Canal Boat – July 2018

canalboat.co.uk Canal Boat July 2018 7

CANAL BOAT NEWS

O

n 8 May, a traditional

Chesterfield Canal working

narrowboat took to the Trent

tideway at West Stockwith for

the first time since the end of regular trade

on the canal over 60 years ago. She was

unpowered, wooden-built, uncovered and

blunt-bowed, just like her predecessors – but

unlike the old days, she was breasted up

alongside a more familiar diesel-powered

steel-hulled craft.

The occasion was an outing to the

Erewash Canal Preservation & Development

Association’s 50th anniversary rally at

Langley Mill. The motor boat was the

shortened 1929 Fellows Morton & Clayton

boat Python, now operated by the

Chesterfield Canal trust as a workboat and

resplendent in new paintwork after a

complete rebuild. And the unpowered craft

was Dawn Rose, completed three years ago

by a group from the Trust as an authentic

copy of the unusual design of working boats

(said to have been called ‘cuckoo boats’)

which used to work the canal. CCT kindly

invited Canal Boat along to join them for

their first trip on the tidal Trent.

The trip had been scheduled on a neap

tide, to avoid the strongest tidal currents;

however, in the event, there was so much

‘fresh’ coming down the river that the tide

hardly assisted the upriver journey at all.

But any concerns about how the two boats

would handle proved unfounded as we left

the lock, came around very nicely, and

headed for Gainsborough. Dawn Rose’s light

weight and shallow draught (empty wooden

horseboats generally draw less than a foot)

meant she wasn’t too much of a drag for

Python’s 30hp Lister, but still progress over

the ground was no more than 4mph, and

slowed down markedly once we passed

Gainsborough Bridge and soon lost what

little assistance we had from the tide.

“Of course in the old days, she’d have

been on her own,” said one of Dawn Rose’s

volunteer crew, with quite some admiration

for the men who took to the Trent in

narrowboats without horse or engine. They

would have gone with the current, steered

around the bends with large oars, and

sometimes hoisted a sail (yes, on a

narrowboat) where possible.

Progress slowed to a crawl as the ebb tide

strengthened – the handy kilometre posts

(something else that the working boat crews

wouldn’t have had to help them!) went from

10 minute to 15 minute intervals. Finally,

four and a half hours after leaving

Stockwith, we arrived in the calm waters of

the arm leading to Torksey Lock.

This was where we left them, tying up

overnight on the pontoon moorings. The

following day the crew had an even slower

journey up to Cromwell Lock and Newark

• with the amount of fresh water meaning
  that they got no assistance from the tide at
  all. Another two days against the current
  took them to Trent Lock, and a final day up
  the Erewash to Langley Mill.
  Look out for them on their return journey
  downriver in early June – check out Dawn
  Rose’s unusual construction, and imagine
  steering her back down to Stockwith using
  just the current, an oar, and perhaps a sail...

DAWN RISES ON THE TRENT

Approaching the overnight stop at Torksey

Dawn Rose (right) and Python

pass Gainsborough Bridge

Underway: leaving West Stockwith on the Trent