To the end of the Trent & Mersey canal – Barton to Shardlow
While eagerly awaiting my jump onto the Trent, another spanner has been thrown into the works. A critical lock (Keadby) that connects the tidal Trent to the Yorkshire navigations is currently out of action. There is no clear time line when it will be fixed. The best guess at the moment is “late spring”, whatever that means. So I am having to replan again. There are three canals and river navigations that branch off the tidal Trent section before this broken lock (Erewash canal, Fossdyke and Witham Navigations and Chesterfield canal), so I am going to amuse myself by exploring at least two of these first. They will definitely include Lincoln, possibly Boston and the Chesterfield canal, which doesn’t actually go to Chesterfield anymore, but is supposed to be beautiful.
I am now in Shardlow and will be able to go on the Trent any time (level permitting after another deluge a couple of days ago). I know that accounts of my actual cruising have become a bit boring, as I have been moving so little for a long time. But that is about to change now and the blog will hopefully also become a bit more interesting again.
But first of all back to where I left my cruise last time.
Barton marina
After the river section at Alrewas and the subsequent long stretch alongside the A38, I moored at the first opportunity, where the road veered away from the canal at least behind some houses, which was marginally quieter. This was just outside Barton marina and I walked round to visit the marina. It was astonishing! The marina has a promenade, which is almost Mediterranean in character with (expensive) shops, restaurants, cafes, and even a cinema! The weather was not really for sitting outside, but I could well imagine that this is a very popular place in the summer.
I did not see many people around the boats though. Maybe the boats in this marina are mainly stored and used only for holidays? The nearby village Barton-under-Needwood looks fairly affluent and people will probably be able to afford the prices in the marina shops and restaurants.
On to the sizeable town of Burton-on-Trent through one of the lowest bridges in a long time.
Burton-on-Trent
Barton? Burton? Slightly confusing naming here. Burton-on-Trent has a nicely done up canal side. If you were just cruising through you’d get the impression that this is a lovely town. The town itself sadly does not really live up to that promise. It looks fairly deprived and has the most potholes I have seen in a long time. Burton is apparently the “brewing capital of Britain” and a lot of the town has huge fermenting vessels looming over it. The best thing about Burton was a smell like fresh bread from the many breweries.
Burton-on-Trent is of course located on the river Trent, but the town is strangely detached from it. The riverside is quite peculiar with a high flood protection wall separating the river from the town and the riverside itself is all flood plains.
The impression of economic decline in Burton was reinforced by the closure of the National Brewery Centre, which had been one of the town’s major attractions. Another attraction, Claymills Pumping Station with its steam engines, is only open so rarely that I didn’t catch an open day. I did not manage to visit anything of note in Burton other than a Sainsburys and a good launderette.
Burton is proud of its brewing history though as evidenced by artwork dotted around the town.
Burton to Swarkestone via Willington
I then chugged on to Willington, were I was meeting two boaty friends from London (and a dog!) coming to visit. On the way I crossed the aqueduct over the river Dove, which is in a lovely setting.
From Willington onwards down to the Trent junction the locks are broad locks (for two narrowboats side by side) and very deep. We spent a lovely, dry but cold weekend walking, chatting and cruising down two of the huge locks. In my previous attempt on my own in 2020 going the other way these locks were very difficult, so I was very grateful for the help.
While in Swarkestone I even managed to book a student for a training day. He came all the way from London to go up and down the canal with me for a day before taking ownership of a time share in a boat. It was a lovely warm and sunny day, but very windy. Good to keep the instructor muscles exercised a bit.
Here he is chugging off into the sunset on Willum (actually he moored up just around the bend).
Derby and the Derby canal
Swarkestone is about 6 miles from Derby. There used to be a canal connection from the Trent & Mersey at Swarkestone lock to Derby and beyond via the now derelict Derby canal. The canal route has not been built over though and there is now a national cycle route running alongside it into Derby city centre. As I am always fascinated by canal history I cycled this path and looked for evidence of the canal. I made a separate Derby canal page for the real canal nerds who want to look at an overgrown ditch and imagine a canal there.
I found Derby itself a lovely city with an attractive riverside by the river Derwent. I picked my first wild garlic of the year on the steep banks and it was enormous! I think the flood waters bring nutrients and it is best not to ask where those nutrients came from.
The quirkiest thing I visited in Derby was the Museum of Making. It is located in an old silk mill, which is advertised as the first factory in Britain as it was powered by a water wheel from the Derwent. The building today is only from 1910, as the original mill burnt down. I expected a museum of silk making and maybe other early factory machinery, but it is much more random than that. The museum contains all sorts of “made” objects, that’s really the only theme that holds it together.
It is great for children though as there are a lot of interactive displays. I tried my hand at weaving a bit of a scarf in a demonstration of a loom. The best thing at the museum is a workshop with tools for all kinds of different crafts, where anybody can rent a space and the tools to make … anything really, be it wood work, metal work, 3D printing, all under the tuition of skilled people there. That was inspiring!
Swarkestone to Shardlow – the end of the line!
All the mile markers for the Trent & Mersey point to Shardlow as the end of the line. Just before I got there I decided to do an engine service as I wanted my trusty engine to be in the best possible shape before going on the big river. Another spanner in the works: the shop where I stocked up on everything a while back sold me a wrong filter and I only noticed it when it wouldn’t go on. Strangely the old one didn’t want to go on anymore either, so I was stuck in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately I found a nearby yard that ordered the part for me and brought it over, but it set me back another five days. Those five days included a day and night of pretty wild weather, which means that the river level is rising again. Oh well …
I have now made it to Shardlow, which has no less than six pubs, but zero shops. I guess there are worse places to wait for the river to come down once more.
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