The Day They Pulled The Plug Rod Auton, Publicity Officer for Chesterfield Canal Trust tells us about the day the Chesterfield Canal went down the plug...
T
he Chesterfield Canal is one of the earliest in the country. It was designed by James Brindley and opened fully on 4th June 1777.
The outstanding feature was the Norwood Tunnel, which was the longest canal tunnel in the country at 1ž miles when it was opened on 9th May 1775. Astonishingly, although it was dug with picks and shovels, it was possible to see straight from one end to the other. The first three boats to pass through at the opening ceremony included a brass band along with the usual dignitaries. This must have been interesting in a very restricted tunnel for one hour and one minute!
The person who can really tell the tale is Kevin Bowskill. He worked for British Waterways and its successor, the Canal & River Trust, for 44 years. Kevin said that he was working on stabilising a concrete wall, near the Grove Mill in Retford. He was part of the dredger gang along with Mick Tweed and Jack Rothwell.
There are two stories about the canal that are really widely known. One is about the stone for the Houses of Parliament. The original Palace of Westminster had burned down in 1834. The stone to rebuild it was quarried at Anston, taken down the canal to the River Trent and thence to London. Tens of thousands of tons of stone was transported in this way, mostly between 1841 and 1844.
They were trying to put in shutter boards, but were prevented from doing so by a length of chain. Kevin was asked to bring in the dredger by the foreman, Jack Rothwell. At first they tried to pull the chain out with a rope attached to a vehicle, but this proved unsuccessful. Eventually the dredger removed the obstacle. However, hours later, the section of canal was drained.
However, it is the second story that still captures the imagination and gets endlessly repeated in books and newspaper articles. It was even mentioned on the QI programme on BBC2.
The media were soon on to the story. The Daily Express wanted an exclusive. BBC Look North and ITV Calendar also came for interviews. However, somehow, Kevin got shoved into the background as others sought publicity.
One day in 1978 a British Waterways dredging gang working in Retford pulled up a chain with a bit of wood on the end. They went for lunch and returned to find that the canal had been drained. The
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main player was assumed to be Bill Thorpe, because it was his photo, holding the plug and sporting a superb mullet, that was widely circulated. In fact this was not the case. Bill worked for British Waterways, but only turned up the next day and agreed to have his photograph taken, not realising that it would be used for decades to come. Unfortunately he died in the 1990s, aged 42.
Ten years later, though, British Waterways put on a Festival to celebrate the event, and Kevin was presented with a replica plug.
