The uninviting Trent

EARLY this year Canal & River Trust attempted to get more people to use the Trent, then last month closed the lock at Newark preventing all access for two months, with many believing subsequent complaints of the lack of facilities caused CaRT to 'reverse' its decision, hence the lock closure with no reason.

Our regular contributor, Jimmy Lockwood, decided to take CaRT's advice and try the Trent from Shardlow to Newark, and writes:

Uninviting waterway

Am I the only canal boater to find the Trent above Newark an uninviting waterway? No I don't refer to the water quality but to the lack of opportunity to travel safely and moor conveniently.

Recently I came down the enjoyable Soar and up the Trent to the thriving village of Shardlow. Then I made, with hindsight, a poor decision and decided to travel down the Trent for the first time in many years.

Now I was anticipating a major river but not the frustrating problems that accompanied it.

One of the great advantages of boating is that one can stop where one likes without the need to book accommodation ahead and then enjoy what the community has to offer.
No such luck on the Trent!

Let's look at the locks:

• Sawley Locks were not manned despite guidance saying all powered Trent locks are manned between 9.30 and 5.30—only at weekends at Sawley I was told—so recovering one's crew from the island was not easy.
• Cranfleet Lock was just as bad but without the advantage of powered equipment.
• Beeston Lock landing was occupied by small dinghies without owners so mooring was not too easy—crushing them against the pontoon would have been easier!
• Holme Lock has a failed paddle (well just the rod actually) and has, I was told, been like it for months. It takes about 30 minutes to fill the lock.

After that the locks were okay and everywhere the lock keepers very helpful.

The navigation advice:

• Below Cranfleet a large sign says in effect 200m keep to the left-hand channel. Does this mean the obstruction is 200m ahead or one has to keep left for 200m? There is no indication where the obstruction (a sand bar?) starts or ends.
• There's another unmarked obstruction further down.

Otherwise advice was non-existent though possibly not needed either.

The Moorings—or lack of them:

• Nothing attractive between Sawley and Beeston even though a major UK Nature Reserve is on the left bank but with no access from the river.
• Very good at Beeston along Canal Road
• Some against concrete until Nottingham
• Excellent in Nottingham—moorings both on the canal and the river.
• Then—Oh Dear! Where can one stop again?
• Any space at Holme Lock was taken by craft moved from the island which is now a construction site.
• No access to Radcliffe-on-rent.
• Stoke Lock pontoon is a most pleasant mooring but not near any leisure services.
• The pub at Stoke Bardolph has a rudimentary landing stage; not a really secure place to moor and doubtful if there is sufficient draught for a narrowboat.
• No access to Shelford or Burton Joyce villages, both with pubs and the latter with shops.
• At Gunthorpe mooring space is a joke! There are five pubs/restaurants (no shops) in the village and the pontoon is not large enough for five craft! It is frequently fully occupied particularly at weekends so the only alternative is the lock wall with its vertical ladders.
• No access to Hoveringham though there is a very good unused pontoon there.
• The mooring nearest to Bleasby appears to be occupied by residential craft and the one at Hazelford Lock appears to be populated by long stay craft.
• Fiskerton pontoon is small (privately owned?) so offering very limited access to the pub.
• Farndon at least offers some opportunities to tie to the land and enjoy the pubs.
• And so to Newark—a key tourism objective that clearly doesn't anticipate receiving many visitors by water if the potential length of town centre moorings is anything to go by. But hey it is a safe stay for the night!

CaRT asks why the Trent doesn't attract more boaters; the answer is obvious!

With 24 miles from Nottingham to Newark plus four locks it is a day's boating so, as potentially there is no certainty of an opportunity to moor in between, one aims to leave the city in the morning and reach Newark before tea-time. Being stranded on a strange river without a good mooring is no fun.

Thus one of the major rivers of England offers little to the traveller except an attractive landscape. The mooring facilities provided only serve to encourage the boater to keep going and without loitering to visit the villages on its banks. Don't stop! Travel on! The instruction is clear to everyone.

The Trent has become a route to other destinations beyond—to Lincoln, to Worksop, to Sheffield, to Leeds, to York or anywhere beyond Trent Falls.

We don't want you on the Trent

The message received is we don't want you on the Trent so go elsewhere! Is this intended? Or has it, like so many CaRT messages been delivered with little thought?

Have any of the CaRT management ever cruised the river in a 70ft narrowboat? I suspect not, otherwise such moorings as there are would be longer.

Let's see if CaRT Management and its Trustees have the energy and the will to change this image? Seriously, despite all their posturing and publicity, I doubt it!