Category: Canals

Monochrome Monday… Trent Lock

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Barges on the Cranfleet Canal, February 2018Barges on the Cranfleet Canal, February 2018
Nikon FE2, Nikkor 35mm f/2 – 1/125s, f8, – Lomo Lady Grey 400 rated at ISO 320

Trent Lock is a major canal navigation junction on the borders of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire, south of Long Eaton. Here the 11½ mile Erewash Canal from Langle Mill and the River Soar meet the River Trent. The Cranfleet Canal (or ‘Cut’) allows boats to access the Trent heading downstream/east (avoiding a weir) and boats heading upstream/west soon arrive at the beginning of the Trent & Mersey Canal at Derwent Mouth, the point at which the River Derwent flows into the Trent.

Trinity, Erewash Canal, February 2018Trinity, Erewash Canal, February 2018
Nikon FE2, Nikkor 35mm f/2 – 1/125s, f8, – Lomo Lady Grey 400 rated at ISO 320

The area is still home to a couple of boatyards and a dry dock facility is available on the Erewash Canal immediately north of lock no.60 (the last lock before the River Trent). Visitors can also enjoy the Lock House Tea Rooms and the Trent Lock and Steamboat Inn public houses… (the food and beer in the latter being particularly good!)

Erewash Canal, February 2018Erewash Canal, February 2018
Nikon FE2, Nikkor 35mm f/2 – 1/125s, f8, – Lomo Lady Grey 400 rated at ISO 320

Scans by AgLab with minimal cropping and tweaking in Lightroom Classic CC.

Single frame… Canal Cottage

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Canal Cottage, February 2018Canal Cottage, February 2018
Canon Sure Shot Sleek, – Kentmere 400

This cottage stands beside the Cromford Canal in Derbyshire, at the point where the ‘Nightingale Arm’ meets the main canal. Built by Florence Nightingale’s uncle the arm served a lead smelter at the village of Lea Bridge. Known as ‘Aqueduct Cottage’ (due to the proximity of the Leawood Aqueduct over the River Derwent) it was originally home to the Nightingale Arm’s lengthsman (the worker responsible for the maintenance and repair of a section of canal).

Another shot from my first roll of Kentmere 400 film, one of three that was a Christmas present from my wife, the Canon Sure Shot Sleek was yet another charity shop find.

Scan by AgLab with minimal cropping and tweaking in Lightroom Classic CC.

Single frame… Leawood Pumphouse

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Leawood Pumphouse, January 2018Leawood Pumphouse, January 2018
Fujifilm X-T1, Fujinon XF 18-135mm f3.5~5.6 R LM OIS WR at 24mm, 1/105s, f8, ISO 400

Leawood Pumphouse was built in 1849 to supply water to the Cromford Canal in Derbyshire. A Watt-type beam engine draws water from the River Derwent through a 150 yard tunnel to a reservoir in the basement and then up 30 feet and into the canal.

The pump’s piston has a diameter of 50 inches, a stroke of 10 feet and works at seven strokes per minute and is capable of moving 39,000 tons of water in 24 hours! The immense size of the pump is due to the fact that there were restrictions on removing water from the river, doing so was only allowed between 8pm on Saturdays and 8pm on Sundays.

The pump house closed along with the canal in 1944 but it was restored in 1979 and is regularly steamed.