Erewash Canal Preservation and Development Association ... looking after the Erewash Canal since 1968

Visit Sandiacre Lock Cottages

Open Day Calendar 2024

1991 to the present day

Welcome to Sandiacre Lock Cottages. The cottages were first opened to the public in 1991. The Sandiacre lock cottages and toll house are now a museum run by the Erewash Canal Preservation & Development Association (ECP&DA) volunteers. We are open to the public for you to look around on the third Sunday of each month and Bank Holiday Mondays throughout the year. We are also open at other times throughout the year for organised visits - schools, leisure, and social groups. Days and dates are on request. For more information speak to our cottage co-ordinator Glyn Stenson, his contact details are below.

The cottages and tollhouse have been maintained in an unspoiled condition to provide a glimpse of the Erewash canal's heritage. There are many artifacts, pictures, and storyboards that have been carefully researched and created by a group of dedicated volunteers over many years.

Open Days

Access and Open Days

Please note: Due to the historic nature of the cottages, access for disabled people is limited.

Entry is FREE and everyone is welcome, even the dogs. Drop in have a chat, a look round and enjoy a cuppa and cake.

How to Find Us

Erewash Canal, Lock Lane, (off Longmoor Lane), Sandiacre  NG10 5LA
Parking space is limited - ///shades.path.senses will park you under the A52 flyover which is a few minutes walk away along Lock Lane.

Volunteer Opportunities: Please contact me in the first instance and I’ll pass on your details to the relevant volunteer who will provide further information, support and guidance. We look forward to hearing from you.  Glyn Stenson: M.07809 251441   Email: Glyn Stenson

 

Volunteer opportunities

We are always looking for volunteers to help with a range of tasks to suit individual interests and skills.

  • Serving refreshments
  • Opening and closing the cottages (windows, doors and preparing fires)
  • Meet and greet the public
  • Act as Cottage guides
  • General maintenance and cleaning
  • Marketing
  • Planning events etc.

Our current volunteers love meeting our broad range of cottage visitors and take great pride in caring and sharing our unique 1779 canal side jewel.

The Scullery

A Scullery is a room in a house, traditionally used for washing dishes and laundering clothes or as an overflow kitchen.

Tasks performed in the Scullery include cleaning dishes and cooking utensils (or storing them). Occasional kitchen work, ironing boiling water for cooking or bathing. And soaking and washing clothes. Sculleries contain hot and cold sinks, storage shelves, plate racks, a work table, various coppers for boiling water, tubs and buckets.

In the Sandiacre Lock Cottages Scullery, look out for the dolly tub and posser (or ponch), mangle and also the Range multi use heater and cooker.

Toll Houses or Toll Offices

collected fees of passage from barges loaded with a range of goods including, coal, iron, stone, flour and beer.

Canal companies levied tolls on the weight and type of cargo carried and all new boats had to be indexed (calibrated) before they were allowed into service. The procedure for obtaining the weight of cargo it was carrying was called gauging.

A gauging rod was used to carefully measure the freeboard at four known points, one point each side near the bows and one point each near the stern.

Freeboard, sometimes known as 'dry inches', is the draught or vertical distance between the gunwale and the water line.

History

At Sandiacre, a lock chamber and bridge were constructed with an adjacent cottage and stable provided for a lengthsman, (a person who was responsible for a length of the canal). When the Derby Canal joined the Erewash Canal at Sandiacre in 1797 a toll house was built adjoining the lengthsman's cottage to serve both the Erewash and Derby canals.

Abandonment and preservation
In September 1964, Long Eaton Urban District Council served a Demolition Order on the British Waterways Board regarding the former Sandiacre lock cottages and toll house. In December 1964, the British Waterways Board was granted Planning Permission to replace the cottages with a bungalow. The bungalow was built behind the lock cottages.

After learning that it was planned to demolish the last lock cottages on the canal, i.e.Sandiacre lock cottages and toll house, the ECP&DA committee investigated the possibility of obtaining a lease to use the cottages as Headquarters and a base for operations.

Early efforts to save the cottages and tollhouse met with little success. A planning application was refused, so an appeal was lodged. A letter was written to Sir Frank Price, Chairman of British Waterways Board. Due to his intervention in 1969 the ECP&DA was granted permission to use the Sandiacre cottages and toll house as their meeting rooms for one year.

Although final necessary arrangements were expected to be completed in September, the Association didn't get the keys until 1st December 1969.

In May 1986 the List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest was revised to include the lock chamber and bridge on the Erewash Canal and the cottages and toll house. They are now designated as Grade 11 listed buildings.

In March 1991 the ECP&DA was granted Planning Permission to use the Sandiacre cottages and tollhouse as their meeting rooms on a permanent basis.

A Canal & River Trust Heritage Assessment was carried out in 2016 and made the recommendation that the cottages retained their Grade 11 listed status and were a rare example with a very high heritage status.

Having leased the Sandiacre Lock Cottages since 1969, ECP&DA purchased the buildings from Canal & River Trust in December 2017.