Description: Looking north towards Cossall village from the junction between the main line of the disused Nottingham Canal and the Robbinetts Arm. In the distance Dead Lane can be seen ascending the hillside and to the right of this is Manor Farm.
Although there were 19 locks on the lower part of the Nottingham Canal between Nottingham and Wollaton, the upper part was a level pound that hugged the contours along the eastern side of the Erewash Valley for many miles. This made for a sinuous course and at Robbinetts this was exemplified by the waterway having to inscribe a horseshoe-shaped alignment in order to negotiate a tributary valley. The section seen here forms the middle portion of this horseshoe bend with the waterway turning to the left in the middle distance.
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.