Locks: River Trent

The River Trent is navigable for 100 miles from Shardlow out to the Humber and the North Sea. At Shardlow it joins up with the Trent & Mersey canal. At Derwent Mouth it is met by the River Derwent which is no longer navigable. At Trent Lock it has a junction with the Erewash canal and also the River Soar; these two waterways are now part of the Grand Union canal. Further downstream it joins the Chesterfield canal, the Foss Dyke, and the South Yorkshire Navigations. The Grantham canal used to join it at Trent Bridge in Nottingham but is now disused but there are ambitious plans to restore this waterway. The navigation through Nottingham is via the Nottingham and Beeston canals.

The lock numbering starts at 1 at the western end of the navigation at Shardlow down to lock 15 at Newark where the river becomes tidal. Part of the navigation bypasses the river and goes along the Nottingham and Beeston canals. As these canals have a few of the 15 locks the number of locks on the river can be quoted as 15 or fewer depending on whether the canal locks are considered. Sometimes the figure is even lower as some documentation/maps ignore the flood locks.

The River Trent has been used as a navigation since the Bronze Age and it was heavily maintained by the Romans who also built the Foss Dyke to link the Trent to Lincoln.

Lock 1 - Sawley flood lock

Lock 2 - Sawley locks (6' 0")

Lock 3 - Cranfleet flood lock

Lock 4 - Cranfleet lock (7' 9")

Lock 5 - Beeston lock (3' 0")

Locks 7 & 8
Although these locks are now part of the River Trent Navigations this stretch was the eastern end of the Nottingham canal which used to run all the way up to Langley Mill to meet the Erewash and Cromford canals. Only the section between Trent Bridge and Lenton is now navigable.

See Nottingham & Beeston Canal for details of these two locks

Lock 9 - Holme lock (12' 0")

Lock 10 - Stoke lock (7' 0")

Lock 11 - Gunthorpe lock

Lock 12 - Hazelford lock (7' 1")