his experiences, to buy it click here.

The task was enormous, not least because of the decision to use only tools that were available 80 years ago. 360 hand-made 9” nails had to be hammered upwards to secure the bottom beams. Planks 27 feet long and 2” thick had to be steamed and bent to shape. Vast quantities of pitch, oakum and linseed oil were needed for the caulking.

The boat was launched and named Dawn Rose in 2015. At the same time the group formed the Friends of Dawn Rose. If you would like to help to finance Dawn Rose by becoming a Friend of Dawn Rose, please click here to get a Membership Form. You can make a donation by clicking here.

The Friends of Dawn Rose use the boat to tell people about how commercial traffic used to thrive on the canal and how the boatmen lived.

Come and see our horse Tilly pulling Dawn Rose from Shireoaks Bottom Lock to the Lock Keeper pub in Worksop, and back, demonstrating how it was done on the Chesterfield Canal for over 200 years. This will be on 7th June, 5th July and 13th September 2026.

To see a video of the horseboating on 5th July 2026, click here.

      To see the Dawn Rose Facebook page, click here.

The other articles in this section detail the full story of Dawn Rose.

Ida, the last Cuckoo boat on the canal, at Shireoaks Colliery Wharf in Worksop taken in 1970.  (Photo by Richard Allsopp)

Dawn Rose naming ceremony at the Lock Keeper, Worksop in 2015.

A team raising funds for Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice on a Boat Pull in 2022.  (Photo by John Bates)