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Derby Canal

1796 establishments in EnglandCanals in DerbyshireCanals in EnglandCanals opened in 1796Geographic coordinate lists
Lists of coordinatesTransport in DerbyUse British English from September 2013
Shacklecross Lock in Borrowash, Derbyshire
Shacklecross Lock in Borrowash, Derbyshire

The Derby Canal ran 14 miles (23 km) from the Trent and Mersey Canal at Swarkestone to Derby and Little Eaton, and to the Erewash Canal at Sandiacre, in Derbyshire, England. The canal was authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1793 and was fully completed in 1796. It featured a level crossing of the River Derwent in the centre of Derby. An early tramroad, known as the Little Eaton Gangway, linked Little Eaton to coal mines at Denby. The canal's main cargo was coal, and it was relatively successful until the arrival of the railways in 1840. It gradually declined, with the gangway closing in 1908 and the Little Eaton Branch in 1935. Early attempts at restoration were thwarted by the closure of the whole canal in 1964. Since 1994, there has been an active campaign for restoration spearheaded by the Derby and Sandiacre Canal Trust and Society. Loss of the Derwent crossing due to development has resulted in an innovative engineering solution called the Derby Arm being proposed, as a way of transferring boats across the river.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Derby Canal (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Derby Canal
London Road, Derby Crewton

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Wikipedia: Derby CanalContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 52.9034 ° E -1.4459 °
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Address

Wickes

London Road 806
DE24 8WA Derby, Crewton
England, United Kingdom
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Shacklecross Lock in Borrowash, Derbyshire
Shacklecross Lock in Borrowash, Derbyshire
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Nearby Places

Wilmorton
Wilmorton

Wilmorton is a suburb of the city of Derby, England. It is situated between Alvaston and Osmaston, to the south of the city centre on the A6 from Deadman's Lane to the Canal Bridge; the former is aligned to the old town boundary and named from the medieval track that lead to the plague pit dug 1348 during the Great Plague or Black Death. Victims of the Black Death were buried there (the burial site is now under Pride Park). It was given the name Wilmorton by the post office in 1887. The area was named after Reverend Sir George Wilmot-Horton, 5th Baronet of Osmaston and was formed out of the Osmaston Hall estate which was broken up in the 1880s.Most of the original houses were built by the Midland Railway Company. A school was opened in 1893 and in 1904 a church in red brick dedicated to Saint Osmund was constructed. In 1796, the Derby Canal was built through Wilmorton which helped to bring a lot of trade to this area. The canal was closed in 1964 and converted to a cycle track, but work is being undertaken to restore it. A local public house next to the canal, named The Navigation, was originally built in 1796 when the canal opened, and re-built in 1895 to a design by the Derby architect James Wright. The other public house in Wilmorton is the Portland Hotel; this is on the corner of the London Road and Dickinson Street - and adjacent to Deadman's Lane. Behind the housing the London Midland and Scottish Railway Company constructed a railway college in 1937 in a neo-classical style. This is now known as Derby Conference centre. Wilmorton campus of Derby College was built off Harrow Street (known as Derby College of Further Education and then Derby Tertiary College) and in around 2006 this was knocked down and redeveloped as housing - known as City Point. Some of the college facilities were transferred to a site on Nottingham Road called Mason's Place, and some to the main site in Mackworth. In the late 1990s, a new section of the A6 was built from here to "The Cockpitt" roundabout, passing through Pride Park, known as Pride Parkway. In 2013 local Councillor Linda Winter called a meeting at the YMCA on London Road to set up a Residents Association for the Wilmorton area. From this meeting it was clear that the now housing development at City Point had further issues specific to its construction so on 5 June 2013 they held another meeting just for City Point Residents. The residents have formed their own Residents Association - Called City Point Residents Association - which intends to be under the governance of the Wilmorton Residents Association when it is finally formed.

British Rail Research Division
British Rail Research Division

The British Rail Research Division was a division of the state-owned railway company British Rail (BR). It was charged with conducting research into improving various aspects of Britain's railways, particularly in the areas of reliability and efficiency, including achieving cost reductions and increasing service levels. Its creation was endorsed by the newly created British Rail Board (BRB) in 1963 and incorporated personnel and existing resources from all over the country, including the LMS Scientific Research Laboratory. It was primarily based at the purpose-built Railway Technical Centre in Derby. In addition to its domestic activities, the Research Division would provide technology and personnel to other countries for varying purposes and periods under the trade name "Transmark". It became recognised as a centre of excellence in its field; the theoretical rigour of its approach to railway engineering superseded the ad hoc methods that had prevailed previously. Its research led to advances in various sectors, such as in the field of signalling, where progress was made with block systems, remote operation systems, and the Automatic Warning System (AWS). Trackside improvements, such as the standardisation of overhead electrification equipment and refinements to the plasma torch, were also results of the Research Division's activities. Perhaps its most high-profile work was into new forms of rolling stock, such as the High Speed Freight Vehicle and railbuses, which led to the introduction of the Class 140. One of its projects that gained particularly high-profile coverage was the Advanced Passenger Train (APT), a high-speed tilting train intended for BR's Intercity services. However, due to schedule overruns, negative press coverage, and a lack of political support, work on the APT was ceased in the mid-1980s in favour of the more conventional InterCity 125 and InterCity 225 trainsets. The Research Division was reorganised in the runup to the privatisation of British Rail during the 1990s; the bulk having become "BR Research Limited". This unit was acquired by the private company AEA Technology in 1996, which has since become Resonate Group. Several elements of its work have continued under various organisations, such as the patents filed during the APT's development being harnessed in the development of the Pendolino, a modern high speed tilting train.