Canal Basin Traditional Cache
theharveyhunters: Recently visited GZ and the cache is missing. The location is quite overgrown at this time so I will archive this and look for a new location when I have a bit more time.
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The Lambourne Drive canal basin is situated in the heart of a residential estate. It used to be the turning point for barges along the old route of the Nottingham canal. Now the canal's stone walls line a public footpath. The cache is small test tube style cache and you will need to bring your own pencil.
Wollaton Canal History: The competition for coal brought the Nottingham canal to Wollaton in the 18th century. Nottingham Corporation and local businessmen financed the building of a new canal in 1789 to connect the River Trent with Nottingham, the pits of Wollaton, and the Erewash Canal at Langley Bridge. The famous canal engineer William Jessop originally wanted the canal to go by the western side of the Wollaton Hall estate but Lord Francis Willoughby Middleton wanted the canal to go by his Wollaton pits. This increased the cost by an extra £2,500 because a steep series of 14 locks had to be built between what is now Raleigh Island and Trowell Road. Two of these locks were positioned either side of the canal basin at Lambourne Drive, which is today still lined with huge masonry stones. Jessop utilised the local landscape well; Martins Pond and Harrison's Plantation were used as water feeders and the canal reached its highest gradient at Bridge Road, after snaking round the Bilborough and Strelley hills. When the steam powered railways came in the nineteenth century they followed the same course as many of the canals which had gone before them, as engineers like Jessop had already carefully considered the gradients. In 1873 The Midland Railway built a line (which can still be heard from Lambourne Drive) in order to again connect Nottingham, directly with the pits of Nottinghamshire and the Erewash Valley. In the same year Lord Middleton took advantage of this development creating a new pit between what is now Torvill Drive and Dean Close. Although the age of the railway brought about the decline in the canals it was not until 1937 and the era of the petrol engine which heralded the end of this stretch of the Nottingham Canal. Coal operations had also been exhausted in the area since 1963 when the 460 miners were transferred to Cotgrave. Nevertheless, the old canal has always been popular with locals, particularly during the 1970s when efforts were made to preserve it, which despite the housing developments of the following decade, meant that at least some sections of the canal remain today. Although the surrounding houses of the 1980s follow that era's penchant for twisting country lanes, the very direction of Torvill Drive owes its origins to industrial pioneers.
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(Decrypt)
penpx va jnyy
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