The canal basin at Langley Mill is really quite important. Canals pushed into the Erewash valley in the fourth quarter of the eighteenth century to get to our coal. And by the end of the century, Langley Mill had three canals, all meeting at this spot - the original Erewash Canal, from Trent Lock near Long Eaton, had been joined by the Cromford Canal (which went, not surprisingly, to Cromford), and the Nottingham Canal (I bet you can guess where that one went too!)
But the canal era was relatively short lived, replaced once the railways came along. Today we are only left with the original Erewash Canal, and the very first section of the Cromford. The Erewash Canal itself was abandoned, but due to the hard work of the Erewash Canal Preservation and Development Association in the 1960s and 1970s it was saved and converted into a leisure canal. Once a year or so, there is a major waterway event take place at Langley Mill - not a good weekend to look for this cache!
The photo shows the state of the lock at the canal basin in 1910.
This is a multicache - the cache is not at the published location, but it is not very far away.
There are four waypoints, but they are all very close to each other. You will need to visit all four, but it doesn't matter what order you do them in.
Once you have found the information, you will find the cache at N 53 AB.CDE W 001 FG.HIJ, where:
xyz is a number on the door below "ECP & DA Great Northern Basin Moorings"
A: Eric Ronald Dunstan was born in 192A
B: The Erewash Valley Trail was created in 20B0
C: London is 17C miles from Langley Mill
D: Langley Bridge is Lock #1D
E = x+y
FJ: Cromford is FJ½ miles from Langley Mill
GH: The plaque under the bridge shows the date of the Cromford Canal - 17GH
I: The last commercial vessel used the canal in 19I2
You will need to cross the canal at some stage. PLEASE BE CAREFUL. Some people will walk across the lock gates, but the safest way is to use the road bridge - it's only a few yards further.
The cache is a micro - there is no room for anything other than the log, so please come equipped with a pen(cil).