Foxton Locks

Foxton is where the Leicester line of the Grand Union Canal steps down off a ridge in the Leicestershire countryside, and it does so in the most concentrated way possible: ten locks arranged as two staircases of five, where the top gate of one chamber is the bottom gate of the next, joined by a short pound in the middle. Together they lower boats about 23 metres, and it is the longest flight of staircase locks on the English canals. Working through takes the better part of an hour, usually with a volunteer or lock-keeper on hand during the cruising season from Easter to October.

The flight was designed by Benjamin Bevan, begun in 1810 and opened on 1 October 1813. Because each chamber fills straight from the one above, the locks are flanked by side ponds, reached through paddles, that hold water back and stop the flight from draining the summit. Watching a narrowboat work down — the paddles wound, the water spilling sideways into the ponds, the painted boat sinking out of sight between the brick walls — is the pleasure of the place, and on a busy summer day there is a line of boats waiting at top and bottom.

The flight was also a bottleneck, and in 1900 the canal company tried to solve it with something far bolder. Beside the locks it built the Foxton Inclined Plane: two counterbalanced water-filled tanks, each big enough for two narrowboats or a barge, that ran up and down a slope on rails, driven by a stationary steam engine, and moved boats through the same height in about twelve minutes. It was a wonder but not a business success; after about ten years of regular use it was mothballed in 1911, and in the late 1920s it was dismantled and sold for scrap. The overgrown slope, the brick engine house foundations and the restored boiler house — now the Foxton Canal Museum, opened in 1989 — tell its story, and the idea of rebuilding the lift has been revived more than once.

The locks are listed Grade II* and are part of the European Route of Industrial Heritage. Around them lie open fields, a country park, towpath walks and canalside pubs, and from the top of the flight the view runs out over the rolling farmland of south Leicestershire.

Getting there

Foxton Locks are next to the village of Foxton, about 5 km west of Market Harborough, the nearest town. The nearest major airport is East Midlands Airport (EMA), about 44 km away. The towpath of the Grand Union Canal leads to the locks on foot or by bike, and there are trip boats and a country park around the flight.