Saturday May 23 West Stockwith to Drakeholes on the Chesterfield Canal

A sunny Saturday morning saw Annie leaving West Stockwith for the short distance to Misterton locks and a stop at the bridge moorings, to get sausages from the excellent butcher plus bits from the coop. Soon Liana was polishing the roof brasses.

All the locks up to Retford are wide locks, although some bridge holes have been narrowed.

For most of the way to Drakeholes the pretty agricultural scene has a ridge on the left and the valley of the River Idle on the right.The canal is rather shallow at times.


We grounded to let  Warrior, who I reckoned looked deep draughted, come past, but  Linda and Adrian Hambleton still touched bottom as they squeezed Warrior past on their way from the Boat Club to the Trent.

A buttercup meadow on the way to Drakeholes



Entering Drakeholes tunnel

At Drakeholes we passed through the tunnel under the ridge and moored for lunch. In fact, we met a gentleman who said "Are you Annie and John Fox? I am Alan, the mooring officer at Retford and Worksop Boat Club."  I couldn't resist replying "In that case, I'll throw you a line!"





The sunny sheltered moorings at Drakeholes. ... shame about the closed pub  :(

After helping us moor, there followed a happy afternoon sunning ourselves and getting to know Alan, Deb and Tom from our new Boat Club. Alan kindly popped me over to West Stockwith to get our car. Why go further?

OurOne from Gloucester appeared again, aiming for Kiveton tunnel via lots of locks!