The Cranfleet Trail - Part 03
w/e 21 February 2010
All this week's pictures were taken
with a Kodak DX6490
This final part of the Cranfleet Trail will take us back to our
starting point at Trent Lock from where the footpath from the
riverbank of the Trent meets Pasture Lane.
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Pasture Lane leads directly into Long Eaton but we only followed
it as far as the first lane on the left which is signposted as
leading to Cranfleet Lock. Evidence of former gravel workings
can be seen on both sides of Pasture Lane with large expanses
of water visible through the hedgerows and our return to the
lock meant that we circumnavigated one of them. To the right
of this lane the level, low lying land is used for arable farming
and I presume is part of the Cranfleet Farm that we had earlier
passed when walking along the towpath towards Cranfleet Lock.
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At the end of the lane is the car park at Cranfleet Lock
and this time I actually crossed to the other side of the lock
for this view of the former Lock Keeper's cottage and stables
that we had passed on our outward leg. The building is now the
home of the Nottingham Yacht Club.
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From here the route is to retrace our steps back along the Cranfleet
Cut to Trent Lock but it also gives us the opportunity to see
some of the things we missed on the way out.
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For example, this zoomed shot across both the Cut and the River
Trent shows the ornamental entrance that dates from Victorian
times and shows where the railway tunnel passes through the sandstone
cliff called Red Hill. The name of the hill is obviously derived
from the colour of the sandstone but the hill was once the site
of a Romano-British temple. The area is now dominated by the
Ratcliffe-On-Soar Power Station and although I've resisted referring
to it so far on this walk, it's hard to ignore when there is
so much electrical equipment about. There is also another tunnel
through Red Hill through which water drawn from the river is
returned from the cooling towers to the Trent.
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One lasting memory from our previous walk along the Cranfleet
Trail during last year's Autumn Footprints Festival was the number
of aeroplanes that passed overhead flying either to or from the
East Midlands Airport at Castle Donington but this time with
the wind in a different direction we didn't notice a single one.
We did however hear the rumble of trains on a regular basis and
just after passing under the railway bridges for the second time,
another train rushed by on its way north towards Trent Junction.
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The end of our walk was now almost in sight as we neared the
footbridge over the channel that leads from the river to the
Erewash Canal. This is a busy junction on the river as it is
not only the place where the Cranfleet Cut and the Erewash Canal
join, but also where the River Soar on the opposite bank joins
from the south.
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We completed our walk along the Cranfleet Trail by crossing the
footbridge over the channel and heading back to the Navigation
Inn which can be seen in the centre of this image but the bridge
on the right just before the first lock on the Erewash Canal
is the one we crossed on our outward journey.
If you've enjoyed this walk along the Cranfleet Trail, there's
an additional selection of images from the original Autumn Footprints
walk in September 2009 at Flickr. Click here to view.
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