Editing Chesterfield Canal (section)

===Railway age===
{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = Manchester and Lincoln Union Railway and Chesterfield and Gainsborough Canal Act 1846
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of the United Kingdom
| long_title            = An Act for making a Railway from the Midland Railway at Staveley to the Town of Worksop, and for consolidating into One Undertaking the said proposed Railway and the Canal Navigation from Chesterfield to the River of Trent.
| year                  = 1846
| citation              = [[9 & 10 Vict.]] c. ccclviii
| introduced_commons    = 
| introduced_lords      = 
| territorial_extent    = 
| royal_assent          = 7 August 1846
| commencement          = 
| expiry_date           = 
| repeal_date           = 
| amends                = 
| replaces              = 
| amendments            = 
| repealing_legislation = {{ubli|[[Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Act 1849]]}}
| related_legislation   = 
| status                = repealed
| legislation_history   = 
| theyworkforyou        = 
| millbankhansard       = 
| original_text         = https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/Vict/9-10/358/pdfs/ukla_18460358_en.pdf
| revised_text          = 
| use_new_UK-LEG        = 
| UK-LEG_title          = 
| collapsed             = yes
}}
In the 1840s, [[Railway Mania]] was gripping the country, with many speculative schemes being proposed. Rather than face steady demise as the new form of transport developed, a number of the proprietors formed the Manchester & Lincoln Union Railway company in October 1845. The intention was to build a line from Liverpool to Grimsby, and to convert part of the canal into a railway. Locally, this included a line from Staveley to Gainsborough, via Worksop, with a branch to Lincoln and another from Worksop to Beighton. The previous year, the [[Sheffield and Lincolnshire Junction Railway]] had been proposed, to build a line from Sheffield to Gainsborough, and was supported by the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne & Manchester Railway. The new scheme was in direct competition to the earlier one, but the two sets of proprietors met and agreed to amalgamate. Now arguing from a position of strength, the Manchester & Lincoln Union rescinded their plans for most of their lines, and obtained the '''{{visible anchor|Manchester and Lincoln Union Railway and Chesterfield and Gainsborough Canal Act 1846}}''' ([[9 & 10 Vict.]] c. ccclviii) on 7 August 1846 allowing them to construct a line from the [[Midland Railway]] at Staveley to the canal at Worksop. The new company amalgamated with the Chesterfield Canal, to become the rather unwieldy Manchester and Lincoln Union Railway and Chesterfield and Gainsborough Canal, with powers to further amalgamate with the Sheffield and Lincolnshire Junction Railway. However, by the time they announced this, the Sheffield and Lincolnshire Junction Railway had already become part of the [[Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway]], and so they amalgamated with that company instead. The act of Parliament stated that although the canal company was to be dissolved, the entire canal was to be retained, its water supplies maintained, and tolls were to be fixed at a just level.{{sfn |Hadfield |1970 |pp=196–197}}

Under the new regime, the canal was put back into good order in 1848, after many years where regular maintenance had been neglected. The benefits were immediate, with traffic increasing as a result.{{sfn |Hadfield |1970 |p=197}} Over 200,000 tons were carried in 1848, the highest recorded total.{{sfn |Nicholson |2006 |p=27}} The railway company started to operate as a carrier on the canal, and to maintain water levels, the reservoirs at Chesterfield were enlarged in 1856. Traffic levels were holding up in 1858, despite fierce competition from the London and North Western Railway. However, the owners considered options for converting the canal from Kiverton Park to Chesterfield into a railway in 1872, 1873 and 1884, but on each occasion, the plans were shelved.{{sfn |Hadfield |1970 |p=197}} The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway was expanding, and an act of Parliament, the [[Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Act 1889]] ([[52 & 53 Vict.]] c. ciii) was obtained which allowed them to divert parts of the canal to enable a new railway connecting Chesterfield, Staveley and Beighton to be constructed. The new route was straighter than the old, and reduced the length of the canal by around {{convert|1/2|mi|km|1}}. The Beighton to Staveley section of the new railway opened on 1 December 1891, and reached Chesterfield on 4 June 1892. The railway's carrying business on this and other canals ceased shortly afterwards.{{sfn |Hadfield |1970 |pp=197–198}} The original route of the canal at Hague Lane was largely destroyed by the construction of the railway and [[Renishaw Central railway station|Renishaw Central station]], but further north, the section around Chapel Wheel Forge and Dam is still clearly visible, and reinstatement of it as part of a restored canal was considered but rejected on practical grounds.{{sfn |Coles |2013c |loc=Sect 10.7}} Close to Bluebank Lock, the railway, known as the Great Central Railway Chesterfield Loop, turned to the east and passed to the south of Staveley Iron Works to reach [[Staveley Town railway station|Staveley Town station]]. Prior to construction of this section, the canal looped to the north around the iron works, passing through Cinderhill Lock before turning south-eastwards. The canal was re-routed along the southern edge of the works, and the railway crossed over at [[Staveley Works railway station|Staveley Works station]], almost on top of a new lock which was known as Staveley Works Lock or Hollingwood Lock.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/441575/374621/12/100613 |title=1:2500 map, 1877 and 1898 |publisher=Ordnance Survey}}</ref>

Parts of the canal above Worksop were affected by [[subsidence]] from local coal mines. By 1905, traffic had dropped to 45,177 tons, of which around 15,000 tons were coal and 11,000 were bricks. Some 40 boats were still working on the canal, although a short section between Staveley and Chesterfield had become unnavigable. The canal was making a loss, with receipts of £1,837 and expenditure of £3,883 in 1905. The largest drain on resources was the Norwood Tunnel, where £21,000 had been spent since 1871, in an attempt to repair damage and raise the roof.{{sfn |Hadfield |1970 |p=198}} However, on 18 October 1907 there was a further substantial collapse, and the tunnel was closed. Effectively, the canal above Worksop became redundant. Responsibility for the canal passed to the [[London and North Eastern Railway]] (LNER) in 1923, who carried out regular maintenance, and repaired and enlarged the lock connecting West Stockwith basin to the River Trent between 1923 and 1925. Various attempts to reduce the growth of weed, which had first appeared on the canal in 1852, were made, with variable success, and there was a brisk trade in munitions during the [[Second World War]]. The last serious commercial traffic on the canal was the carriage of bricks from Walkeringham to West Stockwith, which ended in 1955, although there was a small trade in warp, a fine silt dredged from the Trent at the mouth of the River Idle, and used by the cutlery trade in Sheffield for polishing metal, which lasted into the early 1960s.{{sfn |Nicholson |2006 |p=27}} Parts of the isolated section from the tunnel to Chesterfield were infilled and redeveloped.