Friends of the Cromford Canal

The Cromford Canal Acts of 1789 and 1790

This is available either as a printed book of just over 100 pages or as a CD-ROM.

Book: £10.00 + £1.00 for p&p
CD: £5.00 + £0.50 for p&p

The Walker's Guide to the Cromford Canal (revised)

Written and produced by Friends Val Roberts & Mike Harrison, this fully revised and profusely-illustrated full-colour book tells you all you need to know about walking the Canal (and the Pinxton Arm and Leawood branch), including, most importantly, the details of all the pubs!

The Cromford Canal

Written by our Archivist Hugh Potter and published by Tempus Publishing, this 128-page book contains a wealth of pictures showing the canal from its earliest days up to about 1989 - a "must read" for anyone with an interest in the Canal.

The book is available for £12.99 from the Sales Stand or by post from the Sales Department at £14.50 including p&p

Portal to Portal

A short history of the Butterley Tunnel by Des Greenwood. This 49 page softback booklet contains rare photographs of the tunnel interior and the unique loading loading wharf from the Butterley Works to boats waiting below.

The book is available by post from the Sales Department at £6.50 plus £1.85 p&p

There and Back Again

"There and Back Again" by Simon Stoker. 128 page softback book telling of the restoration of the upper part of the canal between 1968 and 1998, profusely illustrated with colour and black and white pictures.

The book is available for £14.99 from the Sales Stand or by post from the Sales Department at £17.19 including p&p

112 - Loading coal from Pentrich pit into a narrowboat for onward shipment to Cromford, c,1900. This traffic continued, even after the collapse of Butterley Tunnel in 1900 closed the canal as a through route.

170 - A northbound express passes under a boat on Bullbridge Aqueduct. In the foreground is the small swing bridge which allowed horses to cross the canal here where the towpath changes sides.

1771 - The Cromford Canal at Buckland Hollow was very closely followed by what is now the rather straigher A610. The (road) toll house in the foreground has recently been extended. Buckland Hollow Tunnel and The Excavator public house are behind the camera.

388 - The hamlet of Robin Hood, just north of Whatstandwell was formerly the site of a saw mill to cut gritstone from the nearby quarries, which was then taken away by canal.

432 - Gregory Wide, just to the south of Gregory Tunnel.
Just to the right of the elegant lady, the structure by the towpath is a 'windlass'. There was a large wooden 'plug' in the bottom of the canal with a chain attached. When the canal needed to be drained for maintenance, the end of the chain was attached to the bar of the windlass which was then rotated; the chain tightened, the plug came up - and the water went down a culvert into the river to the right.

502 - Stoneyford Shallow and Deep Locks (numbers 11 and 10) photographed in 1907. The pound between them was the shortest on the canal.

660 - Sheerlegs in use to install a stop gate on the shallow stop lock on the Nottingham Canal at Langley Mill. This canal joined the Cromford Canal just beyond the second set of sheer legs. The (open) swingbridge is now restored as is the small toll house beyond.