Here I am Rune
Distance 0 miles
Total 1389 Locks 71 Tunnels
Running total mileage 1956.1 miles
After a ‘hard’ day’s locking yesterday we took today off to
go and visit Chesterfield but since the canal isn’t finished all the way there
we took the train. It is interesting how they have tried to mimic Chester with
a number of timbered buildings but, unlike Chester, they don’t really look very
authentic. Of course the most notable building in Chesterfield is the church
with the crooked spire which it is necessary to visit. There are a variety of
imaginative reasons given for the spire being crooked ranging from green wood
being used to build it (apparently the builders of the time regularly used
green wood and allowed for it distorting in the design of their buildings) to a
lovely legend that it was as a result of a virgin being married in the church
and the spire turning around to get a better look, the same legend says that if
it ever happens again it will straighten itself up!!
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| The Crooked spire of Chesterfield Church |
The second reason for the visit to Chesterfield was to see
the end of the canal at Tapton Lock. My canal map shows it being navigable for
some distance beyond that however since there is nowhere to turn around if
anyone goes down there they will need to reverse to get back out again.
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| The end of the Chesterfield Canal |
Finally upon return to the boat we took a walk along to the
current end of navigation at the east portal of Norwood Tunnel, closed for the
eminently sensible reason that it had collapsed. It isn’t really a ‘portal’ any
more, just a bricked up entrance but we can at least say that we’ve now been
there.
Depending on the weather tomorrow we set off back down the
canal towards the Trent, I would like to get there by the end of the month
since there are a series of Aegirs (tidal bores) predicted and I’d be quite
keen to see one, particularly since the one on 1st September is
predicted to be a 3 star one (they are graded from 1 to 3 stars).
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| The former East Portal of Norwood Tunnel |
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| The end of the connected navigable bit of the Chesterfield Canal |
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