Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/273

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canal, between Bridgewater Bay or the ports eastward of it, and any ports eastward of Beer Harbour, is upwards of two hundred and twenty miles.

In addition to the great advantage which must necessarily accrue to the shipping interest, the prospects held out to the speculator in this work, are sufficient to tempt the cupidity of the most sceptical, if reliance may be placed in the accuracy of the data from whence the projectors have derived the probable sources of revenue. In a prospectus, published by the committee on this navigation, it is stated, that the clear annual income applicable to a dividend among the proprietors, is calculated, by very low estimates, to amount to twelve per cent, or £210,846, 12s. 4d. But the reader must bear in mind that the latter end of 1824 was a time of high expectations. When this article was drawn up (1830) the work had not commenced.

EREWASH CANAL.

17 George III. Cap. 69, Royal Assent 30th April, 1777.

THE Erewash Canal commences in the River Trent, about a mile east of the village of Sawley, and nearly opposite the Soar River, or Loughborough Navigation; whence it takes a northerly course on the east side of Long Eaton, a mile and a half beyond which the Derby Canal Branch locks down into it. From this junction it runs parallel with and on the west side of the River Erewash, by Sandiacre, and across Nutbrook, by an aqueduct, at which place it is also joined by the Nutbrook Canal, about a mile and a half north of the last-mentioned village; hence it continues its course up the Erewash Vale, by Ilkeston and the Cotman Hay Collieries, to Newmanleys Mill, where it crosses the river into Nottinghamshire, and at about a mile beyond, it terminates in the Cromford Canal, near Langley Bridge. It is in length eleven miles and three quarters, viz, from the Trent to the Derby Canal, three miles and a quarter; from thence to the Nutbrook Canal, two miles and a half; and from thence to the Cromford Canal, Six miles, to which there is a total rise, from the Trent, of nearly 109 feet. The canal was made under the authority of an act of