Paddling in the River Trent at Trent Bridge

[Tim in the North East 200]

Such an activity is not advocated on health and safety grounds - and is probably in breach of some byelaws. However, the following postcard - being a photograph takenon 14th July 1921 - shows that it was once common practice. I suspect the river has also been dredged in the intervening period.

[Cliff Ton 10,465]

And to the left of Trent Bridge in the distance you can see the old water works which were mentioned in this thread - starting at post #13. http://nottstalgia.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12697&hl=%2Btrent+%2Bbridge

[letsavagoo 963]

Some years ago when they still had it, I went in the Police launch. It had a depth sounder and I was surprised how shallow the Trent at Trent bridge area was in places but too deep to paddle in. Must have been dredged. When I was younger and dafter we used to jump off the railway bridge further down towards Wilford and I never hit the bottom and it was a fair drop.

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

Used to swim regularly down at Stoke just made sure we were upstream from the works outlet.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

It must have been shallow at one time, "West Bridge FORD" WilFORD, which suggests to me, there were two fords, river crossings for pedestrians and horse drawn carts.

I'm sure I saw it being redredged during the early 60's when the city side bank was repaired after the very high winter river levels one winter, must have been around 1961??

And isn't there a weir down river to maintain a certain depth year round?

[poohbear 1,360]

I mentioned a while back about the Roman ford discovered at Wilford and the flagstones on the bed of the river being removed at the height of canal building and dredging in the 1700s/1800s

[TBI 2,351]

Yes, I remember poohbear. I'd mentioned that a river policeman had told me, early sixties, it was possible for a man to walk half-way across a certain section of the river, with his head above the water. He wouldn't say where, but I had an impression it was near to Trent Bridge. There were some replies that it was probably by Clifton Bridge. Looking at that picture, perhaps it was there and it wasn't dredged too deeply.

[banjo48 928]

I used to scuba dive outside the Ferry Boat at Stoke Bardolph, water there was around 3-4m deep all across to the other side.

Found some interesting bits and pieces along the old ferry route.

As a kid I used to fish upstream of Wilford bridge and there was shallow sections close to the steps but much deeper channels over the other side, where we would try to get our ledger weights to land, some very large chub there in those days.

[BulwellBrian 107]

I understood that the reason for building the canal through Nottingham was the shallowness of the river. Barges came down the river into the canal and back to the river at Trent lock from where they could go towards Leicester or Derby or the Trent & Mersey canal or the Erewash Valley Canal.

[DJBrenton 738]

The reason Nottingham was an important Viking town was because it was the furthest place a longship could row up-river.

[Bilbraborn 1,594]

My mum used to take me paddling by the steps near Trent Bridge.

But interestingly, My Dad used to regularly swim in the polluted Trent near the GCR bridge in the 1930s. As a result he had dodgy hearing from which he suffered all his life. But it may have saved his life. When WW2 broke out, along with a few mates from Radford he applied to join the Royal Navy. He failed his medical because of that hearing problem. His mates that passed and joined went on the HMS Hood and subsequently got killed.