Description:The Canal was constructed in the 1790's, was 33 miles long and ran between Nottingham and Grantham. It finally closed to all traffic in 1929, unable to compete with the railways, and was officially abandoned in 1936. Most of the canal continued to have water in it, to supply farms with water for the fields, but some sections were filled in. The canal is currently undergoing restoration. The artist was Thomas Cooper Moore (1827 - 1901), who was a nineteenth century painter, watercolourist and pen and ink artist who first trained as an architect before dedicating himself to art. He was mainly self taught in this field but later started the first sketching class in Nottingham and was a founder of the Nottingham Society of artists. Most of Moore's landscapes were produced in or around the Nottingham area. He seems to have particuarly liked drawing and painting pub and inns as well as scenes by the local rivers and canals. During this time and later in the nineteenth century his art was exhibited in Sheffield, Nottingham, Birmingham and London. T. C. Moore was also the father and teacher of Claude T. S. Moore (1853-1901), who became very well known for his paintings and watercolours of the Thames and other river views. A number of Thomas Cooper Moore's drawings and watercolours are housed in the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. There are many more of his sketches to be seen on this web-site.