Description: Cossall Road looking north-east - the sharp bend marks the point where the road formerly crossed the Robbinetts Arm of the Nottingham Canal, and also where it changed name to Dead Lane. There was once a swing bridge at this point but this was replaced by a culvert at some date after 1963.
The Robbinetts Arm was a short branch off the Nottingham Canal between Trowell and Cossall and was connected via tramways to a number of small collieries. While these closed quite early on, the arm remained important as it functioned as a means of water supply to the main line of the canal, being fed from ponds in Oldmoor Wood, near Strelley.
The Nottingham Canal extended from the River Trent at Nottingham in a generally north-westerly direction for 14.7 miles (23.6 kilometres) via Lenton, Radford, Wollaton, Trowell, Cossall, and Awsworth to Langley Mill where it connected with the Cromford and Erewash Canals. Its main purpose was the movement of coal from mines in the Erewash Valley to Nottingham. Opened in 1796, it was later acquired by the Great Northern Railway but, apart from the Nottingham-Lenton section (which was transferred to the Trent Navigation Company and, via its link with the Beeston Canal, remains in use today), it was abandoned in 1936.