Narrow Bridge Cottages were on the bend in the road to Trent Lock, between the road and the footbridge over the Erewash Canal. The cottages dated from the early 19th century, or earlier. There seem to have been 2 large cottages by the bridge and another 6 cottages in a row by the bend road.
Originally, they were mostly in Sawley Parish, but from 1921 they were taken over by Long Eaton, along with the rest of New Sawley.
In 1900 there was a typhoid outbreak at the cottages. It was attributed to drinking water, but the Sawley Parish Council was told that the property was ‘in a very insanitary condition’. In 1901 the Council heard about an overflowing cesspit at Narrow Bridge Cottages. Although the owner, Mr Tingle, replied that he had just spent £40 on improvements.
The houses had been owned for many years by the Tingle family, who’d been boatbuilders. Although in 1904 six houses (presumably the terrace) were advertised for sale as copyhold (a sort of freehold) but don’t seem to have sold.
In May 1905 the body of a newborn baby was found in the canal nearby, wrapped in brown paper. Twenty years earlier, the 3-year-old son of Daniel and Ellen Barkham (see An Unlucky Family) from Narrow Bridge Cottages had drowned in the canal. The body of another newborn baby was found in the same part of the canal in January 1944.
In 1906 Sawley Parish Council purchased an adjacent 9-acre field for a sewage works, although only the far (village) end seems to have been used for that.
In 1910 there were more complaints about the cesspool and notice was served on the landlord, Mr Tingle.
In 1913 Long Eaton Gas Company proposed to lay gas to Trent Lock and the landlord of the Trent Navigation (George White) and tenants at Narrow Bridge asked for streetlights to be installed on the (unmade) road from Sawley.
In 1934 the Long Eaton Urban District Council sanitary inspector reported to the town council that 29 houses were not in a reasonable state of repair. A councillor asked in the houses at Narrow Bridge were included as “houses condemned in Long Eaton were castles compared with property at Trent Lock”.
During the 1930s and 1940s several residents at Narrow Bridge Cottages were charged with taking scraps of coal and wood from the nearby railway ballast hole.
It wasn’t until 1956 that the Council applied to have the houses cleared. The order was made in November 1956, and the tenants were moved out. Though it’s not clear when the houses were finally demolished.
As ever, please contact us if you have any more information, photos of memories about this subject.
