Nutbrook Canal - History

History

The part of Derbyshire through which the Nutbrook Canal was built is remote, and although there were collieries at West Hallam and Shipley, it was poorly served by transport links. The construction of the Ilkeston to Nottingham Turnpike road in 1764 brought some improvement, but the road surface was unable to cope with regular heavy loads, and so traffic in the winter was sporadic. Improvements to the River Soar, authorised in 1776, and the construction of the Erewash Canal between 1777 and 1779 resulted in further improvements. A short spur from the Erewash Canal had been built to connect with a wagonway to Lord Stanhope's estates at Stanton and Dale. Coal from the Shipley Colliery reached the canal by a wooden tramway, and tolls were limited to 1s 6d (£8.05 as of 2013), per ton on the canal, but the canal company promised a 50 per cent reduction if the mine owners were to build a branch canal from the main line along the Nutbrook Valley.

The first moves to build a canal were made in 1791, when Edward Miller Mundy, the owner of Shipley Hall, and Sir Henry Hunloke of Wingerworth, owner of the West Hallam collieries, investigated the possibility of building a canal without an Act of Parliament. However, an Act was sought in 1792, but it was defeated in March, by objections from landowners who wanted it to be owned by a public company, rather than the mine owners. The canal engineer William Jessop was asked to produce a detailed design for the canal, which he estimated would cost £12,542 (£1,255,150 as of 2013),, and John Nuttall surveyed the route and produced detailed plans. The Act of Parliament authorising construction was obtained on 3 June 1793, and allowed the owners to raise £13,000, with a further £6,500 if required. Shares were given to investors by a formal agreement, as the canal was not a public company; public status would have prevented the colliery owners from obtaining their 50 per cent reduction of tolls on the Erewash Canal.