Description: The Sheet Stores basin is reached by a short arm off the main line of the Erewash Canal. Now used as a marina, at onetime it served the works specially constructed by the Midland Railway to manufacture and maintain its stock of tarpaulins etc. These were used for sheeting over merchandise carried in open wagons.
This view is looking east and and shows the extensive range of buildings constructed by the MR. By this date they had passed out of railway use and were occupied by various businesses, the site being known as Sheet Stores Industrial Estate. Not all the structures seen here survive today, some of those in the centre of the picture having been destroyed by fire.
The Erewash Canal runs for 12 miles (19 km) from the River Trent via Long Eaton, Sandiacre and Ilkeston to Langley Mill and includes 14 locks. The Canal was engineered by John Varley and opened in 1779 at a cost of £21,000. Serving the industrialised Erewash Valley with its many coal mines, iron works and factories, it remained a useful transport artery well into the 20th century and it was only after World War Two that it began to fall into disuse. The section north of Gallows Inn at Ilkeston up to Langley Mill was declared unnavigable in 1962 and closure was proposed. The Erewash Canal Preservation and Development Association was formed in 1968 and after much restoration work the Canal was reopened throughout. In the 1980s it was duly upgraded from a 'remainder' waterway to 'cruiseway' status.