Description: A scene at the long-disused Norwood Locks on the Chesterfield Canal. These staircase flights, numbering 14 locks in total, took the Canal out of the Rother Valley and up to its summit level where boats then had to negotiate the narrow and lengthy Norwood Tunnel, at 2,884 yards (2,637 metres) the longest canal tunnel in the country when first built, before making a more gradual descent into the valley of the River Ryton.
The Chesterfield Canal opened in 1777 and connected Chesterfield with the River Trent at West Stockwith via Worksop and Retford, a distance of 46 miles. The section from Chesterfield towards Worksop saw little or no use after the closure of Norwood Tunnel in 1908 (as a result of damage from mining subsidence).
The Chesterfield Canal Trust has long term plans to reopen the canal all the way from its terminus at Chesterfield to the present head of navigation at the eastern end of Norwood Tunnel at Kiveton. Between 1989 and 2012 reinstatement of the length from Tapton to Staveley was completed in stages but at Norwood the locks are unlikely to be restored and the Canal will probably require a revised alignment because of the problematical tunnel.
The Norwood Locks comprised Norwood Bottom Treble (Locks Nos 6-9), Norwood Middle Treble (Nos 10-12), Norwood Top Treble (Nos 13-15) and Norwood Top Quadruple (Nos 16-19). This view is looking north-westwards across the pound between the Top Quadruple and the Top Treble - the entrance to the latter is hidden behind the bush to right of centre. The stone side to the pound here is a relict of the wharf at this point that served the adjoining and now vanished West Kiveton Colliery.