Distance: 4.4 miles
Difficulty of the terrain: medium
Get the route via: Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox
Easy going walk mostly along the banks of the River Trent and the Trent and Mersey Canal, along the boundary between Derbyshire and Leicestershire, ending at the historic, well preserved, canal village of Shardlow.
The Story
The Walk
Getting Back
From the Trent to the Mersey
Shardlow today is a pretty sleepy village in the far south of Derbyshire, on the banks of the Trent looking into Leicestershire, not too far from the mighty, still working, Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station.
This part of the eastern Midlands has been a key transhipment hub and waymark on journeys up, down, and across the country for millenia. In the Middle Ages numerous wooden bridges across the River Trent were constructed near the village, only for them to be swept away by mighty river surges, or undermined by the shifting course of the river as it cut through and undermined the gravel bed that comprises that lands of the flat Trent plain.
Eventually in the 14th Century the local authorities gave up and created a ferry. To this day there is a relative paucity of small bridges crossing the Trent, or the River Derwent which ends its long descent down Derbyshire from the High Peak, at Derwent Mouth less than a mile south of Shardlow. Instead the mighty motorway and railway viaducts which carry the M1 and Midland Mainline on their journey between the Midlands and Yorkshire are on massive piers, sunk deep into the ground, which belie the fickleness of current and underlying gravel beds alike.
It was the potential of water, if carefully corralled, to be a reliable means of transport which led to Shardlow taking on its modern form. Between 1766 and 1777 James Brindley, the noted canal and waterways engineer from Leek, oversaw the construction of the Trent and Mersey Canal. This ambitious undertaking runs diagonally right across the northern Midlands, and into North West England, from the Trent just south of Shardlow to Ellesmere Port at the base of the Wirral peninsula.
Sitting at the base of this waterway, which soon became a vital part of the inland waterways network which rapidly became pivotal to the shipment of large quantities of raw materials and finished goods over long distances in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries, Shardlow became a thriving inland port. During the village’s heyday, when alongside Stourport-on-Severn and Stratford-upon-Avon to the west Shardlow was one of the most important nodes on the canal network. Being described as “little Rotterdam” or “little Liverpool” due to the sheer number of boats mooring, and traversing its docks, and the volume of cargo being moved.
By 1816 a total of twelve docks had been excavated, with a significant settlement comprising warehouses, boat maintenance workshops, canal company offices and numerous pubs, having sprung up along the waterway. Goods shipped through Shardlow included Wedgwood pottery, being transported east along the Trent, conveyed smoothly avoiding the Peak District, in some cases as far as the Humber ports where it was exported. Grain was also a mainstay of transport along the waterway with several substantial warehouses for the basic foodstuff constructed at Shardlow. This was the last item to be transported in bulk through Shardlow with shipments of grain by barge along the River Trent and along the Trent and Mersey Canal continuing until 1957. Although by this time the inland port at Shardlow had long been in decline, the population having already dropped from nearly one and a half thousand in the 1840s to around 900 by the time of 1861 census.
Shardlow’s decline and relative isolation following its late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Century boom times, had the effect of preserving its historic canalside core. With the growth of interest in canal preservation and leisure boating in the mid-Twentieth Century campaigners began lobbying for the historic nature of Shardlow’s historic inland port to be recognised. This was achieved in 1975 with the canalside part of the village designated a conservation area. Today this part of Shardlow is a popular day out for people to have a walk along the Trent and Mersey Canal, look at the boats and historic buildings, and have a drink and some food in one of the many pubs. In short, like many waterways settlements in the Midlands far from the sea, Shardlow, decades after its life as a port ended, fulfils the role of a substitute seaside resort.
The Walk
Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox
I create the Walk Midlands routes via Ordnance Survey Maps Explorer enabling me to take them on my phone. Subscribe yourself via the banner above.
This walk to the former inland port of Shardlow, near the base of the Trent and Mersey Canal described “as the best preserved in the country”, begins from Long Eaton Railway Station.
Upon alighting the train exit the station making for a large roundabout surrounded by shops.
Cross straight over the roundabout making for a road on the far side leading away from the station running parallel with the railway line east towards Nottingham.
Keep on walking straight down the road. Unusually and slightly irritatingly for a road in the middle of a town the pavement switches sides several times, necessitating crossing the road several times.
Presently you approach and cross a bridge over the Erewash Canal. The Erewash Canal was built slightly later than the Trent and Mersey Canal, opening in 1779. It is a slightly strange waterway, running along the boundary of between Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, along the line of the River Erewash as far as Langley Mill. Here the Erewash Canal once joined with the now derelict, and erased from long stretches, Nottingham and Cromford Canals. The Erewash Canal survived until the mid-Twentieth Century mania for inland waterways preservation took off, due in large part to its usefulness for transporting coal from the collieries along the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire boundary as far as the River Trent.
On the far side of the bridge there is a path off to the right running down to the Erewash Canal towpath. Turn right down this towpath to reach the towpath.
Once on the Erewash Canal towpath turn left. Walk along the towpath in the direction of the River Trent.
Walking through a semi-rural area on the edge of Long Eaton you pass through a series of yards and landings for canal boats. Ahead of you the tall chimney and oolong towers of the Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station come into view. When I walked the route in April 2024 the power station remained one of the final three coal fired power stations working in the UK.
Presently you reach the mighty Trent Lock which divides the Erewash Canal from the River Trent.
Here just before and after the lock there are bridges leading across the canal to a footpath beside the river bank.
Turn right here and cross over the canal making for the river bank path.
Once beside the River Trent turn right and follow the footpath.
Keep walking along the footpath beside the Trent for quite some distance.
Presently you pass a golf course on your right and see up ahead the long viaduct which carries the Midland Mainline across the River Trent.
Walk beneath the viaduct, and immediately on the far side there is a concrete footbridge on the left across the Trent. The river is very wide at this point.
On the far side of the Trent you enter Leicestershire, which is situated on the southern bank of the river.
Here turn right and head along a towpath through a large canal boatyard. This canalised section of the Trent is called the Sawley Cut.
At the top of the yard you come to a road bridge. It is quite a busy road running between the Long Eaton suburb of Sawley towards Castle Donington.
Once on the bridge cross over the road, then turn left and walk across the bridge crossing the Sawley Cut.
On the far side of the bridge turn right through a gate onto a towpath style footpath running alongside the channel.
Keep on walking along the path approaching the M1 viaduct rising out of the Trent plain in the near distance.
Upon reaching the motorway viaduct following the footpath beneath the bridge through the ethereal landscape beside the river beneath the motorway.
Continue along the path on the far side of the motorway bridge. There is a big leisure fishing park off to the left created from former gravel pits.
Presently after some distance both the river and path turn sharply to the left, directly opposite the place where the River Derwent’s journey down Derbyshire from the High Peak finishes, at Derwent Mouth where the river joins the Trent.
Follow the path as it turns to the left, turning into an asphalt track running, right, leading around the edge of the fishing ponds.
Straight ahead there is a foot suspension bridge over the Trent. Walk to the right through a footgate and up and over the bridge.
On the far side turn right and walk towards where the Trent and Mersey Canal joins the Trent.
Here you come to the starting point for the Derwent Valley Heritage Way. I walked the route which runs from Derwent Mouth to Ladybower Reservoir in the Peak District in the spring of 2022. It is a good walk, varied, through interesting places, and readily doable in four not especially challenging days.
Turn left and begin walking along the Trent and Mersey Canal towpath. It is pretty muddy in the wetter parts of the year, not least because the Trent sometimes floods up the canal. An alternative to walking the towpath if it is muddy is to walk up a little lane to the side, which runs parallel with the canal and is a little drier.
Carry on up the towpath approaching Shardlow.
Soon you reach the edge of the village.
Keep following the canal towpath through the heart of the historic canal village.
Presently you reach the bridge for the main road. Some of the most spectacular old canal architecture, and the heritage centre, created by the old Mansfield Brewery back in the day can be found near here. This is also the road from where buses can be caught.
This is where the walk ends.
Getting Back
From the centre of Shardlow, just up on the main road from where the walk ends, the very frequent (every fifteen minutes for much of the day) Skylink Bus runs between Leicester and Derby. Heading south towards Leicester it calls at Castle Donington, East Midlands Airport, Kegworth and Loughborough before Leicester. Heading north it stops outside Derby Railway Station before terminating at the city’s bus station.