Bit of a blow

For the work party doing the Chesterfield Canal restoration. I discovered today why we were back at Mill Green doing some scrub bashing. Those of you with March's Waterways World will see an article by Hugh Potter detailing a walk you can do from Chesterfield up the full extent of the open but land locked part of the canal which ends at Mill Green.



This was where I started to help out back in 2004. We were building a towpath side retaining wall showing the line of the canal up to Constitution Hill. About 1/4 of a mile in total if not more. This section has taken about 6 years of Volunteer Labour every Sunday. We laid a concrete plinth and then curb stones topped off with cut stone. And then many barrow loads of concrete back fill - and believe me it was many barrowloads - that is my expertise! Only a small section could be accessed by a load of delivered concrete because of the un safeness of the bridge at Mill Green, the whole lot was then re buried for digging out later. Anyway I digress.



So here we are starting to clear the brambles so that the rebuilt bridge base and the wall can be seen.




Looking a bit clearer here.





The wall on the right goes all the way down to the van and caravan parked in the distance at Mill Green.






View the other way from Constitution Hill towards where they are building the Staveley Bypass. Now this is where the blow comes in. Remember that the wall to the left is the long wall from Mill Green and following the line of the Canal it heads across the current path nearly to the edge of the slope and then curves gently back around.



The road builders are building the Bypass and putting in various bridges etc to accommodate the canal and I believe re instating parts of the canal as part of their contract BUT instead of crossing over the River Rother and bringing the bypass on brown belt land earmarked for development they want to bring it between the River Rother and the Canal on green belt land.



As the canal is at the top of an embankment with the river way below there isn't much useable room up there so their plan is to move the canal over putting a single carriage road in and reducing the Canal to a 3m wide concrete channel all the way to Mill Green. Bull dozing our wall and seven years of hard work plus the cost of the materials in the process. Why? Because the plans are drawn up, because if they bring it nearer the river they would have to do clever works to shore up the river, because it is easier. Mick says that it actually contravenes their planning permissions.



Anyway so that the Road Builders couldn't say that they were unaware of the work we had done because they couldn't see it we have been busily scrub bashing and making it quite obvious.









Current head of navigation from Chesterfield. I felt that I wouldn't be involved in removing that tree. It looked far too precarious.