Back down the Chesterfield Canal to West Stockwith

It's raining today (Wednesday) which makes this the 12th consecutive day with rain!  Not that it has rained solidly for every day (in fact yesterday was quite summery), just that we haven't had a day without any rain.  We have come back down the Chesterfield Canal little by little because the River Trent has been carrying too much water to venture out beyond the lock gates at West Stockwith onto the River.  It now seems to be calming down a bit so we have a booking for the tidal lock tomorrow morning.  This posting on our blog is about our return down the canal:

On Monday 10th June we set off in the dry down the 23 locks to Shireoaks.  The rain however soon realised what we were doing and it came down heavily.  So heavily that in Brown's Lock between two of the double staircases, we drove into the lock, closed the top gates and went inside the boat for coffee followed by lunch in the dry.  The picture above is of the lovely cottages at Turnerwood once we got going again.  From here down we were following the trip boat, Hugh Henshall, and they were kind enough to lift the top paddle of each lock as they left.  In lock 39 we dropped the lock and then discovered that Leo was stuck fast.  A look round showed that a log was caught between our hull and the side of the lock.  The boat would not go forwards or backwards and it was impossible to push the log down with a boat hook.  So we part filled the lock again and managed to get the log out.  Easily remedied but it has never happened to us before.

The less said about Tuesday the better.  It rained all day so we stayed at Shireoaks.  On Wednesday it started dull and moist without too much rain so we set off down the Shireoaks locks.  In this picture we are lining up for the top lock.

Further down this picture shows us going through Worksop Town Lock.  We went through Worksop (11 locks that day) and contrived a mooring outside the town.  I say contrived because the bow was properly moored by the side of the piling, whereas the stern was sticking out into the canal as the water wasn't deep enough to bring the stern in.  Shallow water is a common problem on this canal.

On Thursday the skies were threatening.  This picture is taken near the crossing of the A1 at Ranby and the canal wiggles round leftwards in front of the trees on the far side of the field. We cruised so slowly and started so late that it was lunchtime as we passed the Chequers Inn at Ranby.  This pub has a single boat mooring so we stopped and had lunch at the pub.  Coffee on Leo followed as it was raining hard again and then we carried on to Forest Locks.  On Friday we dropped down a few more locks into Retford.

This picture is taken from the boat at our mooring in the centre of Retford.  A fisherman told us these fish are Bream.  They were about 2 feet long.

And there were lots of them.  We didn't see any fishermen manage to catch one of these monsters.

We had a day off boating on Saturday and took a bus to Rufford to meet our friend Steve (aka 'Hodge') and his son Peter for lunch at The Rose Cottage.  It was Steve's first excursion since coming out of hospital and it was good to see them both.  We saw them onto their bus and, as we had 45 minutes to wait for ours, went for a stroll to Rufford Abbey seen here.  Though the Abbey was built in the 12th century it was converted to a manor house in the 16th century and is now a ruin.

The gardens of the Abbey are extensive with a number of statues including this one.  Ian liked the expression on his face.

On Sunday we were moving again, down the last of the narrow locks and out of town to this broad lock called 'Whitsunday Pie Lock'.  We stopped, after just a short cruise, outside the Gate Inn at Clarborough where there is 48 hour mooring.  It being Father's Day we did not expect to find a table free but they managed to fit us in.  In the afternoon Ian did a little painting of the roof in gaps between showers and we even enjoyed a rain free walk in the area later.  We had hoped to find out why 'Lecture Room Bridge' was so called, but we still don't know.

On our walk we visited Hayton Church and admired the falling gravestones.

Monday we phoned the West Stockwith lock keeper, Jim, and discovered that the Trent was reopening soon, so we pressed on into Clayworth.  The cottage by the bridge has a lovely garden facing the canal.

We moored for the night at Drakeholes on some excellent moorings.  A grass snake swam across the canal and did a circuit of Leo.  Ian grabbed the camera quickly and tried a picture.  It's a bit blurry unfortunately as it was taken in haste.  You'd be surprised how fast a snake can swim.

No rain on Monday apart from a brief shower early in the morning, so we set off for a walk including this lovely sunlit sunken lane.  We walked to the village of Everton and back along footpaths one of which was badly overgrown with rape.

The White Swan at Drakeholes was closed when we came this way in 2015.  It's still closed.

Yesterday (Tuesday 18th) we cruised down to West Stockwith.  This picture shows us leaving Drakeholes and making the tight turn into the tunnel.

And here is the tunnel which is quite short (154 yards) and is now the only one on this canal.  It is cut through solid sandstone, though brick lined over the top.

The other side of the tunnel feels quite remote and is lovely and green with views to the north.

There are four locks down from Drakeholes back to West Stockwith.  Here Leo is coming in to Misterton Top Lock.  There used to be a flour mill here but it is now surrounded by modern houses.

Below the two Misterton Locks we came across these very young cygnets.

With the weather this morning being forecast to be windy and wet we decided to go out on the River Trent tomorrow (Thursday).  We plan to go down river to Keadby and then explore the Yorkshire waterways.