Erewash

Yet another glorious, warm sunny day. We set off down the now quite wide River Soar to complete the remaining couple of hours. two of the locks are flood locks and so, with normal water levels, they are open at both ends.

All the way the view is dominated by the huge Ratcliffe Power Station continually being supplied, like some rapacious giant of fairy tale land, with trains of coal trucks.

We also passed under the flight path into east Midlands airport and at this time of day there seemed to be a steady flow of traffic in and out - predominantly Ryanair.

Two of the locks were re-built in the 1980's as part of flood protection work. A listed structures, the old locks alongside have been filled to within a few inches of their upper level - even the lock gates can still bee seen.

Eventually, we arrived at the junction with the River Trent - much calmer than when we were last here four years ago. As a result we easily made it across the Trent Lock, the start of the Erewash Canal.

After locking through we stopped to use the services. Opposite was Kingfisher Narrowboats - not sure if this is Take Five's birthplace.
The Erewash is a broad canal, originally built for canal barges bringing coal down from the Derbyshire and Nottingham pits. At one time (like the last time in 1968 when we ventured up this lesser known part of the canal network) there was a huge iron and steel works alongside the canal but now it has been cleared and there is very little sign of what used to be here. One former mill chimney remains undemolished, whilst all around it has gone, just because it serves as a mobile phone mast. Another complete mill building and chimney have been converted into offices.

Uphill, these locks are quite hard work. They have been fitted with anti-tamper locks but not all work and this particular design are fiddly and time consuming. Better that than empty pounds.

What never ceases to amaze us is the interest that people take and the evident satisfaction at being 'allowed' to help operate the locks, especially if accompanied by some explanation of what is happening.

The bridges are unusually low - because the barges they were designed for were much lower that traditional narrow boats.

As we left Dock Holme lock something attacked the prop and we gradually made less and less progress. It was not far to Sandiacre Lock and we would have cleared it there but as we approached we could see that piling work was in progress just below the lock to re-instate the landing which was largely washed out.

As Mike investigated and then removed a couple of chunks of purple carpet from the prop, Christine investigated passing the work boats. We were given a slot in half an hour so it was obviously time for lunch.

Just as we were finishing our yoghurts, the foreman came and told us we could pass - he also warned us that there was a large party of people at the lock along with the local mayor. Indeed there were - it turned out that they were officially unveiling a plaque on the lock cottage (now headquarters of the local canal association) in memory of the person who had at one time been the driving force in keeping the canal in operation.

The construction of the canal is one in which the locks are spaced well out, as the change in level dictates. Later canals used more cut and fill to group locks into flights. as a result it is a continuing process of 15 minutes cruising interspersed with 15 minutes lock operation. Mind you, if you make friends with the onlookers, you save a bit of time at the end by leaving them to close the gates after you!

We were unsure about moorings and so when we found a possible location just below a lock (the main canal bank was too shallow) we opted to tie up. The adjacent railway line does not seem too busy and, although the towpath is well used in the day time it does not look as if there will be many who venture here after dark.

Time now to do some calculations and see if we can reach Langley Mill in the time available to us.