Once again, Monday was grey and overcast. So you've got a set of photos of Bennerley Viaduct looking moody and menacing rather than bright and shiny. Last time I went there, it rained. I really will have to see it in the sunshine one day.
The viaduct car park is a short distance down the Nottingham Canal. This section was set up for intensive angling; there were wooden fishing platforms every few steps. I don't know what the green bags were for.
Bennerley Viaduct came into view over the hedge. This immense wrought iron structure once carried the Friargate line over the River Erewash, two canals, and another railway. Now it stands forlornly in a ravaged landscape which used to be an opencast coal mine. That it still stands at all is amazing, though; it's one of only two wrought iron viaducts left in the country.
Since 2022, Bennerley has been open to walkers and cyclists, and a new access ramp has just been built at the eastern end. The visitor centre is still under construction.
I walked past some mossy woods, across a strip of concrete which looked like a runway but was probably an access road for the coal mine, and around three sides of a wind turbine. The air felt completely still but the blades were turning steadily. Shaggy ponies stood stoically in a field.
The Nottingham Canal here had been obliterated by opencast mining. After a while it reappeared, with an old swing bridge, some brightly coloured barriers, and a buried bridge.
The two canals, Nottingham and Erewash, were gradually edging closer and closer together. I had intended to cross the Erewash Canal at Anchor Lane and head across to Langley Mill, but that didn't feel like the end. So I continued up Anchor Road.
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| Erewash Canal |
Just a little further on was the Great Northern Basin. This really was the end - the top of both canals, and the northern tip of the Erewash Valley Trail. Over my left shoulder, Trent Lock was 12 miles away down the Erewash Canal, and over my right, Nottingham was - theoretically if not navigably - 14 miles away along the Nottingham Canal. Once, the Cromford Canal had continued straight ahead, but subsidence condemned it long ago.
I sat on a bench and shared my sandwich with a particularly attentive duck. She even pecked my boot when the breadcrumbs weren't arriving fast enough!
Ducking under the road bridge, I followed the Erewash Canal back south and turned off down a fenced-in path. I skirted the edge of Langley and quickly reached open fields.
I'm sure this is a nice view in sunny weather. Today the only splash of colour was provided by the playground equipment.
My original route had headed up towards Shipley, to gain a bit of elevation. But time was running short and anyway, I could see the mist perfectly well from down here. Instead, I followed a lower but straighter route alongside the railway to the old Shipley Gate station (now just a footbridge next to Station House) and then across to Cotmanhay. The blossom smelled lovely.
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| Station House |
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| blossom |
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| the wind turbine again |
I crossed the Erewash Canal next to a derelict pub and went through Bennerley Woods to reach the western end of the viaduct. There was a much newer sign on this side. A ramp and some steps took me up onto the viaduct itself.
Looking north, there's that wind turbine again. Eastwood church tower is in the centre, on the horizon.
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| Eastwood church marked in red |
Looking south, you can see the pools formed by mining subsidence, and Ilkeston church tower up on its hill.
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| Ilkeston church marked in red |
Here's the brand new eastern access ramp, with the visitor centre just out of sight to the left.
And one last glimpse on the way back to the car.
9 March 2026: Erewash Valley Trail Bennerley Viaduct to Great Northern Basin
8.9 miles / 14.4 km
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