Erewash Canal

[John Brightley]

I'm writing this to encourage more people to cruise the Erewash Canal. We've just spent 3 days on it and enjoyed it immensely. Amazingly, we only saw one other boat moving in that time. 

The Erewash is very underrated, in my opinion. Although I've been boating for 50 years, this was my first trip up the Erewash. I was expecting it to be interesting, but I wasn't expecting it to be so attractive. It is genuinely a beautiful canal, very green with lots of wildlife. As it's wide and the locks are stone built , it feels more like a northern canal than a typical Midlands one. I would say that it has similarities to the Kennet & Avon too. The towpaths are well surfaced and brilliantly maintained. There is no rubbish and hardly any graffiti. The towpaths are very well used by walkers and cyclists, and almost all people we met were extremely friendly. 

It is a slower canal than you might expect though. Add 50% to Canalplan average timings for going uphill from the Trent. Locks take an age to fill, and if you encounter a low pound as we did at one point, you may have to stop a few times to clear weeds from the prop. The gates and paddles are sometimes heavy to operate. Some people will struggle to open gates. But coming back down, the locks were much quicker to empty and as all the pounds were on weir we had no problems with weed.  

 

Edited July 3 by John Brightley

[stagedamager]

I'm glad you enjoyed it, did you manage to make it all the way to Langley Mill?

[John Brightley]

2 minutes ago, stagedamager said:

I'm glad you enjoyed it, did you manage to make it all the way to Langley Mill?

Yes, saw your boat too (from the public footpath) - it's looking good !

Currently at Trent Lock - going down the Soar tomorrow. 

Edited July 3 by John Brightley

[stagedamager]

Thanks John.

Sorry i wasn't around when you were here, i was in Southampton for a theatre visit. Its great to see a positive review of the Erewash, there's normally so much doom and gloom about it, the locks are heavy but its worth it, and the moorings at Langley Mill are great, and everything is within a 5 minute walk!!

I'm glad you liked Norway, she's due to be signwritten this coming week, and hopefully more works on the bow, weather dependent!!

[mrsmelly]

Great canal with probably theee best boatyard on the system at Langley Mill. Highly recommend a trip or three up there especialy if you need any work doing on the boat.

[Gybe Ho]

@John Brightley given that low water levels feature in route planning this year, it would be useful to know your draft.

[John Brightley]

2 hours ago, Gybe Ho said:

@John Brightley given that low water levels feature in route planning this year, it would be useful to know your draft.

2'5"or 2'6". We didn't touch bottom once, even on the pound which was 5" or 6" down. But we were travelling with ex-GUCCC 'Uranus', which I believe draws 2'9", and they did touch bottom.

[Grassman]

My (only) visit to the Erewash Canal a few years ago echos John's description. Yes it poses a few difficulties but it's well worth doing.

[John Brightley]

I've just realised one reason why some boaters may not think of travelling along the Erewash. If you look at a map, the route looks very urban. In reality it is mostly very rural, at least that is the impression that you get from the canal. So don't be put off by the map.

[Ken X]

We are currently pootling down the Trent & Mersey and, having binned the idea of doing the Leicester ring, are pondering popping up the Erewash on our way back from Leicester. If time and weather are kind to us it may well happen. Many thanks for the heads up. 

[Durhamdales]

Has the sunken plastic boat that was lying right in the middle of the canal been shifted yet? We were warned it was there as it was very easy to miss!

My advice would be to ignore the Canalplan timings (as someone else mentioned) and if you have time, take two days to get up there; we are quite deep drafted and I was a 10 hour trip for us. I’m pleased to hear that it’s quicker going down as we hope to be leaving Langley Mill later this week! I was thinking in the month we have been up there, the weed might have become more of an issue! 
 

[John Brightley]

16 minutes ago, Ken X said:

We are currently pootling down the Trent & Mersey and, having binned the idea of doing the Leicester ring, are pondering popping up the Erewash on our way back from Leicester. If time and weather are kind to us it may well happen. Many thanks for the heads up. 

We're now at Market Harborough and have enjoyed the Soar and Leicester line as well, so I would recommend both ! We've only experienced one low pound, which was easily rectified by running water down.

Just now, Durhamdales said:

Has the sunken plastic boat that was lying right in the middle of the canal been shifted yet? We were warned it was there as it was very easy to miss!

My advice would be to ignore the Canalplan timings (as someone else mentioned) and if you have time, take two days to get up there; we are quite deep drafted and I was a 10 hour trip for us. I’m pleased to hear that it’s quicker going down as we hope to be leaving Langley Mill later this week! I was thinking in the month we have been up there, the weed might have become more of an issue! 
 

The sunken boat that is marked by buoys is still there, I think it's been there 6 months or more. There's also at least one other sunken boat, at Sandiacre lock.

[Durhamdales]

Good to hear it has buoys on it - there weren’t any when we went up!

[Mac of Cygnet]

I also enjoyed my one trip up the Erewash in Cygnet, and left the boat for a few days with the boat club in the rather ridiculously named Great Northern Basin - actually a rather small pond!

[stagedamager]

3 hours ago, Durhamdales said:

Has the sunken plastic boat that was lying right in the middle of the canal been shifted yet? We were warned it was there as it was very easy to miss!

My advice would be to ignore the Canalplan timings (as someone else mentioned) and if you have time, take two days to get up there; we are quite deep drafted and I was a 10 hour trip for us. I’m pleased to hear that it’s quicker going down as we hope to be leaving Langley Mill later this week! I was thinking in the month we have been up there, the weed might have become more of an issue! 
 

I know who you are now!!!!!

[agg221]

5 hours ago, Durhamdales said:

Has the sunken plastic boat that was lying right in the middle of the canal been shifted yet? We were warned it was there as it was very easy to miss!

My advice would be to ignore the Canalplan timings (as someone else mentioned) and if you have time, take two days to get up there; we are quite deep drafted and I was a 10 hour trip for us. I’m pleased to hear that it’s quicker going down as we hope to be leaving Langley Mill later this week! I was thinking in the month we have been up there, the weed might have become more of an issue! 
 

Which day are you thinking of leaving?

 

We are also at Langley Mill (Oates) and are hoping to head down on Friday if @tom_c has figured out why our magneto isn't working.

 

It took us 7hrs to get up with a 3'1" draft. We did hit the sunken boat and smashed it a bit further! Otherwise we didn't touch the bottom, but we did find an enormous amount of weed which made it slow going in a few pounds.

 

Alec

[noddyboater]

I'm ashamed to say that in the two years I've been based at the bottom of the Erewash I still haven't ventured more than a couple of locks up.

The problem for me is the blanket weed, especially this time of year. My old Gardner gearbox really doesn't like weed behind the prop, it constantly slips into neutral which makes forward progress frustrating slow.

I am desperate to have a look at Norway and her K2 though (I have one in bits), so will make the effort ASAP.

[Ken X]

17 hours ago, Ken X said:

We are currently pootling down the Trent & Mersey and, having binned the idea of doing the Leicester ring, are pondering popping up the Erewash on our way back from Leicester. If time and weather are kind to us it may well happen. Many thanks for the heads up. 

Well, it's not going well. 😀 We are now stuck at Shardlow as a tree has dropped across the canal. Hopefully we can recommence progress towards the Erewash soon. 

[Durhamdales]

13 hours ago, agg221 said:

Which day are you thinking of leaving?

 

We are also at Langley Mill (Oates) and are hoping to head down on Friday if @tom_c has figured out why our magneto isn't working.

 

It took us 7hrs to get up with a 3'1" draft. We did hit the sunken boat and smashed it a bit further! Otherwise we didn't touch the bottom, but we did find an enormous amount of weed which made it slow going in a few pounds.

 

Alec

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