7th February 2010
More than a dozen grown men were slopping around in mud at the weekend. A group of volunteers from the Waterway Recovery Group were helping the Chesterfield Canal Trust Work Party members to clear a lock.
Wheeldon Mill Lock on the Chesterfield Canal near Brimington was getting clogged up with mud. The work party sealed up the top lock gate, emptied the canal below the lock and set up a pump. They then climbed 14 feet down into the filthy, muddy water and shovelled the mud into wheelbarrows. These were then hauled up out of the lock on a hoist and were emptied on waste ground away from the canal. This went on all over the weekend.
All the activity attracted great interest from walkers on the towpath. There were lots of questions and much approval and admiration that this sort of work would be done by volunteers. One woman even asked for a form to apply for membership of the Chesterfield Canal Trust.
The Waterway Recovery Group volunteers help to restore canals all over the country, going for weekends or sometimes full weeks. They are next due on the Chesterfield Canal in July to help with the work at Renishaw.
The Chesterfield Canal Trust is campaigning to Close the Gap between Staveley and Kiveton Park. This is the nine mile section that remains to be restored. Detailed studies and plans exist for the full distance and work is going on all the time; for example the construction of Staveley Town Basin should start in the next few weeks.