Historic lock cottages host stories of the Beeston Cut
Nicola Lisle continues her museum series with a visit to the Canalside Heritage Centre.
TWO historic cottages at Beeston Lock, occupied for more than 200 years by canal workers and their families, are now home to a fascinating heritage centre that combines history, arts and education to bring Beeston’s canal story vividly to life.
The Beeston Cut was one of the earliest of Britain’s canals, opening in 1796 during the glory days of ‘canal mania’ and becoming a vital link in the industrial hub of the Midlands and the north. It was canal engineer William Jessop who proposed the building of a new waterway to connect Beeston to Nottingham Canal at Lenton, allowing commercial traffic to bypass the shallow waters of the River Trent and follow a safer, more direct route. An Act of Parliament was passed in 1794, and the canal was completed two years later. It was owned and managed by the Trent Navigation Company until the nationalisation of canals and railways in 1948.
The opening of the Beeston Cut quickly brought prosperity to the area. By the beginning of the 19th century a lock keeper’s house and three cottages for canal workers had been built at the side of Beeston Lock, and these were in constant use right up to the 1990s.
The 1841 census shows 21 people living there, including nine children under the age of 16.
The canal helped support the local industries of silk weaving and lace making, as well as attracting new industry to the area. A major boost came in 1927 when pharmaceutical giant Boots bought a 200-acre site near the Cut and opened a soap factory there two years later. The site is now Boots’ main headquarters and consists of several Grade I and Grade II listed buildings.
Two pubs, the Boat Inn (later the Boat and Horses) and the Jolly Anglers, opened during the first half of the 19th century, both serving the local working population as well as the increasing number of visitors who flocked to the area to enjoy this picturesque rural retreat.
The railway arrived in Beeston in 1839, but the canal continued to operate successfully for another four decades, only starting to show signs of decline in the late 1870s. The decline continued after the nationalisation of the railways, but the last tenants left the Weir Cottages at Beeston Lock as late as 1996.
Heritage Lottery Fund
The cottages fell into decline, but in 2011 the Canalside Heritage Centre Charitable Trust was established with a view to restoring these historically important buildings and turning them into a community hub that introduces people to the area’s rich waterways heritage. The trust received funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund in 2013 and the Canalside Heritage Centre officially opened to the public four years later.
Today the heritage centre tells the story of the Beeston Cut and its industries, its culture and the tightly knit community of the local canal workers. As you enter the ground-floor room, the wooden beams, wooden furniture and brightly coloured rag rugs instantly transport you back to the canal era and give a sense of how the canal workers lived. Information boards introduce you to the history of Britain’s waterways, the local canals and the heritage centre.
A narrow flight of wooden steps takes you to the first floor, where you can find out much more about how people made a living from the canals, with a snapshot of their home and family lives, and how the canals attracted visitors to the area. So popular was Beeston with summer visitors that a small beach on the River Trent became known as Beeston Lido and was a favourite spot for swimming, paddling and fishing.
There is also a detailed timeline of Britain’s canals, film footage and a plethora of photographs, paintings, maps and other ephemera relating to Beeston Cut and the wider canal network. Younger visitors can follow the story of Dog and Duck, who ‘lived on the edge of the Nottingham and Beeston Canal’, through a series of illustrated storyboards. Once you’ve finished exploring the heritage of the Beeston Cut, there’s a small gift shop and tearooms to enjoy!