23rd February 2011
A group of volunteers helped the Chesterfield Canal Trust to clear out a lock in dreadful weather conditions over a weekend in early February.
A team from the Waterway Recovery Group came to Hollingwood in Chesterfield. The lock there was restored by the volunteer Work Party of the Chesterfield Canal Trust in the 1990s.
The group sealed off the lock with stop planks and then had to bring in a pump to get as much water out as possible so that they could get inside to clear all the rubbish that had collected. Unfortunately the original pump did not work, so they had to get a replacement. All this was done in pouring rain.
Undeterred, the Hollingwood heroes got to work filling wheelbarrows with muck and hoisting them out of the lock to be emptied nearby. By the end of the weekend the job was done.
The Chesterfield Canal Trust’s Work Party meets every Sunday and Thursday. They are currently working at Staveley.
The Waterway Recovery Group volunteers help on canals all over the country. They will next be on the Chesterfield Canal in July, when they will help to build the new Staveley Town Lock.
The old Hollingwood Lock House is being restored and extended by means of a grant from Community Assets, funded by HM Government for Civil Society. It will open in the summer with a coffee shop, meeting room and offices.
Some volunteers manoeuvre the pump into place whilst others adjust the scaffolding for the barrow hoist.