Beeston Marina put-in (Beeston Rylands)

Beeston Weir, a large L-shaped hydro-electric weir, sits a short paddle downstream of the marina. Built in 1999, its turbines use the river's flow to generate enough electricity for around 2,000 homes, drawing up to 60 cubic metres of water a second at full flow. A bio-acoustic fish fence, a curtain of sound-emitting bubbles, steers migrating fish away from the turbine intakes and into a fish pass during the salmon run.

Boats on the river turn off above the weir at Beeston Lock into the Nottingham & Beeston Canal, a route cut in 1796 specifically to bypass this unnavigable stretch of the Trent, rejoining the river further downstream at Trent Bridge in Nottingham.

A mile and a half or so upstream, near the confluence with the River Erewash, the Trent runs past Attenborough Nature Reserve, 220 hectares of former gravel pits flooded into lakes, reedbed and scrub. Naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough opened the reserve in 1966, when an early phase of the gravel workings finished. It forms part of the larger, 226.6-hectare Attenborough Gravel Pits Site of Special Scientific Interest, owned by Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust.