£500 for Chesterfield Canal

Published: Thursday, 03 September 2009

THE Waterway Recovery Group has presented the Chesterfield Canal Trust with a cheque for £500 towards the Trust's Staveley Town Lock Fund.

It was at the IWA 'National' at Redhill that the cheque was presented for the fund, and in the picture from the left is Dr. Geraint Coles (Chesterfield Canal Partnership Development Manager); Mike Chase and David McCarthy MBE (both Waterway Recovery Group); David Fox, Terry Berridge and David Trickett (all Chesterfield Canal Trust).

The Waterway Recovery Group have worked on the Chesterfield Canal many times. They had a week's workcamp in the middle of August, building a new washwall at Renishaw. In May they had attended the Chesterfield Canal Festival at Kiveton Park.

Mike Chase was in charge of the workcamp and attended the cheque handover. When asked the reason for this generosity he replied:

"We always receive a wonderful reception from our colleagues at the Chesterfield Canal, we read about the appeal and decided that this was a good way to show our appreciation."

David Trickett, Vice Chair of the Chesterfield Canal Trust, enthused:

"We are surprised and delighted to receive this cheque. We have long admired the dedication of the Waterway Recovery Group and are very grateful for all the hard work they have put into the restoration of our beautiful canal. We look forward to further cooperation in the future."

Funding is already in place for the new Staveley Town Basin, work upon which will start after the imminent completion of a road scheme that has involved the restoration of half a mile of canal. However, in order to lower the canal so that it can get under the railway bridge further east, a new lock must be built just beyond the new basin. This will be Staveley Town Lock. It will be lock number 5a.

The Trust's appeal has already received several other donations. The most poignant of these arrived in the post. It was from a well-wisher who had seen the rebuilding of Tapton Lock in 1990—the first bit of major restoration on the canal. Despite moving away from the area many years ago, he had followed the canal's progress ever since and sent the Trust £100 to put towards the fund.