... because it's there ... the Chesterfield Canal, that is!

We've got several weeks to while away before the next gig, and that's THE FOLK GATHERING, in Alstonefield, in The Peak District National Park. I'll give a synopsis of the event in an upcoming edition of this blog. For now; suffice it to say that this is a 'singers and song aficionados' happening. With a maximum number of tickets set at one hundred and seventy, it's certainly not 'folk-festival sized'; (though the PSG's  GottaGetGon - in Upstate New York - isn't much bigger!)

Anyway: having a few weeks in hand; we decided to explore the Chesterfield Canal ... which doesn't, actually, get to Chesterfield. The canal IS in Chesterfield, but it is interrupted - for lack of any waterway - for a seven mile stretch, about two-thirds of the way along between the River Trent and the (small) city of Chesterfield ... famous for the twisted spire of St. Mary's church.

Having visited Chesterfield some years previously, we declined the necessary 15-mile bicycle ride, from the nearest point of navigation to St. Mary's Church. There are a few boring, and probably correct, explanations given for the contortions of the 14th, century construction (it wasn't built this way), but I like the story told to me by a local chap. Viz ... The first time an actual virgin arrived to be married at the church, the spire leaned over to take a look. The story then elucidates that the NEXT time a virgin bride arrives, the spire will straighten itself!

So ... we departed the environs of Newark, down the Trent, through the last lock on the river: Cromwell Lock. At this point the river becomes tidal, and a little trickier to navigate. Twenty miles downstream we arrived at the tiny hamlet of West Stockwith; the mouth of the canal, with a somewhat problematic entrance to the lock; in consideration of the 4MPH current flowing across it. After a bit of banging, bumping, cursing and general good-fun (for the onlookers) we were in.

The Chesterfield Canal was opened on 1777, and transported all sorts of raw materials (iron, coal, lead, stone, timber, et al) down to the River Trent, for onward shipping around Britain and Europe. In 1834 the previous Houses of Parliament were destroyed in a fire.

The inspiring building we all recognize today - including the clock-tower housing Big Ben - was completely constructed of stone (250,000 tons) quarried near Kiveton; where we are currently moored. Luckily; we took a photo whilst Moonstone was cruising by;

so this image is from June, 2015.

This has been a quiet and mostly rural waterway ... very relaxing. Now we are ready to retrace out route, back to the river where - we are assured - exiting the lock is considerably easier than entering it! Now 'relaxing' is; in this instance; relative. The upper reaches hereabouts involved the working of THIRTY TWO LOCKS; over a distance of barely 5 miles.

Whilst any plan is liable to change, at the moment we're thinking our ultimate destination - before Shipley, that is - this summer, will be Rippon, in North Yorkshire. That's; just about; the most Northerly place on the canal system ... though the top of the Lancaster Canal might be vying for that title. One of these days I'll find out. Catch you later. Tom.