The Chesterfield canal is slowly but surely being restored to a working state. The one potential problem being the link between the Norwood Tunnel entrance to the Rother Valley Country Park via the bricked up and disused tunnel. According to the local press it will cost £35 million to reconnect the Norwood Tunnel to Rother Valley, and there have been several proposals to reclaim the old pit site. At the moment (2011) it's a set of coarse fishing ponds know as Kiveton Waters.

The Chesterfield Canal Trust are aiming to re-route the canal via Rother Valley Country Park and reconnect Chesterfield to the Trent, thereby making the whole 47 mile cut navigable.

drained canal near kiveton

workmen rebuilding lock wall

1997 - renovation underway at Turnerwood.

canal lock turnerwood

Above are the locks after renovation in Feb 2001.

This is a dredged portion of canal with rebuilt banks and moorings for pleasure craft and barges. This bank was previously like a jungle. The bricked up entrance to the Norwood tunnel (over 2,800 yards/2 km long) in 199 is shown below. That it was a tunnel saved several flights of locks. It ran from Kiveton to Norwood near to the Rother Valley Country Park near Killamarsh. The Killamarsh section is totally overgrown to the extent that you'd never know that a canal ever existed. Contrast that with Shireoaks where the canal and its locks has been excellently renovated and is navigable.

.The bricked up entrance to a canal tunnel that was over a mile long norwood tunnel prior to canal renovation

Below, is a shot of a restored section in the summer of 1999, and a similar shot in April 1997 when the canal was drained prior to being dredged. .


drained canal near harry croft quarrydrained canal near harry croft quarry after renovation

The Chesterfield Canal Trust is currently running a campaign called Closing the Gap in order to achieve to get the whole waterway navigable.