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Shardlow Heritage Centre
Trent and Mersey Canal - South Derbyshire

Shardlow Heritage Centre, Canalside,
London Road, Shardlow DE72 2GA

An entrance fee of 75 pence per person (2008).

We visited Shardlow Heritage Centre in April 2008 soon after the start of our summer cruise from Penkridge in Staffordshire on the Staffs and Worcs Canal to London and the south-east via the Trent and Mersey, River Trent, River Soar and the Grand Union Canal.

The Shardlow Heritage Centre is not just about the relationship between the town and the Trent and Mersey canal or in fact the River Trent, but an interesting look at an area that has a little over 1,000 souls and an astonishingly high number of officially listed buildings - over fifty heritage sites in such a small area and a few quirky items of note as well! Like Shardlow once had the highest single acreage of horticultural glass, until WWII, when German bombers mistook them for the roof of the Rolls Royce works, not a million miles away and flattened the area; and the Witch Oak that stands on an island on top of millions of tonnes of valuable gravel, that was given a wide birth by the gravel pit owners when a bulldozer driver unearthed two skeletons very close by, that had no hands or heads - presumed witches.

It has to be said though that Shardlow developed greatly with the opening of the Trent and Mersey Canal in 1770.

The 18th century canal port has survived and changed, with many of the old warehouses changing use, like the oldest of the salt warehouse that houses the Shardlow Heritage Centre, another salt warehouse that has been converted into three cottages. Other warehouses have become dwellings, workshops and even a pub. As if there weren't enough of them in the village!

The Shardlow Heritage Centre is just off the M1 at Junction 24, close to the A50.

Open Easter to October, including Bank Holidays.

Saturday and Sunday 12.00 to 17.00

Registered Charity No. 1052390

MAP

Shardlow Heritage Centre is staffed entirely by volunteers - Please telephone 01332 814104,
01332 792334 or 01332 792489 to arrange group visits or make other enquiries.