We made it up to Langley Mill and through the first lock on the Cromford Canal, gaining our 10th IWA Silver Propellor Challenge location on my birthday to acquire the delightful present of a rather unique location plaque!
Getting here up the Erewash was a challenge itself, to be honest, but one worth undertaking. It hasn’t been an easy canal to navigate, and one that ends up in a vicious cycle. Because it so little used, repairs and basic maintenance it would appear are low on the CRT list of priorities, and thus things deteriorate more, and then the state of the infrastructure means boaters are less inclined to head this way. We never saw another moving boat all day.
To detail our findings; there are 11 locks between Sandiacre where we set off and this final one onto the mooring basin on the Cromford. Each normally has 4 gates (2 top and two bottom, 2 ground paddles and 4 gate paddles).
- The first, Pasture Lock had both ground paddles not working, and the top lock gate paddles were stuck part open
- A burnt out cruiser was sunk under the M1 bridge between this and the next lock (we had seen a warning about it)
- Stanton Lock worked but was hard
- Hallam Fields worked
- Gallows Inn lock the ground paddle and top gate paddle on the towpath side were jammed and wouldn’t open fully
- Between there and Greens Lock a sunk cruiser was floating about
- Greens Lock one ground paddle inoperable, the other won’t open fully, offside gate paddle jammed at 25% open and neither of the top gates would open so I squeezed the boat out through the middle gap
- We were beginning to feel grumpy at this point, but the autumn colours and whizzing kingfishers raised spirits, and Potters Lock came with a bonus. Local youngsters on half term were happy to help and learn how a lock worked. They said they’d never seen a boat going through so glad we could enlighten them
- The next 4 locks worked but were heavy and hard but worked, so that was Barkers, Stenson, Shipley and Eastwood
- Then we arrived at the end. Langley Mill Lock is looked after by the volunteers of the ECP and DA…Erewash Canal Preservation and Development Association. That lock into the final basin works smoothly, easily and everything moves like clockwork, a mechanical testament to the advantages of regular maintenance.
I look forward to the day when they extend the Cromford Canal and we can go further into Derbyshire along its length.
It’s been handy being up here for shops and pubs. We managed to celebrate both our birthdays this week and contributed our bit clearing up rubbish and scrubbing signage en route.
We also managed a walk from Derbyshire to Nottinghamshire and back along the Iron Giant, the towering Bennerley Viaduct strides quarter of a mile 20m high across the Erewash Valley just a stone’s throw from the canal. It is well worth a visit and is a remarkable tribute to the power of volunteers, are are the Erewash and Cromford Canals. The Iron Giant is going to get a visitor centre and new paths in the coming months so will offer even more on a visit, although the highlight for visitors old and young when we went was the responding toot from freight engines below to a hopeful wave from high above.
We gained an excellent view of Winston the Wind Turbine. He appears on Google maps as such – I love the unusual on a map. He’s apparently located at the Newthorpe and Giltbrook Sewage Farm and was actually named Windy Winston by the pupils of Awsworth Primary School nearby. He is said to be the tallest wind turbine in the country. Anyone know any different?
Waste disposal demands we return south again (back through those 11 locks plus another 3) even though we can’t yet cross the Trent to the Soar. The only CRT waste disposal on the canal that we’ve found is at Trent Lock, so we need to return there to get rid of our rubbish some ours, some picked up en route.
The river updates over the past week have been in flood and out of flood and the Ratcliffe Lock is now scheduled to reopen on 15 November so we won’t get onto our winter mooring for 1 November but with a long day and no more flooding we could, should, might make it on 16 November. Everything crossed!
Pickingupducks 