The Erewash Valley
- A Tale Of Two Canals - No 2 The Nottingham
w/e 02 November
2003
We resume our walk along the
two canals in the Erewash Valley between Ilkeston and Eastwood
close to the most northerly point of the route on the towpath
of the Nottingham Canal.
Heading in
a southeasterly direction we soon reached this swing bridge over
the disused canal. Crossing the bridge would lead us to the start
and finish point as described in the "Six of the Best Walks
in Broxtowe Borough" booklet that we were following but
as we had started part way round the circular walk we continued
straight on along the towpath.
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In another
couple of hundred yards or so we crossed Newmanleys Road to the
next section where the canal has now been filled in following
opencast mining in the area. The Nottingham Canal was first opened
in 1796 linking Eastwood with Nottingham but the success of the
railways meant that by 1928, canal transportation was no longer
considered viable and it had been abandoned by 1937.
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The uninformed
would scarcely comprehend the existence of the Nottingham Canal
from this view today but in D. H. Lawrence's day, it was central
to his story "The Rainbow" in which it burst its banks
and drowned Tom Brangwen. When you know of the canal it is easy
to see the route between the track and the fence but a little
further on the changed landscape means all signs of the old route
disappear.
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At this point of the walk
the canal has disappeared altogether but a footpath continues
across the fields. Our route at this parting of the ways however
was to turn left along the bridle way.
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At this junction, looking
particularly attractive at this time of year, we turned right
to follow a tarmaced lane towards Newthorpe Sewage Works.
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We had picked a good time of
year to walk along this lane that proved a delight to the ocular
senses. It was just a pity that those of the auditory kind were
offended by the constant drone of traffic on the busy A610 on
the other side of the golden barrier.
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The directions in the booklet
for the route we were following advise that the lane should be
followed to the "entrance gates of Newthorpe Sewage Works".
A surfeit of footpaths and bridle ways meet in the vicinity of
the works and there are a number of gates across the lane but
as this was as far as we could go without authorised access it
was here that we turned left. I won't go into details but it
was after this point that the directions in the booklet became
a little unclear which meant we made an unplanned lengthy detour
to return to our starting point. I was not the flavour of the
day!
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Our plan was to approach the
Bridge Inn at Cotmanhay from the left in this picture. Instead
we approached along the Erewash Canal towpath which can be seen
through the bridge arch. We could have continued along the canal
to the Shipley Lock which was the original plan but instead left
the route here to return through Cotmanhay to our starting point.
The final stretch will have to wait for another day.
Click here to see the first part of the
walk along the Erewash Canal.
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