Hope you enjoy my latest video in my Derby Time Traveller series, In this one I
will be showing you a structure that was in place for the former Derby Canal. I have used my drone to hopefully give you context of where this location is.
This structure was called "Long Bridge". This was a wooden bridge that traversed
across the River Derwent, adjacent and upstream from Derby's iconic weir where
the river gardens are located.
The former Derby Canal used this section of the Derwent to navigate across from
the southern section to the northern section of the canal, Long Bridge was used
as the towpath so you could use a horse to pull the boats across the river to
the other side. The boats would run along the right side of the bridge (upstream).
When the Derby Canal was devised in 1792 the plan was to construct an aqueduct over the Derwent to connect the two sections of Derby Canal but instead the weir was constructed to maintain a navigable level and locks were installed in the mouths of the two sections of
the canal that allowed boats to lock down into the river, navigate across and lock back up to the canal on the other side.
This had the advantage of allowing boats to go upstream from the canal as far as the next weir (outside the Silk Mill now known as the Museum of making).
Boats could access the river above that second weir by use of the Phoenix arm of the Derby canal which connected near Pegg's bridge, this meant they could then go up the Derwent as far as Darley Mills weir.
The view you will see in my view is from the northern bank of the Derwent
looking south towards the where today the Riverlights complex is located.
In the background of the old view is the Ice Factory, Gandy's warehouse and bridgewater Wharf which contained the Derby Canal Company offices.
All of this old history was demolished and cleared in preparation for the Inner ring road in the mid/late 60's
The white round building with the green cap you can see on the southern bank in the 2024 view is Longbridge Weir Hydro, a hydro power station that has been supplying electricity (230kw/h) to power the city Council office building since 2013, excess power is sold back to the power grid.
In front of the Longbridge Weir Hydro is a fish ladder, this is a special feature that allows spawning fish to swim upstream avoiding the weir and the hydro power station turbine.
The bridge was finally demolished in 1959 and the Derby Canal was infilled due to lack of use,
there is nothing remaining around this section of the former canal.
The Derby Canal opened in 1796 and was designed by Benjamin Outram (a contemporary of Brindley and a partner in the Butterley Ironworks). It was completed in just four years, it was constructed to join the Erewash canal at Sandiacre to the Trent and Mersey canal at Swarkestone and it joined up right in the heart of Derby at the River Derwent.
The Derby Canal was a wide canal for boats with a beam up to 14ft and kick-started the industrial
revolution in Derby with many businesses using it for transporting their goods, putting Derby on the map.
The iconic weir that you can still see today was built around 1794 and was put in place to raise the level of the Derwent so it was navigable for boats from the Derby Canal. That weir has been in Situé for over 230 years, such a great engineering masterpiece !
The lock on the northern bank (where the view it taken from) was called White Bear lock. The lock on the Southern bank was called Siddals Lock for which I have another Time Traveller video
almost edited together (subscribe to my KZread channel to get notified about that when it goes live soon).
I have a few other Derby Canal videos in my collection so do check them out.
0:00 2024 view Flying backwards in time to the Line up ready to time travel
0:30 Time to time Travel
0:34 A 1955 view of the weir and Long Bridge.
1:20 2024 view Flying above the weir and Derby river gardens.
2:05 Some other photographs of the Long Bridge
Do you have any memories of this area ?
Video A taken : 11th April 2024
Photo B taken : 1955
Time elapsed : 69 years
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Music Credits :
'The Things That Keep Us Here' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au
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Thanks
Andy
#djimini4pro ​ #Derbyshire​ #Drone #Derby #nostalgia #thenandnow