Charity of the Year 2011

The Friends of the Cromford Canal is a charitable organisation who’s aim is to see the restoration of the historic Cromford canal for the benefit of the general public.They advocate and promote restoration of the canal to navigation connected to the national inland waterway system and the conservation, use, maintenance and development of the canal, buildings, towpath, structures, craft and equipment now or previously associated with the canal to its fullest use for appropriate commercial and recreational purposes and to preserve this valuable historical heritage.

Monthly socials
The Friends of the Cromford Canal host monthly socials at Ironville church hall which usually involve a talk by someone.  Full details are at http://www.cromfordcanal.org.uk/members/diary.htm

Work parties
The Friends of the Cromford Canal organise a series of conservation days during the year.  The canal not only requires restoration but maintenance where it has fallen into disrepair.  These are primarily during the autumn and winter months so as not to disturb nesting birds when clearing trees and hedges etc.

Maybe later on in the year we can organise an EFN conservation day to assist the Friends of the Cromford Canal in their work.

A brief history
The Cromford Canal was engineered by William Jessop and Benjamin Outram who both worked at Butterley Ironworks.

Building began in 1789.  The purpose of the canal was to serve several mines, quarries, lead works, the ironworks at Butterley and Somercotes, and Arkwrights Cotton Mills at Cromford.

It is 14.5 miles long and runs from Cromford to Pinxton.  It contained 3 aqueducts, 4 tunnels (of which the Butterley one is 2 miles) and 14 locks all of which were south of Butterly Tunnel.  This means that the 13 miles of the canal before the tunnel were engineered to be exactly the same depth – an incredible engineering feat for this era.

The Canal links into the Nottingham canal and Erewash canal at Langley Mill.

The links then extend into the Derby Canal, linking all the way to Swarkestone and meant that boats could reach the River Trent, and Trent and Mersey Canal.

The full canal finally opened in 1794.  Both the Nottingham canal and Derby canal opened in 1796

A 38 mile round trip from Cromford to Nottingham cost 5 shillings first class (25p) and 3 shillings 2nd class (15p).

The demise of the canal was due to the invention of the railways.  They were obviously quicker for transporting coal etc …

The Cromford canal closed in 1900 when the Butterley tunnel collapsed for a second time, and repairs couldn’t be afforded.

It is in the 1990’s that volunteers began pushing for the restoration of the Cromford Canal and also the Erewash Canal.  This will cost millions of pounds, especially as the majority of work involved is in re-opening the Butterley tunnel which is fully encased.

This is just a brief history – a full history can be found at http://www.cromfordcanal.org.uk/resources/history.htm.

Volunteer opportunities