Into the centre of Nottingham

As we were heading for the centre of the city on Friday we took Buddy for a long walk first – city centres aren’t the best places for dogs.  There were a few butterflies around and Karen got a nice shot of a fresh Small Tortoiseshell.  This was from the first brood of the year – ones seen earlier in the year were ones that had over wintered as adults.

We walked by Beeston weir that we had cruised past yesterday.

Walked under the hill where Clifton Hall stands.  It was owned by the Clifton family for centuries until it was bought by a foreign family in 2008.  Apparently they have now abandoned it as they believed it was haunted – it is now on the market.

This is where we had moored the previous evening in a quiet spot in Beeston.

We set out for Nottingham after lunch and noticed this canal had mile markers counting down the distance to the River Trent.

It also had rather elaborate bridge plaques.

The concrete and iron wall on the left marks the junction with the Nottingham canal which used to start at the top of the Erewash canal at Langley Mill and run down through Nottingham to the Trent.  The section from the left up to Langley Mill is either filled in or derelict – when we were on the Erewash we went and found parts of the derelict canal that were still in water.  This is where the Beeston canal ends and we joined the Nottingham canal to the right.

This heron had an interesting fishing post.

We moored at Meadow Lane and walked the final two miles into Nottingham to see what the moorings were like in the centre.  We walked past Nottingham castle...

...and these nicely restored wharves.

This is the central part with the station and bus station behind the bars and pubs  on the left hand side.  We thought this would be a good place to moor.

Nottingham used to house one of the headquarters of the largest canal carrying company in the UK - it has now been converted to a museum and bar.

These iron cylinders were placed by the bridges to stop the horse lines wearing away the sandstone.  They are found on most canal bridges but we have never seen them as ornate as this.

 We walked right to the end of the canal where it comes out at Trent Bridge.

These flood level marks makes you realise how high the river can get at times.

After our walk we brought the boat down to the centre of town.  We only had to go down one lock.

We moored outside the law courts and the bars we had seen earlier.  We went over to the Fellows, Morton & Clayton bar for a drink and Catherine came down to join us.

We sat at a table next to these guys who started chatting to us as they remembered us going down the lock earlier – they were having a drink at the pub by the lock when we went through.