A towpath journey: Grand Union Canal Leicester Line
AT NORTON Junction, the Grand Union Canal Leicester Line branches off from the Grand Union Canal mainline which heads west towards Braunston and south towards London.
The Grand Union Canal was created from several smaller separate waterways and was built to link London with Birmingham, Leicester and Nottingham. The main portion was the wide Grand Junction Canal which ran from Brentford in London to Braunston in Northamptonshire and the Oxford Canal.
An Act of Parliament was passed in 1793 to begin work with Thomas Jessop as its chief engineer. The Leicester Line links from just east of Braunston up to Leicester to join up with the River Soar and onward to the River Trent. In 1929, the Grand Junction Canal Company formalised an amalgamation to continue its link to Birmingham and became the Grand Union Canal Company.
Shortly beyond Norton Junction, the M1, the railway and the old Roman road (now the A5) hurtle past the canal in their rabid hurry to reach the city. The infamous Watford Gap service station is their only respite from their race. A brief encounter with the noise of the M1 is ironically thrilling from the peaceful canal, a reminder of the part canals played in the evolution of Britain’s transport system, and the quest to constantly redefine speed.
The canal scrambles up through Watford Locks, four of which form a staircase, before drifting away again into tranquil rolling fields dusted with trees and onwards into the echoing silence of a rather damp Crick Tunnel (1528yd/1397m long).
Just beyond the tunnel, Crick Wharf offers an opportunity to walk into the village of Crick which is oozing with deep history. The Domesday Book records the numbers of households as, “17 villagers. 6 smallholders. 4 slaves. 4 freemen. 1 priest”. Crick redefines this remote canal route as Crick Marina hosts one of the busiest gatherings of people anywhere on Britain’s canals, the vibrant annual Crick Boat Show.
The show also sees hundreds of partypolished boats butting side by side along the towpath through the village.
The canal meanders through bridges and round curious hills and seems to deliberately miss the region’s villages. Carrying on towards Foxton, the isolation increases with no locks for around 20 miles, and only trees to occasionally break the silence of the landscape. At Welford Junction, the short Welford Arm heads off to Welford and the reservoirs which supply the canal with water.
Just beyond North Kilworth Wharf, the open views are temporarily blackened by Husbands Bosworth Tunnel (1166yd/1066m long) then a couple of miles further on, one of the highlights of the canal network awaits.
Foxton Locks is a staircase flight of 10 locks scrambling 75ft downhill (or uphill). The passage of boats through these locks is the quiet drama that remains unchanged since the flight first opened in 1812. In their heyday, Foxton Locks served horse-pulled haulage boats laden with cargoes of sugar, tea, soap, tinned food, chemicals and paper.
The old stables by the top lock sit next to the cafe, there’s a museum near the foot of the locks, and the remains of Foxton Inclined Plane to explore. On July 10, 1900, crowds dressed up in Panama hats and excitedly celebrated its opening. From the bottom of the hill, narrowboats were lifted sideways, in two caissons (water-holding tanks). The caissons were hauled uphill to the higher level by a cable and a steamdriven winch.
This method of lifting boats up and down the hill took a fraction of the time of travelling through the locks, but after only 10 years in service the plane was deemed too expensive to maintain and was abandoned in 1911. Foxton Inclined Plane Trust works to engender interest in the Inclined Plane and runs a museum in the old lift’s boiler house.
Below the locks, a right turn leads along the short Market Harborough
Arm through an unspoilt landscape with only the A6 briefly interrupting the silence where it crosses the canal. Market Harborough is an elegant historic market town that has attracted shoppers since the early 1200s. The tradition still thrives today, and there’s also a museum and plenty of pubs and cafes. It is perhaps best known among boaters as the location for the first National Boat Rally organised by the Inland Waterways Association in 1950, providing publicity for the association’s campaign to preserve and improve the inland waterways.
Continuing north, the Grand Union Canal Leicester Line swoops round a great bend at Debdale Wharf, the original terminus of the canal. The canal then wiggles across open fields, over Smeeton aqueduct and through Saddington Tunnel (880yd/805m long). Wildlife enthusiasts should look out for bats roosting in the tunnel, and it is said there’s also the chance of spotting Anna, the headless ghost! The story goes that a ghost known as Anna, the headless woman, hangs around in this old tunnel. But, of course no records exist to say whether the story is true or utterly made up. It was built in 1797 and is 880yd from end to end, scarcely leaving the light behind, yet many boaters secretly take a deep breath before they enter willingly!
Just beyond Fleckney, the canal descends with the first of Kibworth Locks and views that soar across Wistow Park. The canalscape becomes more urban and there are more locks to negotiate as the canal approaches the city.
Leicester is one of England’s oldest cities, once a settlement of Celts, and in AD50 it was a Roman city with the Fosse Way Roman Road helping launch the city’s tradition as a trading centre. There are remains of the baths at the Jewry Wall and artefacts kept in the nearby museum.
The city is also home to the National Space Centre and the Victorian Abbey Pumping Station, with four Gimson & Co beam engines at its heart. There’s also a 700-year-old covered market, places to eat including some renowned Indian restaurants, shopping, sports and leisure facilities too. Above Freeman’s Lock, the Mile Straight, with its overlooking warehouses and many bridges, is where the canal meets the charismatic River Soar which continues its route northwards away from Leicester in style.
The Grand Union Canal Leicester Line threads a predominantly quiet route through open and sometimes soaring landscapes. Yet with the vital history of the Boat Rally at Market Harborough, and contemporary highlights at Foxton and Crick, this canal continues to stake its claim as an important link in Britain’s canal network.