Its water level was one foot (0.30 m) lower than that of the Chesterfield canal, requiring the trans-shipment of coal at a wharf constructed at the terminus.
[3] Boats used were loaded underground within the coal mine the tunnel served; these boats were twenty-one feet (6.4 m) long and three feet six inches (1.07 m) wide, and held seven cones or boxes containing twenty to twenty two hundredweight of coal each.
[4] The wharf where the coal was transhipped was destroyed in the 1890s, when a new route for the Chesterfield Canal was built, passing to the south of Staveley Works.
[3][5] After the Chesterfield Canal Trust published an article about finding part of the tunnel, it was investigated by the Coal Authority, which is responsible for making sure that remains connected with coal mining are safe.
They lowered the water level in the tunnel by 1.3 feet (400 mm) to expose more of the brickwork, and then made it good, before fitting a metal grille across the entrance.