Nottingham to Shardlow

Sat 20^th Aug  Nottingham

We took a bus into the city to look around. Shopping included M&S and Lakeland, where, for a change, we came away with just two items.

In St Peters Square, we came across a team of people from various churches, engaged in outreach on the streets

Outreach

We had lunch at No 12 vegetarian restaurant, a fine dining establishment, where the food is arranged on the plate, accompanied by little dots of “jus”.

Everywhere we saw people dressed up as characters from Alice in Wonderland, who were following some sort of trail of clues using an app. Checking later, we discovered it was a worldwide exercise.

Alice in Wonderland characters

The Queen

Back to the boat by bus.

No boating today

Sun 21^st Aug  Nottingham to Sawley

On the way to church we found a cruiser that was adrift, so we re-moored it.

We went to Cornerstone instead of Trent Vineyard today, and we heard a song that was new to us, which we would like to learn. The worship was excellent, and the sermon was good Bible teaching.

Cornerstone worship band

As it was forecast wet tomorrow, we decided to do some boating today, so we set off past lots of cruisers, as well as Leigha Mae, the boat which had moored alongside us in Newark.

Lots of cruisers in Nottingham

Leigha Mae

At Lenton is the walled up junction where the Nottingham Canal used to connect with the Beeston Cut. There must have been a lock here, as the wall is very high. Then came the Boots factory, and nearby, we noticed floating pennywort was taking hold.

Lenton Junction

Boots

Floating Pennywort

We had intended to empty some cassettes at Beeston, but the Elsan point was out of action again. This seems to happen every two or three weeks. So, we moved on through Beeston Lock, out onto the wide River Trent once again.

Beeston Lock

Wide river

Distant view of the power station

Arriving at Cranfleet Lock, there was a boat on the lock pontoon, apparently having stopped for lunch. There was another boat called Maggie, just going into the lock, so we shared with them.

Into Cranfleet Lock

Sharing with Maggie

Cranfleet Cut was very busy once again with moored boats, so we moved on through the flood lock, past the pontoon by Trent Lock, which was also full, to Sawley Locks.

Cranfleet Flood Lock

A closer view of the power station

Sawley Locks

Only one of the locks was working, and we shared again with Maggie. There was a CRT volunteer who was telling Hazel where to point the tiller, and whether to use reverse or forward. He then went on explain to James how the press button console worked, and proceeded to use the wrong button, which James corrected. Thankfully, he was finishing his shift, otherwise he would have insisted that we use ropes.

Above the lock, we needed to empty cassettes, but there was a cruiser tied on the facilities bollards, with the crew sitting there having a drink. We had to tie to a lock bollard, and Hazel had to hold a rope at the stern while James emptied two cassettes. We didn’t bother with emptying the bins.

We moved on to the visitor moorings, where there was a space for us and a smaller boat. The man on the boat in front muttered something about us mooring on a water point, but in fact there are several water taps along the length of moorings. There were some nice evening reflections, but also some dark clouds gathering.

Moored at Sawley

Evening reflections

Heavy skies

Later we had rain, and there were bright lights along the moorings, and continual noise from the M1. Make a note to avoid Sawley in future.

3 locks, 9 miles. Dep 1410, arr 1750.

Mon 22^nd Aug  Sawley to Shardlow

The power station reflected at Sawley

James walked back to empty the rubbish, which we couldn’t do easily yesterday. We also topped up with water as the water point was close by. Very good pressure.

We departed for Shardlow, where we hoped to arrive after others had left, so we could get a mooring.

Sawley Floodgates

Under the M1

A graceful pipe bridge

A sunken boat

There is a water crossroads, where the River Derwent comes in from the North, the Trent comes in from the South, and leaves to the East. To the West is the entrance to the Trent and Mersey Canal. When we first came here in 2002, Long Horse Bridge connected the towpath across the Trent. That was demolished a year later, and there is now a new footbridge a little further upstream, intriguingly called Fat Horse Bridge. It is fine for walkers, but not so good if you should want a horse to tow a boat into the Trent and Mersey. Pictures of the old bridge can be seen here

The water crossroads

From Google Earth

Fat Horse Bridge

Safely across into the Trent and Mersey Canal, we shared Derwent Mouth Lock with nb Maggie, before cruising slowly through Shardlow, where we found there were plenty of mooring spaces.

Trent and Mersey mile marker

Derwent Mouth Lock

Bridge 1

Malt Shovel

Moored in Shardlow

Peter Ekins came to visit us on board, and later we went to the Clock Warehouse for a meal with Alan and Hazel. Fellowship – excellent. Service – not so good.

Peter Alan Hazel

We noticed several empty warehouses, also a large canalside boarded up house, known locally as the Grey Lady, with a sizeable plot of land. We wondered what the future holds for this village, which has historical significance. Will it have a lot of new housing soon?

Empty warehouse

The Grey Lady

1 lock, 2 miles. Dep 0920, arr 1010.

Next: Continuing along the Trent and Mersey towards Burton-upon-Trent.