On this happy foray, they were indeed.

Alas, for Alrewas, we couldn’t stay there forever. In fact we’re now seven moorings along, continuing along the Trent and Mersey all the way to its junction with the River Soar and the Erewash Canal.¹ It seemed fortuitous to take the side trip up the Erewash (which like the Ashby is a canal cul-de-sac), so here we are in Long Eaton, enjoying a bit of suburbia.

That summary makes the journey seem easy!

It’s not been too hazardous, really. Just challenging at times. After Alrewas, we meandered through Barton Turn, Branston (yes, the land of the pickle), Willington,² before fetching up just above Stenson Lock. Then we spent a relaxed week outside Swarkestone, and another several days ‘upon-Trent’ between Weston- and Aston-, before nerving ourselves for the next tricky bit of navigation. Stenson is the first of the double locks on this portion of the network, if you are heading clockwise (which we are), and the closer you get to the Soar junction, the more locks there are.

Canal locks are a remarkably simple mechanism in principle (which means, in reality, nothing of the sort). If you are descending, the lock chamber needs to be full to the level of approach. You sail in, shut the gates and empty the bathtub, so to speak, til you are level with the next stretch of canal. Ascending, you start with the chamber empty, and rise with the incoming tide, as it were.

Simple, right? What could possibly go wrong??

Oh, so many things. For starters, all locks are subtly different. Deeper, or shallower, meaning more or less water to manage. Larger or smaller gates. Smooth or stubborn gate paddle mechanisms, requiring greater or lesser force to wind them up or down. Some locks have extra ground paddles beside the chamber as well as paddles on the gates, which must be managed in the correct order for easiest manoeuvring. Many locks leak, despite the double mitre construction, and you tend to feel like Sisyphus with a windlass. If you’re descending you have to be sure to keep your boat well forward of the gate cill, lest you ‘hang up’ your stern on it and flood (even sink) your boat. Going up, you can get caught on the front of the gates if you’re too close. The margin between boat length and lock length can be alarmingly small. You might lose your windlass, your sideline ropes, your hat, or your equilibrium.³

Even when the main procedure runs to plan, if the gates are leaky, you can shower either end (or both, or yourself) of your boat with canal water (and again, in extreme cases, get flooded). If you wind the paddles too fast, your boat bounces around like a rubber duck in a toddler’s bath tanty. If you wind slowly, it takes f.o.r.e.v.e.r. to fill (even if the lock is not leaky).

And then, there’s the double locks.

All the problems of the above, besides the complication of double width, and usually much deeper as well.⁴ So using them alone means you usually angle back and forth across the chamber, increasing the already very high chance of scratching your gunwales. Using them in tandem is much easier – if you have a lock companion who does know what they are about – and benefits the canal system by using less water. Unfortunately, canal locking is much like Forrest Gump’s chocolates, and you just don’t know til you get to one how things will pan out.

The narrowboater’s happy dream is to approach a lock, and see the gates open and another craft emerge toward you. You can cruise straight in and get on with it. Less happy times mean you usually have to pull into the lock landing and wait. At a minimum, while you fill the lock. At worst, there’s a queue, sometimes in both directions.

We’d managed a few double locks between stopping points, some simple and some fraught, and we were facing the more complex stretch between Aston-upon-Trent and the major junction with the Soar. As well as several weirs to avoid and river sections, there were 4 deep double locks, then at least one more to start the Erewash, before we were likely to find a suitable mooring. Imagine our delight to find that in spite of our early start (early for us, that is) someone had already been past and the first lock was left full and ready for us. Even better, just as we were closing the gates, lo and behold another craft appeared in our wake, keen to share the lock.

Thanks to NB Duckweed and her lovely crew, we made great time through the first three locks – ALL of which were either waiting full or just disgorging a boat heading anti-clockwise. Chatting with our temporary companions also provided valuable info about the navigations ahead, as they’d been that way before. This is one of the best aspects of narrowboat life – the sense of community is strong, and almost all boaters are friendly, helpful and easy-going – especially to newbies like ourselves. Although we had to part ways at Sawley so we could stop for fuel, we were tremendously grateful for the ease of the morning and the kindness of (former) strangers. The ease continued at Sawley Lock – fully automated system with no windlass huffing and puffing! And then it was time to make a sharp left onto the Erewash…

… for lock five (or 60, according to the maps). Our spirits rose even more when we spied a boat descending ahead of us – because this time, we needed to go up! Now, the lock was ready for us to make our first ascent for some time. Further good news: another boater was waiting already, so we could share the water and prevent us all bumping round. Huffing and puffing was still required, alas, even with more hands to help, but we made it up in good time. As we had to pause at the services for the usual disposals, we let the other boater go ahead, before we headed on up the Erewash – very beautiful, with many private moorings. Not so many spaces on the towpath side, however, and no armco⁵. Finally, we decided we’d just have to ‘pin and bear it’, and located a good mooring spot. Suburbia maybe, with a busy road, but there was parking right at hand. And who should be our new temporary neighbour but NB Kentish Man, and her skipper Peter, from our last lock? Much chatting (and a few pints) have ensued; as we’ll both be here for several days, we’ll likely be enjoying more too. And then? We’ll be hoping that once again, the locks will be kind to us as we head north toward Langley Mill.

1. We’ve heard it pronounced ‘Ear-wash’, ‘Air-wash’, ‘Ey-ra-wash’ and everything between. We usually settle on ‘Er-ra-wash’, because it doesn’t sound so waxy 🙂 ↩︎
2. There were 2 weekends of Floating Markets during our trip through this area, which was rather fun. Pizza, candles, jewellery, woodcrafts, pottery, cake and coffee – it’s amazing what boaters can make and sell from on board. You can check them out on Facebook ↩︎
3. Although avoiding the major pitfalls, we’ve done all these last – I did manage to catch my hat, but we’re down 2 windlasses and managed to chew up one side line with our own tiller 😦 ↩︎
4. Stenson Lock is over 12 feet deep. Inside, the profusion of ferns growing on all the gates and parts of the sides make you feel like you’re in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. ↩︎
5. When mooring up, boaters usually tie up to armco (metal siding) where it exists, with either mooring chains or piling hooks. No armco? you have to break out the mallet and hammer in your own pins. ↩︎