The Nutbrook Canal was a canal in England which ran between Shipley in Derbyshire and the Erewash Canal, joining it near Trowell. It was built to serve the collieries at Shipley and West Hallam, and was completed in 1796. It was initially profitable, but from 1846 faced competition from the railways, and more seriously, subsidence caused by the coal mines that it was built to serve. With the mines failing to pay tolls for goods carried on the canal, and in some cases refusing to accept responsibility for the subsidence, most of it was closed in 1895, although the final remained in use until 1949.
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 (), 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 (), and John Nuttall surveyed the route and produced detailed plans. The Act of Parliament (33 Geo. 3. c. 111) 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.
Construction
Benjamin Outram, a man with previous experience of canal building, having completed the Cromford Canal, and a partner of William Jessop in the Butterley Company, was appointed as engineer, and supervised the direct labour force who built the canal. When built, the canal was long, with thirteen locks, each , giving a total rise of . The system was fed by Shipley Reservoir, which in turn was fed by the Nut Brook. The canal was brought into use in stages, with the first tolls being collected in November 1794, and 17 boats carrying 639 tons recorded in that year. The canal reached West Hallam in June 1795, but it was not until May 1796 that the final section with its three locks was completed. Traffic figures for July 1796 showed that 1,602 tons had originated from the Shipley colliery and 1,158 tons from West Hallam.
The canal ran beside the Nut Brook for most of its length, diverging at its southern end towards its junction (later known as Nutbrook Junction) with the Erewash Canal just above Heath Lock. There were two significant branches from the main line. One from just below Moor's Bridge went to Sir Henry Hunloke's estate at West Hallam, while a second, smaller branch left the main line just above Lock 3 to connect with Lord Stanhope's wagonway. The costs of construction overran, and were quoted as £22,801 (),in a report to the Derbyshire Justices, made at the start of 1797. The excess over the £19,500 authorised by the Act of Parliament was managed by further calls on the shareholders, and debts were repaid out of the initial receipts.