Pleasurable locks and painful public transport!

We visited the small museum at Foxton Locks on Friday morning, it's housed in the site of the old boiler room for the steam engines that powered the boat lift, and contains a wealth of information and artefacts - well worth the £2.50 each admission fee.

Photo of a picture of the amazing 'Inclined Plane' working, and an aerial view of the ten locks

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the three pubs at Foxton Locks - Bridge 61

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was back to fill up with water and have lunch ready for the flight up the staircase locks.  We'd noticed many boats passing us from early in the morning off to queue for their passage, and had been told that the longest we'd be likely to wait was an hour.  As it happened, when we got there just after 1400hrs, two boats had recently ascended and there weren't any descending, so we went straight in and for most of our journey were the only boat using the locks!  We've found this a lot - boats set off early to avoid the rush - but they must actually face the busiest time of day - if you leave it until late morning/early afternoon we haven't had any problems with boat traffic.

Almost at the top - managed to get the red and white in the correct order!

The Foxton Locks must be some of the best maintained on the system and were a pleasure to work - I don't think I could say that about any others we've experienced!  But then they do have a number of lock keepers keeping them up to standard and this area is apparently one of the most visited places on the waterways so it's in their best interests to keep them running smoothly.

View of the village of Gumley, from the top of the locks, with the Italiante tower of Gumley Hall peeking above the trees

 

 

 

 

Friday's lock-keepers taking a quick texting break!

 

 

 

 

At the top of the flight we stopped for an ice cream and watched a hire boat with three women on going into the top lock - the poor woman driving the boat hadn't a clue and almost went into the lock gates a number of times bless her.  Hopefully she'd got the hang of it by the bottom!  There's the old stables next to the lock keeper's cottage where the horses would rest after their labour up the locks in days gone by.  The building is now a cafe and sitting area and a very pleasant place to spend half an hour.

The stables and lock cottage at the top of the lock flight

Moving along the Grand Union we were taken back to our journey on the Leeds Liverpool canal last year, as from the canal there were some awesome views of the surrounding rolling countryside, as well as lots of overhanging trees skirting the banks.

We passed through Husband's Bosworth Tunnel, 1166 yards long, and shortly afterwards turned left to the Welford Arm mooring overnight at the small village of Welford.

Just the one lock into Welford, and only 3ft 6ins deep - a doddle!

Welford Canal Wharf - a good number of 48 hour visitor moorings

We thought this would be a very quiet stretch but there were a number of boats moored up towards the end, both visitors and permanent moorers. 

Exploring the area we were blessed with a spectacular sunset of vivid purples, oranges and pink and Barry tried to find the best foreground available to do it justice ...

Lots of visiting boats

     

 

 

 

 

On the way into Welford we stumbled across Postman Pat and his black and white cat!

 

 

 

 

 

 A quaint and quiet village

 Well cared for houses

There are even new houses that blend in with the old - along with thatched roofs!

The setting sun alights 'St Mary the Virgin' church and its surrounding homes

Nature at it's most glorious

A golden orb disappears on it's way down to the Southern Hemisphere to begin a new day

Some eerie graveyard shots as the light leaves this part of the earth ...

 

We had a quick drink in The Wharf Inn, lots of locals having a laugh here, then back to the boat on a still and sultry summer's evening.

We've been trying to find a way to get to Kenilworth Castle on Sunday to meet with my parents - distance wise it's only about 20 miles, half an hour by car, but to get there by public transport is almost impossible - especially on a Sunday and would take us more than 2 hours to get there (with a number of changes that could lead to missed links!) and no way of returning until Monday!  My dad has offered to collect us, bless him, so there's just the logistics of that to work out - we'll head to Crick on Saturday as it's just off the M1 motorway.

It's certainly one of the few disadvantages to being on the canals, the challenges of getting to places off the canal system to meet up with people!

Still on the purple theme - though with some contrasting pink - once again we're not sure what this flower is called - anyone?

Fascinating Foxton (Locks)

After our entertaining evening on Wednesday, we weren't in a rush to go anywhere on Thursday morning so just chilled and did a spot of cleaning and boat maintenance.  Margaret from narrowboat 'Kookaburra Dreams' informed us that there was a food market on in town as it was the first of the month, but as we'd only just stocked up we didn't go and visit - no more room in the cupboards or fridge if we were tempted!

 'Frank the Plank' at Union Wharf, Market Harborough

After a leisurely lunch we returned down the canal arm and Barry took the chance to do a spot of grinding in the bow (not as painful as it sounds!).  I saw the first Kingfisher of our travels this year, though it was only a quick flash so no time for Barry to get a shot!  I'm pretty certain that I also saw an otter on Tuesday as were coming up the arm, it was long, hairy and dark and swimming close to the surface but once the boat had passed it went under the water so we weren't too sure.

We moored close to Foxton village and I had a short walk there but found nothing too fascinating, a couple of pubs and some desirable residences once again.

We wanted to go to Foxton Locks to have a look around, especially at the site of the 'Inclined Plane', and as we were moored up ready to walk there Margaret and Tom sailed past us on their way up the flight - so of course we managed to keep them company through most of the ten locks.

Approaching the Market Harborough turn - looks simple enough from here, just turn left!

  The popular Foxton Locks Inn - moorings right outside if you ask permission (and use their facilities of course)

Tom and Margaret commence their journey up the Foxton staircase

Only room for a very 'narrow'boat in these locks!

The ten locks take you up 75 feet - it's not possible to get a photo of them all - unless it's an aerial view

Looking back down to the bottom lock

Always gongoozlers at Foxton

    

 

 

 

 

 

Approaching the halfway point

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tying up in the middle pound

 

 

 

Margaret and Tom have a halfway break waiting for two boats to pass on their descent

 

 

A hire boat from 'Canalboatclub' - look at that glorious view!

This scene would have been pretty similar in the nineteenth century with the horses stables at the top beside the lock-keeper's cottage

Each time a boat travels through the locks, 25,000 gallons of water is used - there are reservoirs above the locks to ensure they don't run dry.  It's a complex yet simple structure, each lock (apart from the bottom one) has a side pound.  So you open the red gate paddle initially to begin to empty the lock, then you open the white paddle and the water runs into the side pound.  An ingenious lock-keeper thought up the coloured system along with the rhyme:

"Red then white, you'll be alright;

White then red, you'll wish you were dead!"

Although it sounded fairly easy, it's not until you actually put the theory into practice that you discover whether it really is - that we'll do on Friday.

 

Canal memorabilia outside the museum                       Standing on the circular lookout point

The Inclined Plane took 2 years and 300 'navvies' to build, opened in 1900 and closed in 1911.  Unfortunately, though the idea of speeding up the journeys of the working boats to compete with the railways was a sound one, it required Watford Locks to be widened to allow the wider boats to pass thorough and as that never happened, the extra traffic didn't materialise so the Plane was shut down by the accountants.  Such a shame, it must've been an awesome sight in it's heyday.  It would be incredible to get it restored and working, but it's going to need an awful lot of resources to get there.

A panoramic (slightly distorted) view of the inclined plane site from the lookout

 

            Old wooden working boat                     Part of the track which the caissons rode on

The two pounds at the bottom where the boats were 'delivered' or 'extracted'

Lots of families out and about

 

 

 

Spotted sneaking a rest while the photographer works!

 

 

 

  The drive wheel from the inclined plane         The new swing bridge and old 1899 brick bridge

We'd arrived at Foxton Locks too late for the museum so we'll visit on Friday - Barry went for another walk at dusk to take a few night shots ...

 Foxton Locks Inn lit up like a fairytale cottage

Bottom Lock and the bridge 61 cafe/pub

Continuing the purple theme - fantastic foxgloves from Foxton