After Hazelford Lock we continued up the Trent towards Nottingham.. The trip is fun, but with few places to stop.
It was a lovely day to be on the river and there were the usual number of fishermen chancing their arms. I an always struck by how much gear they have with them to catch fish. Those critters must be mighty clever.
We shared Gunthorpe Lock with a boat who had left Hazelford a little after of us but were taking their time.
Stoke lock looked nice and quiet but we were heading further on. The lock keepers were all very chatty and helpful and pass on your ETA to the next lock after confirming that you are going onward.
Just through the Radcliffe railway viaduct is this wharf that was next to an aggregates quarry. It looks as though it has been used fairly recently and there has been a wharf here since the 1950's though.
In the 1930's Colwich became the site of the development of an industrial estate. Russian Oil Products ROP was a company that was set up in 1924 to market oil produced in the oil fields of the then Russian Baku and Grozny oil fields. They set up a depot here in 1930 and had four of their own barges delivering fuel there from the Humber. No petrol was brought into Nottingham via the Trent in 1928 but they had a 700% increase on their 1929 figure. The company was thought by the UK Government to be a vehicle to bring spies etc into the country and indeed two directors were expelled from the country in 1929. However they were granted equal access to the markets in the 1930's.
The oil depots at Colwich, below Holm's Lock in the 1960's
By the 1960's there were 5 jetties on this one site. You can tell it was an oil jetty as there is a little derrick which was used to heave the oil pipeline up to the manifold on the jetty. ROP laso had a small depot at Althorpe, near Keadby Bridge and the Keadby and Stainforth Canal lock until the 1950's. They also had a depot at Blisworth, right next to the Marina at Gayton, on the Grand Union that was supplied via the canal. Another company that had a depot in Colwich was the Power Petrol Company that was set up in 1923 and also marketed Russian oil, and they also had their own boats for the work. Nottingham also had depots for Shell-Mex and BP but they used the vessels of Harkers, Whitakers or Cory's. ROP and Power became quite large against the others as they were undercutting their prices by a couple pence as the market was growing. There were another couple of jetties a little further up river and I'm not sure if this was the Shell-Mex/BP terminal and the ROP and Power shared the other one.
Very nice posters from the two Russian oil marketing companies.
A little further towards Holme's Lock was this wharf that was set up to service a concrete products factory after WWII but doesn't look like it has been used since around the 1970's.
We went up through Holme's Lock and moored above. This is next the Holmes Pierre Point Water Sports Centre and you have a first hand view of the white water rafting course. We decided to take a stroll round the long rowing lake on a lovely afternoon.
The next day it was gloomy and with a hint of drizzle in the air for our arrival in Nottingham. before arriving at Meadow Lane Lock we passed the old Trent Basin. In 1922 Nottingham Corporation took control of the river from the Trent Navigation company and set about improving/enlarging the locks between 1922 and 1926. The last one to be finished was Hazelford that was reopened by Neville Chamberlain. In 1928 they started on the Trent Basin terminal. By 1933 there was the basin with 6 foot of water at summer river levels with No.2 warehouse. On the river front was No.1 warehouse. there were also
This is Trent Basin in the 1960's with railway lines down each side of the basin and lots of transit sheds to the west. Just to the west of this plan is a terminal that was built in 1930's for Anglo American Company oil products. The basin buildings were demolished in 2012 and now is the site of a housing project that is supposed to be using all green technology including battery storage that will see all power produced on site being used on site and excess sold to the grid and profits split between the property owners.
We went up the Meadow Lane Lock that had been closed due to it being caved in and on to the remainder of the Nottingham Canal. Just up from the lock on the River Trent are some more warehouses that also belonged the Trent Navigation Company/Nottingham Corporation. For some reason no boats seem to moor in the city centre. It is a little gloomy being overshadowed by tall buildings but parts seem quiet enough. On the right is a warehouse that backs on to a road called Ironstone Wharf was owned by the Nottingham Canal Co. and was for grain storage. It seems to still have some industrial application. On the right the new properties have been built on on goods yards for the railway.
This area was known as Island Wharf and until 1818 had a warehouse of the Nottingham Boat Company there. In September of that year a narrow boat was loading and had 21 barrels of gunpowder pound for the quarries at Cromford, via the canal. The explosion completely demolished the warehouse and killed 8 men and two boys who were fishing nearby. The Fellows, Morton and Clayton Warehouse was built in 1895 with covered moorings to work the boats. On the road side are some lovely offices that acted as the company's coal carrying offices. Both buildings are part of a pub/brewery complex and are Grade II Listed.
Just a little further on is the British Waterways warehouse that was built in 1919 but is now flats. The area of Island Wharf is now known as Castle Wharf.
Non oil products were usually transported via the river and canals towed by a tug of the various companies that normally towed three barges behind them. The first to be dropped off would be the last in the tow. The dumb barges were manned and they slipped their tow as they approached their berth and had to momentum, wind and current to get alongside, or drop the anchor and get ashore with a line in the coggy boat to heave themselves in. When bound for the canal they would get a tow up the canal with a horse and try to man haul of pole back to the river. Trade was immense at one time on the Trent. In 1931 there had been an 8 fold increase to 117,449 tons. By 1935 there were 200 vessels trading regularly from the Humber to Nottingham. WWII saw a drop in trade but by 1953 it had reached 727,600 tons, half of which was oil products. By 1964 it had topped a million tons and 1974 dropped to 455,500 tons, 1984 300,000 and even in 1994 it was still 170,000. I wonder if it will start to rise again in an attempt to same the CO2 production etc.
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