Passing through Birley Wood you will walk along the bed of the original 1777 route of the Chesterfield Canal. This section of the canal was cut off from the main route in the 1890's to make way for The Great Central Railway. This was done to prevent the need to build new bridges, and so the canal was rerouted to follow the same route as the railway line, now the Trans Pennine Trail, leaving us with this disconnected section known as The Brindley Loops.

Alongside the kissing gate you'll see what at first site you may think was a lock but you'd be mistaken. No locks were required between Stavely and Killamarsh, this was a six mile stretch of level water. You're actually looking at a toll station, or gauging point. A worker would use a dipping stick to see how far the hull of a boat was sunk in the water to gauge how much cargo was being carried. Then based upon what was being carried, he would be able to work out the tonnage and how much was owed to pass through.

Along this section you will also see Chapelwheel Dam, now a private fishing pond, at one time you would have found Chapelwheel grinding wheel, used to grind edges in blades and to produce cutlery. The industry in this area was one of the reasons the Chesterfield Canal was built. It was the owners of these small businesses who invested to get the canal built - knowing they needed to get their goods to the sea, this connection to the River Trent was built.

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Distance 1.26 km

Uphill 10 m

Downhill 10 m

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Tuesday 28 October

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Max wind speed: 28.0 km/h

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Location: Killamarsh, North East Derbyshire, Derbyshire, East Midlands, England, United Kingdom

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