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123-697: The Derby Canal ran 14 miles (23 km) from the Trent and Mersey Canal at Swarkestone to Derby and Little Eaton , and to the Erewash Canal at Sandiacre , in Derbyshire , England. The canal was authorised by an act of Parliament , the Derby Canal Act 1793 ( 33 Geo. 3 . c. 102) and was fully completed in 1796. It featured a level crossing of the River Derwent in the centre of Derby. An early tramroad, known as

246-419: A fish ladder are often taken to counteract this. Navigation locks have also potential to be operated as fishways to provide increased access for a range of biota. Locks can be built side by side on the same waterway. This is variously called doubling , pairing , or twinning . The Panama Canal has three sets of double locks. Doubling gives advantages in speed, avoiding hold-ups at busy times and increasing

369-576: A 10-mile (16 km) stretch of the river. The bill failed, but the map for a similar scheme presented in 1717 was said to be drawn by Sorocold. This became the Derwent Navigation Act in 1720, and the work enabled boats to reach Derby in January 1721, but it was still difficult to navigate in periods of flood or dry weather. Indeed the Trent itself was little better. In 1770, James Brindley had brought

492-509: A basin adjacent to the Morledge, with locks connecting it to each branch of the canal . A bridge would carry the towpath across the basin. A small aqueduct would still be needed to cross the mill race on the west side of the Holmes. The bill was passed by Parliament in 1793 by a narrow majority in the face of strong opposition from the Trent and Mersey Canal and the Erewash Canal owners who had

615-555: A boat in a lock. One incident, which took place in June 1873 on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, involved the boat the Henry C. Flagg and its drunk captain. That boat was already leaking; the crew, having partially pumped the water out, entered Lock 74, moving in front of another boat. Because they failed to snub the boat, it crashed into and knocked out the downstream gates. The outrush of water from

738-464: A boat in the lock. A 200-ton boat moving at a few miles an hour could destroy the lock gate. To prevent this, a rope was wound around the snubbing post as the boat entered the lock. Pulling on the rope slowed the boat, due to the friction of the rope against the post. A rope 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 inches (6.4 cm) in diameter and about 60 feet (18 meters) long was typically used on the Erie Canal to snub

861-500: A boat travelling upstream, the process is reversed; the boat enters the empty lock, and then the chamber is filled by opening a valve that allows water to enter the chamber from the upper level. The whole operation will usually take between 10 and 20 minutes, depending on the size of the lock and whether the water in the lock was originally set at the boat's level. Boaters approaching a lock are usually pleased to meet another boat coming towards them, because this boat will have just exited

984-549: A branch from Derby to the Erewash Canal at Sandiacre , including the purchase of the Derwent Navigation Company, would cost £60,000 (equivalent to £9.23 million in 2023). The costs of the length from Derby to Denby would account for a third of this, and the plan included an aqueduct across the River Derwent at Derby, costing £8,160. Initially Outram suggested a narrow canal as an alternative. William Jessop

1107-528: A broad canal for more than one boat to be in a staircase at the same time, but managing this without waste of water requires expertise. On English canals, a staircase of more than two chambers is usually staffed: the lockkeepers at Bingley (looking after both the "5-rise" and the "3-rise") ensure that there are no untoward events and that boats are moved through as speedily and efficiently as possible. Such expertise permits miracles of boat balletics: boats travelling in opposite directions can pass each other halfway up

1230-484: A canal that could bring coal in from Cheshire . The owners of the River Weaver Navigation were also not happy about the proposals, because the route would almost parallel that of the river. Yet another route was published which, much to the shock of Wedgwood, did not at all include the potteries. Wedgwood, intent on having a waterway connection to his potteries, managed to send his proposal to Parliament, with

1353-677: A company called the Derby and Sandiacre Canal Trust was formed, with volunteer input managed by the Derby and Sandiacre Canal Society. In early 1996, construction of the Derby Bypass threatened to sever the line at Swarkestone, although the Department of Transport suggested that a navigable culvert could be provided if the Canal Society paid for it. In 2000, Derby Council assisted the canal trust in applying for

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1476-607: A distance of about 0.25 miles (400 m). From the basin the canal fell into a lock before crossing the mill race (which still runs beside Bass's Recreation Ground) by way of the cast-iron aqueduct arriving at Gandy's Wharf roughly where the Cockpit island is now. It followed the line of the mill race before passing behind what became the Locomotive Works (now Pride Park), before turning sharply southwards towards Chellaston descending through Shelton and Fullen's locks. It joined

1599-426: A flight of locks is simply a series of locks in close-enough proximity to be identified as a single group. For many reasons, a flight of locks is preferable to the same number of locks spread more widely: crews are put ashore and picked up once, rather than multiple times; transition involves a concentrated burst of effort, rather than a continually interrupted journey; a lock keeper may be stationed to help crews through

1722-412: A gate, or pair of half-gates, traditionally made of oak or elm but now usually made of steel ). The most common arrangement, usually called miter gates , was invented by Leonardo da Vinci sometime around the late 15th century. On the old Erie Canal , there was a danger of injury when operating the paddles: water, on reaching a certain position, would push the paddles with a force which could tear

1845-421: A lock. To help boats traveling downstream exit a lock, the locksman would sometimes open the paddles to create a swell, which would help "flush" the boat out of the lock. A boatsman might ask for a back swell, that is, to open and shut the paddles a few times to create some waves, to help him get off the bank where he was stuck. If boats ran aground (from being overloaded) they sometimes asked passing crews to tell

1968-519: A massive celebration was held in the Potteries where Josiah Wedgwood cut the first sod of soil. James Brindley was employed as engineer and work got under way." Six years before the complete opening of the Trent and Mersey Canal in 1771, Wedgwood built the factory village of Etruria on the outskirts of Stoke-on-Trent, close to the canal. By this time, much of the canal had been built towards Preston Brook . The only obstacle that still had to be tackled by

2091-660: A scheme of their own. It became the Derby Canal Act 1793 ( 33 Geo. 3 . c. 102). Work commenced with the Little Eaton branch and the gangway , followed by the Sandiacre line. This began with a small basin under what is now St. Alkmund's Way, proceeding eastwards following a line south of the Nottingham Road. A short branch from the basin led via Phoenix lock to the river above a weir at St. Mary's Bridge, which gave access to

2214-430: A short way into the chamber from below the upper gates. Allowing the rear of the boat to "hang" on the cill is the main danger when descending a lock, and the position of the forward edge of the cill is usually marked on the lock side by a white line. The edge of the cill is usually curved, protruding less in the center than at the edges. In some locks, there is a piece of oak about 9 in (23 cm) thick which protects

2337-480: A staircase lock can be used as an emergency dry dock). To avoid these mishaps, it is usual to have the whole staircase empty before starting to descend, or full before starting to ascend, apart from the initial chamber. One striking difference in using a staircase of either type (compared with a single lock, or a flight) is the best sequence for letting boats through. In a single lock (or a flight with room for boats to pass) boats should ideally alternate in direction. In

2460-404: A staircase, however, it is quicker for a boat to follow a previous one going in the same direction. Partly for this reason staircase locks such as Grindley Brook, Foxton, Watford and Bratch are supervised by lockkeepers, at least during the main cruising season, they normally try to alternate as many boats up, followed by down as there are chambers in the flight. As with a flight, it is possible on

2583-454: A swell to anyone to help them on the way, but some would ask for money for the swell. The Erie Canal management did not like swelling for two reasons. First, it used too much water lowering the water on the pound above sometimes causing boats to run aground. In addition, it raised the water level on the pound below, causing some boats to strike bridges or get stuck. On horse-drawn and mule-drawn canals, snubbing posts were used to slow or stop

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2706-505: A £3.2 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, to create a linear park by restoring the canal from Spondon to Sandiacre, while the canal was identified as one of several projects which British Waterways thought they could assist, at its annual general meeting held in 2001. By mid-2003, the canal trust has succeeded in getting the whole route of the canal protected by inclusion in the local council structure plans. By this time,

2829-769: Is Fradley Junction (with the Coventry Canal's "detached portion" ). The Coventry soon leads to the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal and branches off to Birmingham or (via another stretch of the Coventry Canal) to Coventry and a junction with the Oxford Canal and thence to the Thames and the 'Southern Half' of the English canals. The canal now heads directly to its terminus, passing through Burton upon Trent , Mercia Marina at Findern ,

2952-425: Is a 93 + 1 ⁄ 2 -mile (150 km) canal in Derbyshire , Staffordshire and Cheshire in north-central England. It is a "narrow canal" for the vast majority of its length, but at the extremities to the east of Burton upon Trent and north of Middlewich , it is a wide canal. The narrow locks and bridges are big enough for a single narrowboat 7 feet (2.1 m) wide by 72 feet (22 m) long, while

3075-426: Is a normal top gate, and the intermediate gates are all as tall as the bottom gate). As there is no intermediate pound, a chamber can only be filled by emptying the one above, or emptied by filling the one below: thus the whole staircase has to be full of water (except for the bottom chamber) before a boat starts to ascend, or empty (except for the top chamber) before a boat starts to descend. In an "apparent" staircase

3198-588: Is constructed of red brick with stone dressings, and is grade II listed. The lock-keepers cottage at Sandiacre Lock also dates from around the time of the opening of the canal, and although it has additional windows added in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, most of it is original. Download coordinates as: [REDACTED] Media related to Derby Canal at Wikimedia Commons 52°54′12″N 1°26′45″W  /  52.9034°N 1.4459°W  / 52.9034; -1.4459  ( Derby Canal ) Trent and Mersey Canal The Trent and Mersey Canal

3321-626: Is most commonly used on canals and rivers today. A pound lock has a chamber with gates at both ends that control the level of water in the pound. In contrast, an earlier design with a single gate was known as a flash lock . Pound locks were first used in China during the Song dynasty (960–1279 CE), having been pioneered by the Song politician and naval engineer Qiao Weiyue in 984. They replaced earlier double slipways that had caused trouble and are mentioned by

3444-443: Is only a staircase if successive lock chambers share a gate (i.e. do not have separate top and bottom gates with a pound between them). Most flights are not staircases, because each chamber is a separate lock (with its own upper and lower gates), there is a navigable pound (however short) between each pair of locks, and the locks are operated in the conventional way. However, some flights include (or consist entirely of) staircases. On

3567-846: The Bollène lock on the River Rhône has a fall of at least 23 m (75 ft), the Leerstetten, Eckersmühlen and Hilpoltstein locks on the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal have a fall of 24.67 m (80.9 ft), each and the Oskemen Lock on the Irtysh River in Kazakhstan has a drop of 42 m (138 ft). The natural extension of the flash lock , or staunch, was to provide an upper gate (or pair of gates) to form an intermediate "pound" which

3690-464: The Caledonian Canal the lock gates were operated by man-powered capstans , one connected by chains to open the gate and another to draw it closed. By 1968 these had been replaced by hydraulic power acting through steel rams. The construction of locks (or weirs and dams) on rivers obstructs the passage of fish. Some fish such as lampreys, trout and salmon go upstream to spawn. Measures such as

3813-574: The Darley Abbey mills. These were located some 1.2 miles (1.9 km) upstream from the bridge. By 1904, the river was only used for the first 0.35 miles (0.56 km), up to the Great Northern Railway bridge, according to Bradshaw's Guide . The Sandiacre line followed the course of the old Nottingham Road with two locks near Borrowash , then level through Draycott and Breaston , and descending through two locks to Sandiacre Junction with

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3936-532: The Derby and Sandiacre Canal Trust and Society. Loss of the Derwent crossing due to development has resulted in an innovative engineering solution called the Derby Arm being proposed, as a way of transferring boats across the river. Although the River Derwent had been used for transport from the Trent since ancient times, it was winding and shallow in many places, silting frequently. The right to use it for navigation

4059-470: The Grand Union . Operation of a staircase is more involved than a flight. Inexperienced boaters may find operating staircase locks difficult. The key worries (apart from simply being paralysed with indecision) are either sending down more water than the lower chambers can cope with (flooding the towpath, or sending a wave along the canal) or completely emptying an intermediate chamber (although this shows that

4182-563: The Little Eaton Gangway , linked Little Eaton to coal mines at Denby . The canal's main cargo was coal, and it was relatively successful until the arrival of the railways in 1840. It gradually declined, with the gangway closing in 1908 and the Little Eaton Branch in 1935. Early attempts at restoration were thwarted by the closure of the whole canal in 1964. Since 1994, there has been an active campaign for restoration spearheaded by

4305-674: The River Soar Navigation (linking via Leicester to the Grand Union Canal ). Beyond the Cranfleet Cut the Trent is navigable all the way to its mouth at Trent Falls on the Humber Estuary . Lock (water transport) Locks are used to make a river more easily navigable, or to allow a canal to cross land that is not level. Later canals used more and larger locks to allow a more direct route to be taken. A pound lock

4428-700: The Rochdale Canal , which both have a rise of nearly 20 feet (6.1 m). Both locks are amalgamations of two separate locks, which were combined when the canals were restored to accommodate changes in road crossings. By comparison, the Carrapatelo and Valeira locks on the Douro river in Portugal, which are 279 feet (85 m) long and 39 feet (12 m) wide, have maximum lifts of 115 and 108 feet (35 and 33 m) respectively. The two Ardnacrusha locks near Limerick on

4551-581: The Song dynasty (960–1279 CE). The Songshi or History of the Song Dynasty, volume 307, biography 66, records how Qiao Weiyue, a high-ranking tax administrator, was frustrated at the frequent losses incurred when his grain barges were wrecked on the West River near Huai'an in Jiangsu . The soldiers at one double slipway, he discovered, had plotted with bandits to wreck heavy imperial barges so that they could steal

4674-618: The Trent and Mersey Canal to the Trent near Shardlow . He proposed a canal from Swarkestone through Derby to join the Chesterfield Canal , but he was resisted by the Derwent Navigation and the Trent Navigation companies, and the matter was not raised again until 1791. Two schemes were then proposed by rival groups, one from Swarkestone to Derby, and the other from Derby to the Trent and Mersey Canal at Shardlow. By August 1792,

4797-711: The "junction" with the River Weaver at Anderton Boat Lift near Northwich . After Anderton, the next major destination is Middlewich , where a junction with the 50-yard-long (46 m) Wardle Canal leads to the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union Canal which gives access to Chester , Llangollen and ( heading south on the Shropshire Union) a parallel route to Birmingham via Wolverhampton . South of Middlewich, having passed through Wheelock ,

4920-536: The 'spare' lock was replaced by a steel contrivance with guillotine gates. Theoretically, this was adjustable to compensate for further subsidence although, in practice it was less than successful and was ultimately removed altogether. Little evidence of 'Thurlwood Steel Lock' remains today. The boater can use the Macclesfield Canal to head for Marple, and the junction with the Peak Forest Canal (and hence, via

5043-497: The 5 per cent promised by the original Derby Canal Act 1793, but reached 12 per cent in 1839. Although this exceeded the amount specified by the act, it was justified as covering years where the 5 per cent had not been made. Traffic figures for February and March 1839 indicate that the Little Eaton line carried 13,332 tons, the Sandiacre line carried 15,725 tons, and 9,773 tons were carried on the Swarkestone line. This would suggest that

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5166-557: The Ashton, Rochdale and Bridgewater canal) to complete the ' Cheshire Ring '. In September 2012 a serious breach occurred at Dutton Hollow near Preston Brook , which cost around £2.1 million to repair. The breach was south of bridge 213 and the canal was unusable between there and Middlewich Big Lock 75. The canal was officially reopened on 2 May 2013. After the Harecastle Tunnel (one way, alternating roughly every two hours),

5289-510: The Chinese polymath Shen Kuo (1031–1095) in his book Dream Pool Essays (published in 1088), and fully described in the Chinese historical text Song Shi (compiled in 1345): The distance between the two locks was rather more than 50 paces, and the whole space was covered with a great roof like a shed. The gates were 'hanging gates'; when they were closed the water accumulated like a tide until

5412-453: The Derby Arm, which would transport a caisson containing water and a boat in a semi-circular arc from one side of the river to the other. Its design is similar to a medieval trebuchet . Plans for the restoration were threatened in 2013 when the route of High Speed 2 , a high-speed rail link from London to Birmingham, Manchester and York, were published. This envisaged an East Midlands Hub station at Toton , which would have destroyed part of

5535-483: The Erewash Canal, a distance of 9 miles (14 km). The Little Eaton line branched northwards at the boundary of the racecourse, passing to the east of Chester Green, parallel to and east of the present day railway. The canal from Derby to Little Eaton was opened on 11 May 1795, the first load of coal from Denby being distributed to the poor of Derby. The Sandiacre line was opened on 30 May 1795. Work then began on

5658-552: The Grand Union (Leicester) Canal, the Watford flight consists of a four-chamber staircase and three separate locks; and the Foxton flight consists entirely of two adjacent 5-chamber staircases. Where a very steep gradient has to be climbed, a lock staircase is used. There are two types of staircase, "real" and "apparent". A "real" staircase can be thought of as a "compressed" flight, where

5781-536: The Hall Green branch, simply treating it as part of the Macclesfield Canal). The actual junction where the branch leaves the main line is a normal right-angle junction called Hardings Wood Junction . The branch leaves the main line on the south side, then immediately turns 90 degrees clockwise. It runs westwards alongside the main line, maintaining the original level while the main line drops through two locks. At

5904-525: The Little Eaton gangway. It is an L-shaped building, constructed of red bricks with a tiled roof in about 1795. The A52 Brian Clough Way was built upon the canal between the Pentagon and Spondon. From Spondon the line can be traced to Sandiacre. NCN 6 uses the canal route between Borrowash and Breaston. One of the few original bridges is situated between the A6005 Derby Road and the railway at Borrowash. It

6027-494: The Little Eaton line were less than half what they had been five years earlier. The Derby and Gainsborough Company wanted to buy the Little Eaton line in 1846, and were quoted £30,000, as were the Midland Railway in 1847. Instead, they built a parallel line to Ripley, which opened in 1855. Receipts fell from £8,180 to £2,556 between 1838 and 1868, and dividends for the same period fell from 10.5 per cent to 4 per cent. An attempt

6150-583: The Red Bull settlement, the branch turns 90 degrees right, to head north and cross the main line on Poole Lock aqueduct. It then immediately crosses the A50 on Red Bull aqueduct, carrying boats north to join the Macclesfield Canal at Hall Green. The canal passes through the city of Stoke-on-Trent , where it meets the Caldon Canal . The canal formed an integral part of the 1986 Stoke-on-Trent Garden Festival and in 1988

6273-903: The Severn, was built as the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal , whilst the southeastern arm (to the Thames) traversed the Coventry and Oxford Canals. On the Cheshire stretch of the canal, between Middlewich and the northern end of the canal in Preston Brook Tunnel, is the Victorian Anderton Boat Lift , which lowers boats fifty feet from the T&;M to the River Weaver . It was restored to full operation in 2002 after twenty years of disuse, and

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6396-512: The Shannon navigation in Ireland have a rise of 100 feet (30 m). The upper chamber rises 60 feet (18 m) and is connected to the lower chamber by a tunnel, which when descending does not become visible until the chamber is nearly empty. A pound is the level stretch of water between two locks (also known as a reach ). The cill , also spelled sill , is a narrow horizontal ledge protruding

6519-434: The T&M climbs out of the Cheshire Plain via the 'Heartbreak Hill' locks (more traditionally known as the 'Cheshire Locks') to the summit-level and the junction with the Hall Green Branch , leading to the Macclesfield Canal at Red Bull Kidsgrove . Most of the locks in this flight are doubled, although not all of the duplicates are still usable. Of particular note was lock 53 where, because of subsidence from brine pumping,

6642-500: The Trent and Mersey Canal at Swarkestone Junction, a distance of 5.5 miles (8.9 km) from Derby. A short extension led on to the River Trent just upstream from Swarkestone Bridge . The route from Derby to Swarkestone was opened on 30 June 1796. The Little Eaton gangway was built using cast iron plates, initially weighing 28 lb per yard (13.9 kg/m) although this was increased to 40 lb per yard (19.8 kg/m) for plates made after 1804. By 1825, there were nine passing places on

6765-420: The advent of canals in Britain. The sides of the turf-lock are sloping so, when full, the lock is quite wide. Consequently, this type of lock needs more water to operate than vertical-sided brick- or stone-walled locks. On British canals and waterways most turf-sided locks have been subsequently rebuilt in brick or stone, and so only a few good examples survive, such as at Garston Lock , and Monkey Marsh Lock , on

6888-494: The arrival of railways. Traffic figures are scarce, but in 1798, 28,571 tons of coal were recorded, of which 40 per cent came from the Little Eaton gangway. By 1803 this had risen to 50,374 tons, with 55 per cent from the gangway. Rather than it just supplying Derby, the company encouraged through trade on the canal, and this contributed to its profitability. Regular dividends were paid to shareholders from 1811, although some had been paid in previous years. Initially, they were close to

7011-472: The base where they joined to the deck. After remedial work it failed again in 1812 and was reinforced with timber baulks. Although plans were prepared for replacement in stone, it survived until 1930, when the bottom plates were replaced by a wooden base, which was sealed by puddling. In 1817 the link between the River Trent and the Trent and Mersey Canal was closed because of its lack of financial success. Maintenance charges had exceeded revenue since 1812, as it

7134-405: The bottom cill at all but the higher tides – the new bottom chamber rises just far enough to get the boat over the original lock cill. In China, the recently completed Three Gorges Dam includes a double five-step staircase for large ships, and a ship lift for vessels of less than 3000 metric tons. Examples of "apparent" staircases are Foxton Locks and Watford Locks on the Leicester Branch of

7257-406: The canal company was the hill at Kidsgrove , through which a tunnel was being dug. Up until 1777, pots had to be carried on the short journey from Etruria, over the top of Kidsgrove Hill, and to the other side, where the canal had been constructed to Preston Brook. On 15 January 1847 the Trent and Mersey Canal was acquired by the North Staffordshire Railway Company (NSR). This was done to stifle

7380-443: The canal emerges in the outskirts of Stoke-on-Trent , and is soon in the middle of the city and then at Etruria , and the junction with the Caldon Canal . Leaving Etruria, the canal is soon back in open country. It is now in the upper valley of the River Trent , which the canal follows until the river becomes navigable and the canal is no longer needed. The next sizeable place is the market town of Stone . After more countryside,

7503-436: The canal for commercial and amenity use. Despite the campaigns, the company obtained a warrant to abandon the whole canal in 1964. With the changed economic climate of the 1990s and the success of other restoration schemes, a feasibility study was carried out in 1994. It included detailed plans for restoration, and concluded that the cost for reinstating the 14-mile (23 km) main line would be £17.3 million. To make progress,

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7626-523: The canal makes an end-on junction with the Bridgewater Canal within Preston Brook Tunnel, from which one can access Runcorn (but no longer the Mersey or Ship Canal) in one direction and Manchester (with its many canal links) in the other direction. From the junction with the Bridgewater Canal, the T&M travels south through Preston Brook Tunnel (one-way operation, alternating each half-hour) and two smaller tunnels at Saltersford (since 2008 also one-way operation, alternating each half-hour), and Barnton to

7749-516: The canal reaches Great Haywood Junction and the towpath bridge across the junction with the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal , which heads south to skirt Wolverhampton and join with the River Severn at Stourport-on-Severn , thus connecting the Mersey with the Severn. The next event is a right-angle bend, of no apparent significance from the boat, but this is where the canal (and the Trent itself) changes its basic direction from south-east to north-east (heading towards Nottingham). Very near

7872-441: The canal route, but revised plans were published on 15 November 2016, with the station moved to avoid the canal. The chairman of the Derby and Sandiacre Canal Trust, Chris Madge, was still concerned that a tramway to link the station to Derby would impinge upon the canal, but was hopeful that the canal in this area could be reopened before tramway construction began, and that the plans for the tramway would therefore have to accommodate

7995-462: The canal was completed, including more than 70 locks and five tunnels , with the company headquarters in Stone . The first known idea to build a canal between the River Mersey and the River Trent was put forward in 1755, though no action was taken at that time. In 1760, Lord Gower , a local businessman and brother-in-law of the Duke of Bridgewater , drew up a plan for the Trent and Mersey Canal. If his plan had gone ahead, this would have been

8118-406: The canal would cause frequent interruptions of the heavy road traffic. It can be emptied by pumping – but as this uses a lot of electricity the method used when water supplies are adequate is to drain the lock to a nearby burn . In 2016 the Kieldrecht Lock in the Port of Antwerp in Belgium took over the title of the world's largest lock from the Berendrecht Lock in the same port and still has

8241-421: The canal's restoration. Although the council refused to comment, the letter, which was published on 1 February 1961, caused considerable local debate, and a protest cruise was organised on the Erewash Canal , with the Derby Canal entrance lock as the destination. The Times national newspaper carried details of the event, and a subsequent meeting held on 27 May called for a public enquiry into how best to restore

8364-462: The canal, B. A. Mallender, who lived in the locality, asked the fledgling Inland Waterways Association to help mount a campaign for its revival in 1947. The author Tom Rolt made a series of cruises on threatened waterways at this time, but could not obtain permission to navigate the Derby Canal. Rolt took his case to the Ministry of Transport , seeking to invoke the conditions of the Railway and Canal Traffic Act 1888 ( 51 & 52 Vict. c. 25), but

8487-421: The canal. From Swarkestone the line of the canal can be followed into Derby as far as Wilmorton although the only recognisable canal features are the chambers of Fullen's and Shelton Locks and the bridges under Chellaston Road (pictured) and London Road. Route 6 of the National Cycle Network (NCN 6) follows this part of the canal. Although traces of the canal through Derby city centre remained until well into

8610-424: The chambers so that some water from the emptying chamber helps to fill the other. This facility has long been withdrawn on the English canals, although the disused paddle gear can sometimes be seen, as at Hillmorton on the Oxford Canal . Elsewhere they are still in use; a pair of twinned locks was opened in 2014 on the Dortmund–Ems Canal near Münster , Germany. The once-famous staircase at Lockport, New York ,

8733-505: The chambers still have common gates, but the water does not pass directly from one chamber to the next, going instead via side ponds. This means it is not necessary to ensure that the flight is full or empty before starting. Examples of famous "real" staircases in England are Bingley and Grindley Brook . Two-rise staircases are more common: Snakeholme Lock and Struncheon Hill Lock on the Driffield Navigation were converted to staircase locks after low water levels hindered navigation over

8856-404: The chance of a boat finding a lock set in its favour. There can also be water savings: the locks may be of different sizes, so that a small boat does not need to empty a large lock; or each lock may be able to act as a side pond (water-saving basin) for the other. In this latter case, the word used is usually "twinned": here indicating the possibility of saving water by synchronising the operation of

8979-430: The company obtained a warrant for its closure. Attempts to close the Sandiacre line in 1937 were thwarted by objections from Imperial Chemical Industries . Commercial traffic on the remainder of the canal ceased in 1945. In 1964 the canal company gained permission to close the rest of the canal. Over the next three decades, areas of the canal were built on while others were allowed to decay. In view of proposals to abandon

9102-514: The concept has been suggested in a number of cases, the only example in the world of a drop lock that has actually been constructed is at Dalmuir on the Forth and Clyde Canal in Scotland. This lock, of the single-chamber type, was incorporated during the restoration of the canal, to allow the replacement of a swing bridge (on a busy A road) by a fixed bridge, and so answer criticisms that the restoration of

9225-694: The crossing of the Derwent , followed by the line out to Swarkestone . From the small weir mentioned above a canal led through what is now Darwin Place to the Derwent Basin above the weir in the river which still exists behind the Council House, downstream of the Exeter Bridge. A timber causeway was built on trestles for use as the towpath. The weir also contained a culvert which transferred water between two branches, for

9348-584: The distance to Preston Brook and Shardlow , Derwent Mouth is about 1 mile (1.6 km) beyond Shardlow. The plan of a canal connection from the Mersey to the Trent ("The Grand Trunk") came from canal engineer James Brindley . It was authorised by an act of Parliament , the Trent and Mersey Canal Act 1766 ( 6 Geo. 3 . c. 96) and the first sod was cut by Josiah Wedgwood in July that year at Brownhills, Burslem . In 1777,

9471-727: The estimated cost of restoration had risen to £34 million, but they launched a major initiative to raise the funding over a 10-year period. Grants from the Derbyshire City Partnership received from 2008 enabled the Trust Development Group to begin the process of applying for outline planning permission for reinstatement. The route of the canal passes through three local council regions, and so separate applications had to be made to Derby City Council , Erewash Borough Council and South Derbyshire District Council. All three applications had been approved by 24 August 2011, paving

9594-524: The first modern canal constructed in England. James Brindley , the engineer behind many of the canals in England, did his first canal work on the Trent and Mersey, though his first job in charge of construction was on the Bridgewater Canal . In 1761, Josiah Wedgwood showed an interest in the construction of a canal through Stoke-on-Trent, the location of his Wedgwood pottery, as his business depended on

9717-529: The first scheme had grown to include a branch to Smithy House near Denby , another to Newhall and Swadlincote , and a third to Cheadle in Staffordshire, following a route through Sudbury and Uttoxeter . When Benjamin Outram was asked to carry out surveys later that year, it had been reduced to a more sensible size, and he estimated that the construction of a broad canal from Swarkestone to Smithy Houses, with

9840-448: The first to solve the problem of keeping the Nile free of salt water when his engineers invented the lock around 274/273 BC. All pound locks have three elements: The principle of operating a lock is simple. For instance, if a boat travelling downstream finds the lock already full of water: If the lock were empty, the boat would have had to wait 5 to 10 minutes while the lock was filled. For

9963-599: The first true pound lock was built in 1396 at Damme near Bruges , Belgium. The Italian Bertola da Novate (c. 1410–1475) constructed 18 pound locks on the Naviglio di Bereguardo (part of the Milan canal system sponsored by Francesco Sforza ) between 1452 and 1458. In Ancient Egypt, the river-locks was probably part of the Canal of the Pharaohs : Ptolemy II is credited by some for being

10086-425: The flight quickly; and where water is in short supply, a single pump can recycle water to the top of the whole flight. The need for a flight may be determined purely by the lie of the land, but it is possible to group locks purposely into flights by using cuttings or embankments to "postpone" the height change. Examples: Caen Hill locks, Devizes . "Flight" is not synonymous with "Staircase" (see below). A set of locks

10209-476: The flow of the stream. The 44-foot-long (13 m) single-span cast iron structure that Outram devised, and completed in 1796, was the first of its kind, as it was completed a few weeks earlier than Longdon-on-Tern Aqueduct , the structure by Thomas Telford at Longdon-on-Tern on the Shrewsbury Canal . In 1802 there was a partial failure, probably due to the sides bowing and transferring too much weight to

10332-512: The form of the now-disused Écluse des Lorraines , connecting the Canal latéral à la Loire with the River Allier . A drop lock can consist of two conventional lock chambers leading to a sump pound, or a single long chamber incorporating the sump – although the term properly applies only to the second case. As the pounds at either end of the structure are at the same height, the lock can only be emptied either by allowing water to run to waste from

10455-494: The help of two of his friends, Thomas Bentley and Erasmus Darwin . John Gilbert 's plan for the "Grand Trunk" canal met opposition at the eastern end where, in Burton on Trent, the locals objected to the canal passing parallel to the upper Trent navigation. In 1764, Wedgwood managed to convince Gilbert to include the Potteries in his route. In 1766, Gilbert's plan was authorised by an Act of Parliament. Later that year, "[o]n July 26th

10578-516: The inside walls of the lock with wood, so as not to abrade the boats. This was done, for instance, on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal with the locks near the Paw Paw Tunnel . and also the Chenango Canal On large modern canals, especially very large ones such as ship canals , the gates and paddles are too large to be hand operated, and are operated by hydraulic or electrical equipment. On

10701-414: The intermediate pounds have disappeared, and the upper gate of one lock is also the lower gate of the one above it. However, it is incorrect to use the terms staircase and flight interchangeably: because of the absence of intermediate pounds, operating a staircase is very different from operating a flight. It can be more useful to think of a staircase as a single lock with intermediate levels (the top gate

10824-468: The kerb edge of Old Nottingham Road near its junction with Stores Road are the remains of a bridge over the Little Eaton line. The Little Eaton line and the gangway have also disappeared, apart from the Wharf Building at Little Eaton, in the present day trading estate, and a couple of bridges. The clock house is a grade II listed structure, built for the canal's agent at the junction between the canal and

10947-618: The largest inland waterway marina in the United Kingdom, and then through wide locks (the first being at Stenson ) to Shardlow and finally Derwent Mouth . It is not far from Derwent Mouth, via the River Trent, to Trentlock , the four-way junction with the Erewash Canal (dead end at Great Northern Basin, formerly a link with the Cromford Canal ), Cranfleet Cut (bypassing Thrumpton Weir to continue navigation towards Nottingham ) and

11070-450: The lock caused the upstream gates to slam shut, breaking them also, and sending a cascade of water over the boat, sinking it. This suspended navigation on the canal for 48 hours until the lock gates could be replaced and the boat removed from the lock. To economise, especially where good stone would be prohibitively expensive or difficult to obtain, composite locks were made, i.e. they were constructed using rubble or inferior stone, dressing

11193-461: The lock on their level and therefore set the lock in their favour – saving about 5 to 10 minutes. However, this is not true for staircase locks, where it is quicker for boats to go through in convoy, and it also uses less water. The rise is the change in water-level in the lock. The two deepest locks on the English canal system are Bath deep lock on the Kennet and Avon Canal and Tuel Lane Lock on

11316-656: The new canal was low. This resulted in a sequential pair of locks, with gates pointing in opposite directions: one example was at Hall Green near Kidsgrove , where the southern terminus of the Macclesfield Canal joined the Hall Green Branch of the earlier Trent and Mersey Canal . The four gate stop lock near Kings Norton Junction, between the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal and the Worcester and Birmingham Canal

11439-653: The opposition of the Canal Company to the creation of the Railway Company. In particular, the NSR had plans for a railway from Stoke-on-Trent to Liverpool, however, this line was abandoned because of opposition from other rail interests. In 1891 the North Staffordshire Railway Company obtained statutory powers to raise £400,000 (equivalent to £55,180,000 in 2023) to widen and improve the canal. By 1893

11562-461: The required level was reached, and then when the time came it was allowed to flow out. The water level could differ by 4 or 5 feet (1.2 or 1.5 m) at each lock and in the Grand Canal the level was raised in this way by 138 feet (42 m). In medieval Europe a sort of pound lock was built in 1373 at Vreeswijk , Netherlands. This pound lock serviced many ships at once in a large basin . Yet

11685-511: The roof with their feet. This was a physically demanding and slow process and created major delays, so civil engineer Thomas Telford was commissioned to provide a second, wider, parallel tunnel with a towpath. This 2,926-yard-long (2,676 m) tunnel was opened in 1827. In the 1900s, the Brindley tunnel was closed because of severe subsidence, but the Telford Tunnel – although also prone to

11808-531: The safe and smooth transport of his pots. Pots transported by road were liable to be damaged and broken, and a canal near to his factory would provide fast and safe transport for his wares. Wedgwood's plan was not to connect the two rivers by canal, but to connect the potteries to the River Mersey. There was much debate about possible routes that a canal could take. Coal merchants in Liverpool felt threatened about

11931-499: The same problems – remains in use, and is the fourth-longest navigable canal tunnel in the United Kingdom . Just north of Harecastle Tunnel, the T&M features a 'flyover' junction. The Hall Green Branch leaves the T&M mainline (which runs east–west here) on the south side, but then crosses over the main line and travels a short distance north to join the Macclesfield Canal at Hall Green Stop lock (some guides do not refer to

12054-542: The section between the Anderton Boat Lift and Middlewich had been widened and deepened to allow an increase in the maximum tonnage of boats using this section to be increased from 30 tons to 60 tons. The basin at Middlewich was widened from 16 feet (4.9 m) to 50 feet (15 m) with the erection of a concrete wall and an extension to the wharfage. The canal was dredged by a Priestman -type steam dredger which removed between 80,000 and 100,000 tons. The Grand Trunk

12177-648: The single-track line, which carried 2-ton waggons. Each waggon carried a box of coal, with a load of between 1.65 and 1.87 tons, which was transferred to a barge at Little Eaton wharf by a crane. From Smithy Houses, several private lines served the Denby Main colliery and other mines in the locality. Further extensions were made in the 1820s, by which time there were around 6 miles (9.7 km) of tramroad. The Holmes Aqueduct proved to be extremely troublesome. Aqueducts up to that time had been made of stone, but several short arches would have been necessary, causing obstruction to

12300-624: The solid part of the lock cill. On the Oxford Canal it is called a babbie; on the Grand Union Canal it is referred to as the cill bumper. Some canal operation authorities, primarily in the United States and Canada, call the ledge a miter sill (mitre sill in Canada). Gates are the watertight doors which seal off the chamber from the upper and lower pounds. Each end of the chamber is equipped with

12423-407: The spilled grain. In 984 Qiao installed a pair of sluice-gates two hundred and fifty feet apart, the entire structure roofed over like a building. By siting two staunch gates so close to one another, Qiao had created a short stretch of canal, effectively a pound-lock, filled from the canal above by raising individual wooden baulks in the top gate and emptied into the canal below by lowering baulks in

12546-411: The staircase by moving sideways around each other; or at peak times, one can have all the chambers full simultaneously with boats travelling in the same direction. When variable conditions meant that a higher water level in the new canal could not be guaranteed, then the older company would also build a stop lock (under its own control, with gates pointing towards its own canal) which could be closed when

12669-413: The sump to a lower stream or drain, or (less wastefully) by pumping water back up to the canal. Particularly in the two-chamber type, there would be a need for a bypass culvert, to allow water to move along the interrupted pound and so supply locks further down the canal. In the case of the single-chamber type, this can be achieved by keeping the lock full and leaving the gates open while not in use. While

12792-421: The timber causeway on trestles, which was used as the towpath, remained until 1959. The Holmes Aqueduct was removed in 1971, and after a period in storage at a council depot, was sold for scrap. The remains of the towpath are visible at a bridge under the railway immediately north of Derby railway station . An unused span of the railway bridge over Old Nottingham Road once crossed the canal. Steel girders set into

12915-534: The title for largest volume. In 2022 the IJmuiden sea lock serving the Port of Amsterdam became the world's largest lock by surface area. The lock is 500 m (1,600 ft) long, 70 m (230 ft) wide and has sliding lock gates creating a usable depth of 18 m (59 ft). The size of locks cannot be compared without considering the difference in water level that they are designed to operate under. For example,

13038-400: The top gate and raising ones in the lower. A turf-sided lock is an early form of canal lock design that uses earth banks to form the lock chamber, subsequently attracting grasses and other vegetation, instead of the now more familiar and widespread brick, stone, or concrete lock wall constructions. This early lock design was most often used on river navigations in the early 18th century before

13161-505: The total for the year was around 200,000 tons. In 1830 the company considered building a locomotive line from Derby to Smithy Houses, and two years later looked at the possibility of a locomotive line from Derby to Little Eaton. The first was surveyed by an engineer called Stephenson, presumed to be George Stephenson , but no further action was taken. Toll reductions were made from 1834, in an attempt to stay competitive, but by 1840 there were three main line railways in Derby. By 1845, tolls on

13284-406: The twentieth century (the ice factory on what was the Cockpit island drew its water from the canal), it has all been covered by development, mainly the inner ring road and Pride Parkway. New building at Pride Park has obliterated all traces of the canal in that area. The weir built across the river to form the Derwent Basin still exists behind the Council House, downstream of the Exeter Bridge, and

13407-404: The upstream lock to give them an extra heavy swell, which consisted of opening all the paddles on the lock gate, creating a surge that affected the whole pound below. On the Erie Canal, some loaded boats needed a swell to get out of the lock. Particularly lumber boats, being top heavy, would list to one side and get stuck in the lock, and needed a swell to get them out. Some lockkeepers would give

13530-406: The way for actual reinstatement to begin, subject to the necessary funding being available. The restoration plans do not include reinstatement of a level crossing of the River Derwent. The site of the original crossing has been lost to development, and there would be issues with water supply and flood risk associated with a crossing on the level. An innovative solution has been suggested in the form of

13653-616: The wide locks can accommodate boats 14 feet (4.3 m) wide, or two narrowboats next to each other. The Trent and Mersey Canal (T&M) was built to link the River Trent at Derwent Mouth in Derbyshire to the River Mersey , and thereby provide an inland route between the major ports of Hull and Liverpool . The Mersey connection is made via the Bridgewater Canal , which it joins at Preston Brook in Cheshire . Although mileposts measure

13776-405: The windlass (or handle) out of one's hands, or if one was standing in the wrong place, could knock one into the canal, leading to injuries and drownings. On the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, the lockkeepers were required to remove the windlasses from all lock paddles at night, to prevent unauthorized use. A swell was caused by opening suddenly the paddle valves in the lock gates, or when emptying

13899-523: Was a part of a larger scheme of James Brindley 's to link the four main rivers of England ( Trent , Mersey , Severn and Thames ) in a project known as the "Grand Cross". The Trent and Mersey Canal provided the northwestern arm of the cross (to the Mersey), and the northeastern arm (to the Trent). It also provided the central hub of the cross, between Great Haywood , and Fradley Junctions. The southwestern arm, to

14022-456: Was all that need be emptied when a boat passed through. This type of lock, called a pound lock was known in Imperial China and ancient Europe and was used by Greek engineers in the Canal of the Pharaohs under Ptolemy II (284 to 246 BC), when engineers solved the problem of overcoming the difference in height through canal locks . Pound locks were first used in medieval China during

14145-416: Was also a doubled set of locks. Five twinned locks allowed east- and west-bound boats to climb or descend the 60 feet (18 m) Niagara Escarpment , a considerable engineering feat in the nineteenth century. While Lockport today has two large steel locks, half of the old twin stair acts as an emergency spillway and can still be seen, with the original lock gates having been restored in early 2016. Loosely,

14268-478: Was asked to give his opinion and he suggested a tramway from Little Eaton to Denby. This, the Derby Canal Railway, but known locally, as the Little Eaton Gangway , was therefore one of the first to be publicly subscribed, and would save the construction of six locks . Outram also proposed to save some £4,000 by dispensing with the aqueduct and, instead, building a weir to raise the river level to form

14391-431: Was conferred upon the citizens of Derby by King John in 1204. The engineer George Sorocold was involved with plans for improvements, although it is uncertain whether he was involved in the actual work. Plans had been first proposed in 1664, and bills had been presented to Parliament in 1696 and 1698. In 1703, Sorocold attended Parliament to give evidence for a scheme which involved four new cuts, with weirs and locks, on

14514-558: Was declared a linear Conservation Area . The towpath was upgraded in the 1990s and forms part of the National Cycle Network ( Route 5 ). A charity, the Burslem Port Trust , has been established to renovate the short Burslem arm of the Trent & Mersey Canal which will extend 3/8 mile into Burslem. The route is conveniently divided into a northern and southern section by the Harecastle Tunnel . The northern end of

14637-493: Was little used because the Trent and Mersey canal charged compensation tolls at extortionate rates for boats using the link. Twenty years later it was dry. In 1838 the canal was diverted away from the River Derwent at Borrowash to allow construction of the Midland Counties Railway line between Derby and Long Eaton . This diversion included building a new Borrowash Top Lock. The canal was relatively successful before

14760-480: Was made in 1872 to sell the whole canal to the Midland Railway for £90,000, without success, and a similar offer to the London and North Western Railway also failed. Traffic suffered further decline when Butterley Tunnel on the neighbouring Cromford Canal had to be closed. The Little Eaton gangway was closed in 1908, ten years after the action was first considered, and the Little Eaton branch followed on 4 July 1935, when

14883-588: Was replaced in 1914 by a pair of guillotine lock gates which stopped the water flow regardless of which canal was higher. These gates have been permanently open since nationalisation. The best known example of a round lock is the Agde Round Lock on the Canal du Midi in France. This serves as a lock on the main line of the canal and allows access to the Hérault River . A second French round lock can be found in

15006-536: Was then the only operational boat-lift in the United Kingdom until the construction of the Falkirk Wheel in Scotland . Another major feature is the Harecastle Tunnel , near Kidsgrove in the city of Stoke-on-Trent , north Staffordshire . There are actually two tunnels; the first was built by Brindley and was 2,880 yards (2,630 m) long, and boats were moved through by men lying on their backs and pushing against

15129-647: Was told that they would not sanction an inspection of the canal, because the company had intimated that they were preparing to restore the waterway. In 1956 a local committee was formed to campaign for restoration. By 1961, Derby Council were actively promoting the infilling of the canal, and so the Inland Waterways Association together with the Derby Canal Restoration Committee wrote to the Derby Evening Telegraph , calling for

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