Nottingham Canal, 2008
A rather sad walk along a Nottingham canal
(Photos © urban75, Tues 19th August, 2008)

Two years ago, we were up in Nottingham for the marriage of a lovely woman called Maria. Sadly, we had to return for her funeral.

After the ceremony, we took a quick walk along the canal before getting the train back to London.


The view over Nottingham from Wilford Hill Crematorium.


Just around the corner from Nottingham train station is the Canalhouse Bar (48-52 Canal Street) which is right on the canal.

Uniquely, the bar has a canal boat and part of the Nottingham canal inside!


Walking along Carrington Street.


Graffiti art and canalside cyclist.


Looking east along the canal.




Situated on the banks of the Nottingham-Beeston Canal, the Canal Museum is inside a restored warehouse and documents the once-thriving canal and the river trade in the area.


A wooden sign above the old warehouse is for local brewers, Fellows Morton and Clayton who have been operating as a Brew House since 1891.


The canal was opened in the late eighteenth century, and was used to transport coal, building stone, grain and raw materials.

It thrived until the Midland Counties Railway company opened a line from Nottingham to Derby in May 1839, adding a line from Nottingham to Leicester a month later.

With almost all the traffic transferring to the railways, the canals in the area were promptly bought up by various railway companies, with the Nottingham canal becoming a rather unimportant part of the Great Northern Railway's empire.

Traffic slumped so fast that by 1916 the annual amount collected in tolls barely climbed over a £1,000.

With no hope of rejuvenation, commercial canal traffic on all but the City section of the canal stopped in 1928, abandoning it entirely in 1937.

The Story Of The Nottingham Canal












The Navigation Inn is located on a canal lock with a terrace seating area letting drinkers enjoy an ale and watch the barges pass by.




Old cast-iron mile marker.




Lock detail.



I love the timeless quality of canals. This could have been taken any time in the last fifty years.



Archive view.


The same building today.

The British Waterways Board was created by the Transport Act 1962, and a year later it took control of the inland waterways of the UK.

The same year saw a winter freeze so harsh that many boats were frozen into their moorings for weeks on end, and the BWB cited this as one of the reasons why they formally ceased commercial haulage on the canals.

The board is now charged with caring for 2,200 miles of the country's remaining canals and rivers.

British Waterways.
British Waterways history.





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