Nottingham Canal facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Nottingham Canal
The Nottingham Canal in Nottingham City Centre.
Specifications
Maximum boat length	85 ft 0 in (25.91 m)
Maximum boat beam	14 ft 6 in (4.42 m)
Locks	19 + 1 stop lock
Status	parts in use / nature reserve / infilled
History
Principal engineer	William Jessop
Date of act	1792
Date completed	1796
Date closed	1937
Geography
Start point	Langley Mill
End point	Nottingham
Connects to	River Trent

The Nottingham Canal

The Nottingham Canal is a historic waterway in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, England. It was built to connect the River Trent in Nottingham to Langley Mill in Derbyshire. This main canal line was about 23.6 kilometers (14.7 miles) long.

At the same time, a separate company built the Beeston Cut. This cut allowed boats to bypass a difficult part of the River Trent near Nottingham. Today, the section of the canal near Nottingham and the Beeston Cut are still used by boats. They are now part of the River Trent's navigation system. This part is sometimes called the Nottingham & Beeston Canal. The rest of the original canal is no longer used and has been partly filled in.

The canal starts from the River Trent at Meadow Lane Lock. It runs close to Nottingham city centre, where there were many places for boats to load and unload goods. It goes up through Castle Lock, which is near Nottingham Castle. Then it continues to Lenton. From Lenton, the Beeston Cut goes to Beeston Lock and rejoins the River Trent.

The part of the canal that is no longer used also started at Lenton. It went up through 17 more locks to a long, flat section. At its top end, a special "stop lock" connected it to the Great Northern Basin. This basin gave boats access to the Erewash Canal and the Cromford Canal.

Building the canal started in 1792 and finished in 1796. It cost much more than planned. Boat traffic grew slowly at first. But by 1804, there was enough money to pay back the investors. Railways started to compete with canals in the 1840s. To avoid losing money, the canal company sold the canal to a railway company. Over time, different railway companies owned it. By 1923, the Great Northern Railway owned the canal.

In 1936, the railway company leased the section from Lenton to the Trent to the Trent Navigation Company. They closed the rest of the canal in 1937. The Trent Navigation Company bought their section in 1946. Nottingham City Council bought the part of the canal within the city limits. They started filling it in from 1955.

Later, Broxtowe Borough Council bought about 9.7 kilometers (6 miles) of the upper canal. They wanted to keep it as a public area. There was a short attempt to reopen the upper part for boats. But new roads and coal mining destroyed parts of the canal, making this impossible.

Today, the section of the canal from Trent Bridge to Lenton and the Beeston Cut are still used by boats. People also walk along the towpath next to the water. In central Nottingham, the Castle Wharf area has been updated. It now has waterside bars and restaurants. On some abandoned parts of the canal, the towpath is used by walkers, cyclists, and nature lovers. Some areas are used for fishing and horse riding.

How the Canal Was Planned and Built

Why Was the Nottingham Canal Needed?

The idea for the Nottingham Canal came up in 1790. Before this, coal for Nottingham came by boat down the Erewash Canal and along the River Trent. When the Cromford Canal was approved in 1789, people worried. They thought coal mines near the new Cromford Canal would do better than mines closer to Nottingham.

There were also concerns that the Erewash Canal company might have too much control over coal prices. To address these worries, a public meeting was held in Nottingham in October 1790. People at the meeting agreed to a plan for a new canal. It would run directly from the Cromford Canal to the Trent River.

Choosing the Best Route

The committee hired William Jessop, a skilled surveyor. He had worked on the successful Cromford Canal. Lord Middleton, who owned Wollaton Hall and coal mines, suggested a route. But Jessop said it would be too hard to build. He then became ill and suggested James Green do the survey.

The committee waited for Jessop to recover. Six months later, they asked Green to survey the route in June 1791. Green also looked at a branch from Lenton to Beeston. This branch would let boats avoid a difficult part of the Trent River near Nottingham.

Jessop oversaw Green's work. In September 1791, Jessop had a route and an estimated cost. Lord Middleton insisted the canal run on the east side of his park. This route was more expensive, but it was chosen. The committee approved the plan, and a public meeting in October showed strong support.

Getting Approval and Starting Work

This was a time called "Canal Mania," when many canals were being built. So many people wanted to buy shares in the canal company that there weren't enough to go around. To please landowners, the company limited how much profit investors could make. They also lowered the fees for carrying coal.

The bill to approve the canal faced opposition. Other canal companies and the Trent Navigation Company argued against it. After many talks, the Beeston Cut part was removed from the bill. The Trent Navigation Company agreed to build it instead. In May 1792, the Act of Parliament was granted, and there were big celebrations in Nottingham.

Building the Canal

The Act created the Nottingham Canal Company. They could raise £50,000 from shares. They could also borrow more money if needed. The company had to build reservoirs to supply water to the Cromford Canal. This was to make up for water taken by the Nottingham Canal.

Jessop was the main engineer, and James Green was the superintendent. Work started on July 30, 1792. In Nottingham, the River Leen was made wider to form part of the canal. The river itself was moved into a new covered channel. The section through the town officially opened on July 30, 1793. This gave boats access to the wharves, even though much work was still left.

Building the canal from Lenton onwards cost more than Jessop had estimated. By September 1794, investors had to pay more money for their shares. In February 1795, parts of the new canal were damaged by severe frost and then quick flooding. The owners were unhappy about the high costs and construction problems.

On March 1, 1796, the first boat reached Nottingham from the south. It used the completed Beeston Cut. By April 26, the entire length of the canal was open. The project cost £80,000, which was a lot of money back then.

How the Canal Operated

When the canal was in use this bridge could be swung out of the canal's line. Pictured in 2006

The canal was about 23.7 kilometers (14.75 miles) long. It had 19 locks, each about 25.9 meters (85 feet) long and 4.4 meters (14.5 feet) wide. There was also an extra stop lock at Langley. This lock connected the Nottingham Canal to the Cromford Canal.

Fourteen of the locks were grouped together at Wollaton. Beyond that, there was a long, flat section to Langley. The canal also had a few short branches. The Bilborough Arm went to a wharf in Bilborough wood. From there, small railways carried coal from mines. This branch was used from 1799 but was mostly abandoned by 1813.

The Robinetts cut was finished by 1796. The Greasley Arm was built in 1800. Both of these branches also connected to coal mines by small railways.

Canal Traffic and Money

Trade on the canal grew steadily. In the year ending April 1798, tolls brought in £2,614. A passenger boat service started between Nottingham and Cromford that year. Another boat began service between Nottingham and Leicester in 1798.

By 1799-1800, income from tolls increased to £4,647. Most of the traffic was coal, about 89,500 tons out of 114,227 tons carried. The Nottingham Canal and Cromford Canal companies worked well together. This helped both companies.

After a loan was paid off in 1804, the company started paying money to its shareholders. By 1830, tolls brought in £9,879. In 1840, this had risen to £12,825.

Challenges and Changes

On September 28, 1818, the company's warehouse near Wilford Street in Nottingham was destroyed by an explosion. Two men died. The explosion happened when gunpowder leaked from a barrel, and a man carelessly dropped a hot cinder onto it. Several boats and many nearby buildings were damaged.

In January 1826, the company tried to stop a steam packet boat from running. But the boat operators protested. So, in May 1826, the company changed its rules. Steam boats were then allowed to run if the company approved.

The Midland Counties Railway (MCR) started building its line in 1837. The railway was accused of interfering with the canal. The Nottingham Canal company got a court order to stop them. As part of talks, the canal company agreed to a new basin near the Nottingham railway station.

Even though the station didn't open until 1842, the canal company started lowering tolls in 1840. They wanted to keep traffic from going to the railway. But despite their efforts, income began to fall. It dropped from £12,536 in 1841 to £5,981 in 1852.

The company decided it was better to sell the canal to a railway company. The Ambergate and Manchester Railway agreed to buy it. But this railway company later merged with others. They became the Ambergate, Nottingham, Boston and Eastern Junction Railway. This new company opened a line in July 1850 but refused to buy the canal. After several court cases, the sale was finally agreed upon. The canal company's last meeting was on April 4, 1856. The canal was then owned by the Great Northern Railway by 1861.

The Canal's Decline and Closure

Why Did the Canal Close?

The Great Northern Railway did not take good care of the canal. Its condition slowly got worse. In 1916, the canal still carried 123,488 tons of goods. Most of this was short trips, like from the Trent to Nottingham or using the Beeston Cut.

There were often complaints about not enough water in the section from Lenton to Trent Lock. But the Great Northern Railway did nothing to fix this. Commercial boat traffic on the upper parts of the canal, above Lenton Lock, stopped in 1928.

The Great Northern Railway became part of the London and North Eastern Railway Company in 1923. They officially closed the main line of the canal in 1937. However, they leased the remaining section between Lenton and Trent Lock to the Trent Navigation Company in 1936. This section was bought by the Trent Navigation Company in 1946. It then became part of the River Trent Navigation.

Later, the canal was taken over by the government. It was managed by British Transport Commission in 1948 and then by British Waterways in 1963. Since 2012, the Canal & River Trust has managed it.

Filling in the Canal

Even though it was closed, the unused canal caused problems. When it rained heavily, the canal sometimes caused flooding in the city. So, Nottingham City Council bought the section running through the city in 1952.

From 1955, they started draining the canal. They laid pipes along its bed and filled it in. By 1962, they had filled in up to lock 12 on the Wollaton flight. Lock 13 was changed to send extra water into the pipes.

Wollaton Colliery used the canal to get rid of water until it closed in late 1963. After the colliery closed, the section up to lock 19 was drained and put into underground pipes in 1966. On September 23, 1964, a section of the top part of the canal was drained. A large part of the rest of the canal was destroyed by opencast coal mining. Most of the canal route through the city has now been built over. However, the last section from Derby Road to Lenton Chain was reused as a new path for the River Leen. So, it still has water.

Efforts to Save the Canal

On July 22, 1976, the Nottingham Canal Society was formed. Their goal was to save what was left of the canal. They also hoped to reopen the section for boats between Langley Mill and Coventry Lane, Nottingham. They wanted to stop more parts of the canal from being filled in. They also pushed for coal mining plans to include putting the canal back afterwards.

In 1976, children from Fernwood Junior School created a nature trail along the canal bed near Wollaton colliery. Broxtowe Council announced they hoped to buy about 8 kilometers (5 miles) of the canal. The canal society started volunteer work parties in April 1977. They trimmed hedges, fixed bridges, and mended canal banks.

They also campaigned for the Awsworth Bypass, a road planned for 1980. They wanted it to have enough space for boats to pass underneath. But in early 1979, Nottinghamshire County Council said a navigable bridge would cost too much. Since that money wasn't available, there would be no boat passage. This effectively stopped the canal from reopening for boats, and the canal society closed down soon after.

Plans for more open-cast mining were changed in 1994. This was good news for a group fighting against such mining. In the 1990s, the feeder from Moorgreen Reservoir was cleaned out. This allowed the reservoir to supply water to the Cromford Canal again. The reservoir is still owned by the Canal and River Trust.

The Canal Today

The Nottingham & Beeston Canal Section

Castle Wharf on the Nottingham Canal in Nottingham

The part of the Nottingham Canal between the River Trent (downstream of Trent Bridge) and Lenton is still used. The Beeston Cut, which goes from Lenton back to the Trent, is also still in use. This whole section is now called the Beeston and Nottingham Canal. It is part of the River Trent's navigation system. The river itself is no longer easy to navigate between Trent Bridge and Beeston Weir.

This section of the canal did not originally have a towpath. But in 1976, plans were approved to build one. The work took six years and opened in 1982. The towpath in Nottingham city centre is part of Nottingham's Big Track. This is a 16-kilometer (10-mile) circular route for cycling and walking. It follows the canal from the railway station to the Beeston locks. Then it returns along the Trent riverside path.

The canal in the middle of Nottingham, near Nottingham Castle, is a main feature of the city's Castle Wharf area. This area used to have docks and warehouses. Now, it has been redeveloped with waterside bars and restaurants in the old warehouse buildings. There are also new offices and homes.

The Closed Section of the Canal

In 1977, Broxtowe Borough Council bought a 9.7-kilometer (6-mile) stretch of the upper canal. This section runs from Eastwood through Awsworth, Cossall, and Trowell to the edge of Nottingham. On the Trowell section, you can still see the remains of Swansea bridge. This is an original stone bridge, built in 1793–95. It is a Grade II listed building.

From the bridge, you can see the original stone lock keepers' cottages. These were built in 1794–95. The name "Swansea" comes from the many swans that used to gather there. In 1980, most of the swans were moved because there wasn't enough water.

Broxtowe Council gets help from several groups to manage the canal. These include the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and the Countryside Agency. Because the canal provides a rich home for plants and animals, it was named a Local Nature Reserve in 1993.

Parts of the canal have been dredged to create wetlands and open water. A big challenge for the council is finding new water sources. The Eastwood section is cut off from its original water supply. Also, a 3.2-kilometer (2-mile) gap caused by open-cast mining separates Eastwood and Awsworth.

In 1995, rainwater from the Awsworth Bypass provided a new water source. In 1998, an electric pump was installed to pump water from the River Erewash into the canal. More improvements were made in 1998. The towpath and other paths connecting to it were made public rights of way. The canal is well-used by walkers, cyclists, and nature lovers. Some parts are used by anglers and horse riders. Nottinghamshire County Council has helped make the towpath accessible for people with disabilities.

Points of Interest Along the Canal