The earliest evidence of boating activity along the River Trent in Shardlow dates back 3,400 years to the Bronze Age with the discovery of a wooden log boat believed to be used to ship dressed stone.
With a mention in medieval Doomsday book of 1086 the hamlet of Shardlow continued to grow with the establishment of a small river port for trade in salt and Derbyshire cheese in the 17th century. However, it is during the 18th century that the the village expanded rapidly with the cutting of the Trent & Mersey canal. Goods either arrived or were dispatched from the River Trent in wide sailboats and barges. Cargo, for example coal and grain arriving in the Port from the river barges was either transshipped onto narrowboats for onward distribution or stored in warehouses while awaiting redistribution by road. Goods, for example Derbyshire cheese from the north, salt and pottery from narrowboats arriving from the west were again either trans shipped onto the Trent River Boats or into warehouses awaiting road distribution
This golden age of development in the 18th Century brought with it a plethora of businesses based within the village, shops, butchers, leather work, candle makers, joiners, workshops, boat builders, rope makers, brewery, stables and grain stores amongst many. Impressive Merchant Houses, managers houses and workers cottages were constructed in close proximity to each other and the canal, many survive to date.
With the advent of the railways the canal trade declined and many of the warehouses were redeployed for different uses or latterly converted into dwellings. By the 1950’s the last orn mill was decommissioned signalling the end to trade through the Inland Port of Shardlow
