Lock 23, Thorpe Middle Lock, Chesterfield Canal

Works will include the replacement of both top and bottom gates.  There will be a window for navigation at Thorpe Locks on 14th and 15th November 2020.

01/06/2020:  The information above is a draft notice of works planned as part of our winter 2020/21 stoppages programme.  This is subject to change depending on the latest advice from the UK government on coronavirus.  Please follow our guidance relating to coronavirus when using the canals and towpaths https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/coronavirus.

Many thanks for your many comments and suggestions, all of which have been passed on to the relevant teams.

We appreciate everyone’s concerns and the wish to keep navigations open for as long as possible before our winter works begin. However, this has to be balanced with working out the best programme for our construction teams, including the logistics of moving plant, equipment and materials from site to site, as well as the amount of time available (pre or post Christmas) to carry out the repairs needed at each location safely.

As in previous years, we need to start our work on the Chesterfield Canal as soon as we can, in order to complete a very full programme of repairs before next spring. Following this first phase of consultation and your comments, we have made some changes to the programme which we hope will address some of your concerns. This includes starting work a week later at Lock 23 (which does mean finishing a week later at Lock 24), and a longer window of navigation (9 days) between stoppages at Bridge 83 and Lock 63.

The opportunity should not be missed during this lengthy stoppage to address the boil on the adjacent top gate of Lime House Lock.

Whilst I applaud CRT's continued work to try and keep up with an entire flight of locks with gates that are all ageing at once the timing of this work is questionable. The top end of The Chesterfield Canal is the jewel in it's crown and during autumn it is absolutely at it's finest. My comment is lumping together the two stoppages on the flight. Although there is a tiny window of opportunity for boat passage built into the proposals this is insufficient to make visiting boats make the journey. It can be hard to get onto The Chesterfield Canal early in the year due to The Trent water levels being high. Through the summer boaters avoid the canal due to the weed but a visit in the autumn can be perfect. As a boater who does their best to encourage other boaters to visit the canal the timing of these works makes me feel that perhaps CRT want to obstruct boat movements and prevent visitors enjoying the top end of the canal.
I would also suggest that there is far too little work scheduled for the flight which has some locks that are in, what appears to my untrained eye, as quite a a perilous state and potentially worse than those scheduled for repair. I do wonder how long the patch up job on Turnerwood Bottom is expected to last? Having just read about the failure of a rotten lock on The Wigan flight due to a rotten lock gate I am very concerned that the locks that need attention in the flight at the top end of the canal get it because any unplanned stoppage on The Chesterfield due to rotten gates failing is not acceptable and is, in my mind, potentially putting the lives of boaters in danger. At the current rate of gate replacement on this canal CRT will either need to dig deep and find a lot of money to replace a lot of gates very soon or the canal will suffer a none planned and probably lengthy closure. Having spent so much time working to support the restoration of the last 9 miles I find it abhorrent that CRT do not appear to be looking after the sections that have already been restored.

Better mended so we can use the navigation with out worry, I'm just glad to hear that our navigation is receiving some well needed and welcome attention ill put up with a couple of weeks restriction if need be.

Revised comment:
The back-to-back stoppages at Thorpe Bottom and Thorpe Middle Locks (albeit with a weekend window in-between) start too early, impacting on the ability of visiting and local boats to fully explore the Chesterfield Canal: October is a very viable month in which to access the canal from the Trent with low probability of the river being in flood, and is not affected by weed/algal growth that plagues the summer months on this canal. The October half term and the proposed October bank holiday would both be affected by the proposed stoppage programme. There is scope for the Thorpe Middle stoppage to be delayed until November, by also pushing back the stoppage for Thorpe Bottom Lock, which is currently proposed to finish on 4 December, but could finish much closer to Christmas. The towpath at these two locks is already constrained, and to further restrict its width during the October half term and mild walking weather would make social distancing difficult and compromise public safety unnecessarily. Alternatively, the Trust may wish to justify the early start to the stoppage season by building a more satisfactory volume of work in to the programme prior to Christmas between Turnerwood and Norwood Tunnel: it is noted that Turnerwood Double Bottom Lock does not feature for either replanking of the bottom gates (despite having been overboarded with plywood over a year ago) or to address the leakage in to the adjacent private garden, despite Sean McGinley promising this would take place in the 2020/2021 work programme. Another possible addition would be to extend the geographical extents of the stoppage to Shireoaks in December, to include much needed replacement of the life-expired and unsafe bottom gates of Turnerwood Top Lock... the condition of which is of much greater concern than Thorpe Middle or Thorpe Bottom Lock. The length of the stoppages is considered excessive for the stated work content.

The back-to-back stoppages at Thorpe Bottom and Thorpe Middle Locks (albeit with a weekend window in-between) start too early, impacting on the ability of visiting and local boats to fully explore the Chesterfield Canal: October is a very viable month in which to access the canal from the Trent with low probability of the river being in flood, and is not affected by weed/algal growth that plagues the summer months on this canal. The October half term and the proposed October bank holiday would both be affected by the proposed stoppage programme. There is scope for the Thorpe Bottom stoppage to be delayed until November, by also pushing back the stoppage for Thorpe Middle Lock, which is currently proposed to finish on 4 December, but could finish much closer to Christmas. The towpath at these two locks is already constrained, and to further restrict its width during the October half term and mild walking weather would make social distancing difficult and compromise public safety unnecessarily. Alternatively, the Trust may wish to justify the early start to the stoppage season by building a more satisfactory volume of work in to the programme prior to Christmas between Turnerwood and Norwood Tunnel: it is noted that Turnerwood Double Bottom Lock does not feature for either replanking of the bottom gates (despite having been overboarded with plywood over a year ago) or to address the leakage in to the adjacent private garden, despite Sean McGinley promising this would take place in the 2020/2021 work programme. Another possible addition would be to extend the geographical extents of the stoppage to Shireoaks in December, to include much needed replacement of the life-expired and unsafe bottom gates of Turnerwood Top Lock... the condition of which is of much greater concern than Thorpe Middle or Thorpe Top Lock. The length of the stoppages is considered excessive for the stated work content.