Cromford Canal Cruising Guide 2020

Cromford Canal Cruising Guide
 February 2010

Having explored the full length of the Cromford and Erewash canals in some detail, I thought it would be a good idea to pull back and reflect on the the big picture, a sort of a round up review.

With cruiseway status already conferred on the little travelled Erewash and restoration plans progressing on the Cromford, how better to review this contrasting pair of waterways than by the publication of a virtual cruising guide. Set aside the troubles of 2010 and leaf through the new canal guide, published in time for the new 2020 boating season. 

Cromford and Erewash  Canal Cruising Guide

Welcome to the 2020 cruising guide to the Cromford and Erewash Canals.

After the exciting reopening ceremonies of 2019, the canals are now ready and waiting for their first full season of visitors. A cruise to the terminus at Cromford Wharf offers a varied boating experience which can be achieved in three days if you are on a strict timetable, but the beauty of the area means that most visitors are likely take it at a more leisurely pace, savouring what has justifiably been described as the "Llangollen of the east".

We hope you share our delight in this unique network of restored canals on the Nottinghamshire / Derbyshire border.


Day One - Trent Lock to Langley Mill
12 miles and 15 locks

Most visitors take an overnight stop at Trent Lock, where the River Trent, the Trent and Mersey Canal, The River Soar and the Erewash canal combine. This is one of the great inland waterway crossroads and is blessed by an excellent pub, The Steamboat, plus a Tea Rooms  and BW services, which are few and far between in these parts. This spot is very popular with non boaters, so you can expect  to attract quite an audience as you leave the Trent behind.

 Sandiacre mills

After a few miles of level cruising the Erewash Canal starts it's relentless climb, rising through Sandiacre and Ilkeston via 15 broad locks. This lower section of the canal is mainly industrial and urban, but it is not without interest. The old cotton mills of Sandiacre have been sympathetically restored and converted into housing, adding a spectacular backdrop to the waterway. This canal used to be known for its rubbish, but with the arrival if more boats has restored local pride in this once great waterway which, in its day, delivered riches beyond the wildest dreams of it's investors. This ribbon of water gave access to the rich coalfields in the north and was the dot.com enterprise of its day.

Cotmanhay nr Shipley Lock

Most boaters press on beyond Shipley Lock where the urban gives way to countryside, mooring amid quiet fields and small farms. But for those in need of refreshment there is always the Great Northern Inn at Langley Mill which offers locally brewed Kimberley Ales and food at very reasonable prices. Limited mooring is available at the Junction with the Nottingham Canal (currently being restored) but these is plenty of quiet towpath mooring below Langley Lock.

Langley Lock pre 1900

Look out for the old toll house bedside Langley Mill Lock, a rare surviving relic of the canal in it's heyday.

Langley Mill, Erewash Canal

Langley Mill

Erewash Canal

9th Jan 2010

I made a pilgrimage up the Erewash Canal at Easter 2008, but low water levels halted progress at Eastwood Lock and I was unable to complete the final mile into the basin at Langley Mill. This frustration has been festering away for 18 months so I grasped an opportunity to lake a look at it on foot during a recent outing with Tilly.

Great Northern Basin viewed from the pub

We rolled into Langley Mill at 1.30pm one Sunday afternoon, absolutely famished and desperate for food. We hunted high and low for the canal and it took a search on my Blackberry GPS to tell us that access to the canal is to be found from the east, not the west. With increasing desperation I suggested a KFC but was advised by Tilly that "she doesn't do KFC's". What self respecting teeneager trurn up their nose at junk food, I ask you?

In the end I gave up on the canal and made for the Great Northern Pub, and was astonished to discover that the rear of the pub overlooks the very bit of water we had been hunting for!

Great Northern Basin, Langley Mill

It's a fairly basic pub and the sight of a Doc Martin clad landlord with a brace of swallows on his neck gave rise to a measure of caution. I shouldn't have worried - they were lovely and welcoming, providing two huge helpings of roast beef from the carvery plus, a drink each with change from £12! Not bad.

Cromford Canal tollhouse, Langley Mill

With the daylight fading we took a wander round the basin, noting the very pretty toll house which marks the start of the Cromford Canal.

Great Northern Basin itself represents the start of the now abandoned Nottingham Canal, which runs alongside the Erewash for a mile or so, before bearing east at Eastwood Lock. Why the two canals run parallel is a mystery, but one which will no doubt be answered with a bit of on line research.

Erewash Canal at sunset

With the Cromford Canal nearly finished (just the stretch between Ironville and Langley Mill remains unexplored) maybe the Nottingham Canal is the logical next step.

Sandiacre to Burton on Trent

Friday 4 April 2008
Sandiacre to Burton on Trent Day 15
Erewash Canal, River Trent and Trent and Mersey

Miles 24
Locks 11
Hours 10

We woke when the shunting engines in Toton Sidings really got into their stride and the percussion of colliding wagons could not only be heard but also felt through the water. We were on the go by 9.00am, passing through Long Eaton with care.

There was loads of rubbish and several ominous bangs from the base plate, but fortunately nothing serious round the prop. We couldn’t resist swerving close to the Sea Scouts premises to activate their automated warning signal and receive a stern warning to “vacate the area”. It must be a real pain to live near but it gave us a good chuckle.


We planned to stop and fill up with water at Trent Lock, not having seen a tap for 3 days. However, a big Dutch Barge was filling some exceptionally large tanks so we pressed on. We tried the tap opposite Sawley Marina but this had ridiculously low pressure and after 45 mins and a half full tank we gave up again. The marina diesel pump mad no pressure problems and pushed 120 litres into our tank in no time at all. At this point we realised that the two day push up the flooded Trent had consumed the equivalent of a whole weeks worth of Diesel. No wonder the Cromwell Lock Keeper commented on the quantity of diesel we must have used! We also availed them of their £10 DIY pump out service, which was also becoming a pressing need.

Finally, we started to encounter other boats in volume, with the usual hoards of Canal time craft coming and going from their Shardlow base. It was good to be back in the main canal system and we pressed on up the Trent and Mersey and through Stenson Lock behind a very old and smoky working boat. Bagman and little S were picked up at Willington before mooring at bridge 33 in Burton on Trent, just beyond Shobnall Fields.

Ilkeston to Sandiacre

Thursday 3 April 2008
Ilkeston to Sandiacre (via Langley Mill) Day 14
Erewash Canal

Miles 21
Locks 29
Hours 7

Belle had reservations about completing the Erewash, tending to favour a late start and an early return to Sandiacre. However, with a day in hand, and the canal “being there” we concluded “why not?”. We allocated three hours travel above Ilkeston and then to turn, covering as much distance as we had time for and still be ready for a pick up at 6.00pm. According to Pearson, the journey to Langley Mill was 4.5 hours so no chance of making it all the way.


In the event, Pearson was somewhat pessimistic and we made good time in spite of all the locks being set against us. The final plan was to wind a couple of hundred yards short of Langley Lock but a BW improvement scheme put paid to that idea. A couple of guys were working down the Erewash applying new numbers to all the bridges and their boat and scaffold blocked out way for half an hour or so. Then the leaking Eastwood Lock appeared to have virtually drained the pound to Langley Lock and even WB’s modest 1ft 10” draft wouldn’t make it.


However we locked up and turned in the mouth of the by-wash churning up tons of silt in the process. So that was the Erewash, bar about the last half mile or so – and in the circumstances that was good enough. On the way back we encountered the repairmen again at Shipley Lock and after a bit of persuasion, got them to agree to let us pass.

I have to say that the Erewash is not a great canal. The last couple of miles north of Cotmanhay are very rural, nestling in the foothills of the Peak District and hint at the potential which exists should this arm be reconnected with the Cromford Canal via the Amber Valley, a route which was lost in the 1960’s. Strangely, the canal is much more attractive when travelled in a southerly direction and the views of Cloud House and its adjacent church are picture postcard perfect.


The locks are big, heavy and the gear is at best stiff and at timed inoperable. The good news was that as we were the only craft on the canal all the locks were set in our favour for our decent! We made it to the Red Lion with 30 mins to spare and then Jeff and the Capt moved on through Sandiacre, mooring on the lock tail bollards.


Fishing was unsuccessful so we resorted to a Monopoly marathon. The Capt took a commanding lead with hotels on Brown, Blue, Purple, Orange, Yellow and Park Lane / Mayfair – enough to land me with a hotel repair bill of an eye watering £1650. But Jeff clung on with no property and virtually no cash, refusing to die but never quite cutting it as the comeback kid.


There was lots of activity around us during the evening but all of it on the towpath with dozens of runners and cyclists. The waterway itself feels like a throwback to the 1960’s, overgrown, unkempt and unloved by all but the fitness enthusiasts who use is environs as part of their exercise routine. The canal is almost continuous suburbia but whereas in some areas the canals are embraced and included into gardens, here it is shunned and hidden away behind high fences. As a result the debris is constant and every bit as bad as the BCN.

We had a quiet night with the distant hum of the A52 all but drowned out by the tinkling of the bywash. During the night various clanks and bangs emanated from the adjacent marshaling yard, but not badly enough to disturb our sleep.

Nottingham to Ilkeston

Wednesday 2 April 2008
Nottingham to Ilkeston Day 13
Nottingham Canal, River Trent and Erewash Canal

Miles 16
Locks 9
Hours 6

How lovely to be back in the cosy world of canals, no current and little more than 3 ft of water if disaster strikes. But this does not last for long as the Nottingham Canal is short and quickly becomes the Beeston Cut leading the Beeston Lock and a return to the raging Trent.


The current was still strong but the depth has reduced to “only just amber” and we seemed to be through the worst. We did as the sign suggested and “Proceeded with caution”. Judging by the debris on the banks the levels bust have peaked in the red zone whilst we were working our way up the tidal section - just our luck after a remarkably dry and flood free winter.


The currents really picked up in the shallow reaches below Cranfleet Cut and we were relived to take temporary leave of the river. The bad weather in the Fens had left with more time than anticipated so we decided to use two days to explore the Erewash Canal which leaves the Trent at Trent Lock, opposite the confluence of the Trent and the Soar.

The Erewash won’t win any awards for its loveliness. Whilst the locks are broad the channel is narrow in the extreme and in places it suffers from a bottom which is far too close to the surface… Weeds line most of the route, liberally sprinkled with all manner of plastic waste and industrial debris. Added to all this, the lock gear is poorly maintained and many reaches are uncannily similar the more desolate parts of the BCN.


We hit real trouble in Long Eaton as we passed some school playing fields. One of the goal nets had found its way into the cut and then into a tightly wound ball round our prop. This took an hour and a half to clear using a selection of implements including a serrated kitchen knife. This represents out all time worst trip down the weed hatch. Long Eaton morphed into Sandiacre which was a pleasant town and we settled on the Red Lion as a suitable drop off point for Sal the next day, from where she would return home by car, picking up Tilly from school along the way. We pressed on beyond Sandiacre with its converted lace mills and ducked under the roaring A52, which roars overhead.

We finally reached what could pass as countryside only to be confronted by the M1 and another ear splitting cacophony. The cut became narrower and shallower and our progress stirred up masses on noxious filth, even in the centre. We eventually identified a short length of new piling by a park at Gallows Inn Lock, which had just enough depth to bring Wand’ring bark alongside. This proved to be a surprisingly good mooring all things considered – one to remember for the future.