Foxton Locks

View from the top

Morning view of Bunkers Hill bridge

Evening view from the bottom

We are moored about a mile from the top of Foxton Locks on a beautifully quiet & peaceful stretch of the Leicester Section, Grand Union Canal. We have strolled to the locks a couple of times to see how they work as they are made up of two staircases of five locks each with a passing place in the middle. The locks have side pounds that carry the excess water to the next chamber, most other lock flights have side pounds but they aren’t in use any more. While we were there we also visited the museum and tried the pubs out. 

Boatman's cabin, Foxglove

Side pound filling

Traditional boatwomans hat

Butty Foxglove

 

Foxton Lock Inn, with mooring

Foxton had an incline plane which took boats up and down and saved lots of water in the process. The boats went into the trough full of water which was pulled up or down the incline, therefore no or very little water was used compared to the 10 locks. Sadly the incline plane was only in use for 10 years as the railways took over and canal use dropped it wasn’t cost effective to keep the engine in steam.

Incline plane diagram

Incline summit

Bottom of incline plane

This weekend we’ll have Edmund, Josh and a few other people to help/watch us go down the flight along with the usual Sunday gongoozlers that visit Foxton. It wasn't until this week I realised we'll actually be going down the flight, I thought we were going up it.

 

nb Perch leaving Market Harborough Arm