Image ID: 14649

St Luke's Church and Chesterfield Canal Basin, Shireoaks

Looking from Shireoaks Colliery site
Shireoaks
England

The foundation stone of the church was laid by the then Prince of Wales, later to become Edward VII, on St. Luke's day, 18th October 1861. A previous chapel at Shireoaks (erected early 1800's) was turned into a schoolroom at that time. The church formed into a parish in 1865 from the parishes of Worksop (Notts) and Anston-cum-Membris (Yorks). The church had a spire which was demolished in 1973. Now a Grade II listed building, a Heritage Lottery Grant has been awarded (February 2000) to fund urgent repairs. The water in the foreground is part of the Chesterfield Canal (and is now part of a marina). A public meeting was held at Worksop's Red Lion on 24 August 1769 to organise the building of a canal. The nationally famous engineer James Brindley was asked to lead the project. He confirmed that a canal from Chesterfield via shireoaks, Worksop and Retford, to the River Trent was viable. Of all the proposed cargoes coal was considered the most important because the fledgling Canal Company aimed to undersell the rival south Yorkshire coalfields. Brindley's assistant, John Varley, was made Clerk of the Works [Resident Engineer]. Work started in October 1771 at Norwood Tunnel, the digging of which was to be a four-year task. Meanwhile the canal was built eastwards towards Worksop and Retford. In May 1775 it was agreed that although the canal was to be narrow from Chesterfield to Retford it should, nevertheless, be built larger between Retford and the Trent so that it could carry wide-beam river-boats. The entire canal was officially opened on 4 June 1777. The photograph shown here is taken looking from the Shireoaks Colliery site. The original shaft was sunk here around 1860 by the Duke of Newcastle who owned the mineral rights. The Duke sold Shireoaks to a new company, the 'Shireoaks Colliery Company' in about 1867. It was Nationalised circa 1947, and closed circa 1991.

Date: 1990

Organisation Reference: NCCN001055

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