The Unbreakable Bridge

A Place in History: NarrowBoat, Autumn 2026

Bobby Cowling

Bobby Cowling uncovers the remarkable story of the Derby Canal bridge that refused to collapse

By the time Croft Bridge was condemned in 1936, it had already outlived the waterway it was built to serve. For around 30 years no boats had passed beneath its graceful stone arch on the Little Eaton Arm of the Derby Canal. When the bridge was built, however, the arm had formed part of an important early transport link. Opened in 1795, it ran 5 miles north from Derby to Little Eaton, where it connected with an early tramroad bringing coal from the mines at Denby. The coal was transferred to narrowboats for the journey to Derby and beyond, creating one of Britain’s earliest successful canal and tramway interchanges.. By the 1930s that once-busy industrial landscape had largely disappeared. The tramroads had long since fallen silent, stretches of the arm were disappearing and the Derby Canal itself was carrying only a fraction of its former traffic. Derby Corporation decided that Croft Bridge, carrying the Breadsall road over the abandoned canal, had become an unnecessary obstru…