On Thursday (02/09/2021) morning we left Crick and made our way along the Leicester Arm of the Grand Union Canal. It was predominantly rural, agricultural and the canal banks were overgrown with reeds and bulrushes. Modern wind turbine windmills were the only sign that we were in the 21st Century. You can just make them out between the trees in this picture.
By the end of May 2021, the UK had 10,961 wind turbines with a total installed capacity of over 24.1 gigawatts: 13.7 gigawatts of onshore capacity and 10.4 gigawatts of offshore capacity, the sixth largest capacity of any country in 2019.
Bridges along this canal had these distinctive railings.
Agriculture was in full swing and seldom a building to be seen. Our Pearson’s Canal Guide said that the solitude along this stretch may have you waving to tractor drivers.
Nature was thriving and we were frequently hemmed in by reeds and bulrushes.
The weather was now very cool and autumnal and it stayed cloudy all day. Steve and Vera had a trot along the tow path while Hilary chugged alongside on the boat.
Bushes were packed with berries providing a feast for squirrels. Sloe berries on hawthorn, red berries on blackthorn and lots of blackberries.
We moored up at North Kilworth and walked into the God-forsaken town in a dust storm alongside cars queuing for temporary lights where workmen were putting in the utilities for a huge building site.
The only shop in town was at the Howkins Petrol Station and as it had no license (yet) there was no wine to be had.
On one side of the canal where we were moored was the massive new North Kilworth Marina and on the other side was the old school North Kilworth Wharf with scruffy portakabins and caravans.
Steve and Vera walked back into town after watching the latest all-new episode of Vera and the last episode of The Handmaid’s Tale Series 3.
The pub didn’t open until 17:00 so we were unable to go in on our first sortie into town. While Steve was in the pub the barmaid took a phone call from someone trying to book a table for a meal next week. As with a lot of hospitality places that we have been in recently they were struggling to get staff and had to decline the booking because their chef was leaving on Sunday and they had been unable to find a new one.
You can just see the cratch of The Duke on our mooring on the right under bridge 45.
Steve took Vera for a walk before bed time and it sounded like a screaming woman was being savaged to death by barking wild dogs on the other side of North Kilworth Wharf.
Next morning at 07:00 hrs. a bloke emerged from a camper-van with a ghetto blaster and rave music began blaring from North Kilworth Wharf. We set off at 08:30 on Friday (03/09/2021) and were soon passing through the dark 1,170 yards of the Husbands Bosworth Tunnel. A long cruise with no locks brought us to Foxton Locks.
At 11:30 we moored up just before Foxton Top Lock. As there were no shops at Foxton, Steve got the new bike out of the cratch and cycled 3.5 miles passed Gartree Prison and Gallow Hill to the Co-op at Market Harborough.
As he set off he passed a boater mooring up who said, “Bloody cyclists, they are the bane of the towpath”!
Vera was spooked by this statue of a horse and barked furiously at it.
Steve was struggling to get a selfie with the horse!
And a passing couple stepped in to help by taking the picture for him.
We walked down to reconnoiter the ten Foxton Locks that we would be going through tomorrow. For water conservation reasons the locks were closed overnight and opened again at 10:00 each morning.
The whole area was setup as a tourist attraction and heritage centre and there were two busy pubs at the bottom of the flight.
We made use of the C&RT Services at Foxton Bottom Lock and researched some of the history.
The Grand Union Canal Company approved plans for the construction of an inclined plane in 1887 and in November the contract for the construction of the inclined plane was given to J & H Gwynne & Co of Hammersmith for a total price of £14,130 (over £1.4m today).
The design consisted of two counterbalanced caissons that could each hold two narrow boats or one wide-beam barge. The caissons would raise or lower boats the 75ft between the top and bottom of the lock flight in 12 minutes, compared to the 70 that using the locks took. The plane was powered by a steam engine located at the top of the plane in an engine house which is now the Boilerhouse Museum.
The plane was opened on 10 July 1900. But it was never a commercial success. Decreasing canal traffic, high running costs and the fact that the locks at Watford were never widened meant that the wide steam boats never came.
The plane was mothballed in 1911 to save money before it was dismantled and sold for scrap in 1928.
We started on The Handmaid’s Tale Series 4 and in the evening Vera made some new friends in the Bridge 61 pub.
Tomorrow (Saturday 04/09/2021) we would tackle the locks.
Comments