The Cromford Canal was an extension northwards of the Erewash Canal. Act obtained in 1789. The engineer was William Jessop and the line ran from a juction with the Erewash at Langley Mill, up the valley to Ironville and into Derbyshire, and on to Cromford. The total length of the canal was 14.75 miles (23.54km). It had 14 locks and a tunnel at Butterley. In Notts the canal was capable of taking vessels 78ft x 14ft. Bought out by a railway company in 1852, tunnel closed in the early 1900s, nearly all out of use by 1943, abandoned 1962. (1)
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The Cromford Canal was constructed by William Jessop, with assistance from Benjamin Outram. It stretched approximately 23 km from the Canal Basin at Cromford to Langley Mill, where it connected with the Erewash Canal, including a branch to Pinxton. One of its notable features was the 2.7 km Butterley Tunnel, which was the third longest canal tunnel in the world at the time. However, due to subsidence caused by nearby mining activity, the tunnel was closed in 1889. (2)

In its early years, the canal was highly successful, consistently paying generous dividends. However, with the rise of the railway in the 1840s, it was acquired by a company that later became part of the Midland Railway. When the Midland Railway opened in 1847, a branch line was constructed across the canal near Beggarlee Wharf to connect with the Beggarlee Tramway. This tramway was upgraded to mineral railway standards to serve the major Moorgreen Colliery and remained in use until the local collieries closed in 1985. Later, the Great Northern Railway built its Pinxton branch line along an embankment on the east side of Beggarlee Wharf. The construction of this embankment appears to have required a slight realignment of the canal above Lock 13, extending to just before Stoney Lane. (2)

The Cromford Canal remained in use by commercial traffic until 1943, despite it having been cut into two sections by the collapse of the long Butterley Tunnel in 1915. Most of it was formally closed under the 1944 LMS Railway act, despite there still being some commercial traffic to Pye Bridge for which compensation was paid. A short length including the bottom lock at Langley Bridge and up to the coal wharfs at Beggarlee remained in use until about 1952. Having been nationalised in 1947 this section together with the Erewash Canal were subsequently classed as Remainder Waterways under the 1968 Transport Act, removing any requirement for the then owner British Waterways Board to undertake maintenance, and they rapidly became unnavigable. (2)

<1> Patrick A, 1975, Canals in Nottinghamshire (Monograph). SNT50.

<2> Rob Atkins and Erin Wheatley, 2025, Archaeological Watching Brief at Cromford Canal Beggarlee Extension, Langley Mill, Derbyshire And Eastwood, Nottinghamshire (Unpublished document). SNT6069.