Walking with Django and Jeff....Foxton Locks

[cheerypeabrain]

This morning we decided to try out the new car with a trip to Foxton, a lovely village to the west of Market Harborough (a Leicestershire town). The area is well known because the Grand Union Canal runs through it and there are two 'stair cases' of 5 locks. Staircase locks are used where a canal needs to climb a steep hill, and consist of a group of locks where each lock opens directly into the next, that is, where the bottom gates of one lock form the top gates of the next. Foxton Locks are the largest flight of such staircase locks on the English canal system.

The Grade II listed locks are a popular tourist attraction and the county council has created a country park at the top. At the bottom, where the junction with the arm to Market Harborough is located, there are two pubs and a shop as well as a small museum. The area is popular with GONGOOZLERS(look it up).

Foxton village is a 45 minute drive from our place...the pay and display car park is often overflowing because the area is very popular. It being a weekday it was qietish.

Walking from the carpark towards the footpath, lots of interesting chunks of industrial paraphernalia



onto the path and past a lovely bridge...dazzled by the low autumn sun...the pub is visible over the water...





we had to nip over this little bridge onto a footpath



Walking along the footpath towards a large footbridge (Rainbow Bridge built in 1927)to get to the pub side...





Jeff wanted me to take the dog so that he could take photographs on the way up the hill by the locks...at the top of the hill I was able to persuade him to take the dog back

Lock Keeper's cottage now a tea room) lots of benches in a little courtyard for customers





at the top of the hill we carried on walking along the canal





large sculpture of one of the horses that were used to pull the barges through particular stretches of the canal...with a handler







tbc

[cheerypeabrain]

We crossed another bridge and ambled along the other side of the canal until we came back to the Lock Keeper's Cottage...



came upon a lovely willow woven seat with carvings on the front






at the cottage



crossed a small bridge and looked down the hill





walking down the footpath...








last lock and the back of the pub...



and on the way back to the car park, walking past the bridge posted in #1 (2nd image) saw this sweet barge



that'll do

[onlyMark]

That's lovely Cheery, and I know the place because I've been through the locks a couple of times many years ago in a narrowboat. There's a place nearby you rent them from and my parents and I used to go quite regularly on them. As my mother got older and her mobility was suffering she used to really enjoy sitting in the cabin watching the nature go by at a leisurely pace whilst my dad steered.
Standing by the tiller, setting off early morning and eating bacon sandwiches with a mug of tea - bliss.

[mich64]

Looks like you had a peaceful serene day Cheery! I enjoy weekday trips as well. A bonus to life in retirement!

[bixaorellana]

What a beautiful area, Cheery, and how clever of you all to go when you had it all to yourselves. Django must have been in heaven, too. I can see why it's all so popular -- not just the scenic aspects, but the locks are fascinating. In that first picture of the tearoom, it looks as though you can see for miles from there.

I love the bench with the arch, but can't identify everything. Starting from the left, I recognize the crawfish. Is the second creature an otter? I'm guessing kingfisher for that bird and the dragonfly and oak leaf with acorns is easy. But what is that next thing? It looks like a cross between a garfish and a platypus, but probably not. Is the last one an eel?

You really got some wonderful pictures. Thanks for taking us on this walk!

[onlyMark]

I'd put money on the fish thing being a pike.

[kerouac2]

Canals are a never ending source of fascination. After all, as children just about all of us dug canals on the beach or in the mud before we even knew that grownups dug canals, too. The idea of ordering water, one of the most elusive forms of matter, to go where you want it to go gives one a great sense of power.

Now we have canals to admire when many of them have lost their initial utility. I don't recall reading much about outdated canals being filled in. Once they are there, they are respected for all of the work that went into them. I was a bit surprised at how narrow the passage is, even though the locks were built during the industrial revolution. I would have thought there would be more ambition for bigger and wider boats during the period. Then again, they didn't have motors to help them along, so I suppose they had to keep the size down to something a pair of mules or horses could pull.

It is always nice to capture places like this in photos, so thank you, Cheery!

[patricklondon]

I remember going on a canalboat holiday with some friends, and getting the hang of staircase locks quite quickly (though it's easy to get it wrong if you misjudge how much water to let in or out as you go up or down) - not to mention the furious protests from the kitchen end of the boat when we let too much water in too quickly): and then there was the night some other clown left a sluice open and everyone woke up to find themselves beached until that stretch could be filled again.


My blog | My photos | My video clips My Librivox |
"too literate to be spam"

[cheerypeabrain]

Mark. It is very well kept and we had a lovely walk...brilliant that you have such lovely family memories. I can imagine that it would have been fun to travel on a barge through the area as a youngster. I would have liked to visit the museum but that would have meant Jeff would have had to stay with the dog whilst I wandered around...Django kept wanting to hurl himself into the water

Patrick. I think barge trips were a rite of passage in my youth, my fellow sixth formers hired a barge in Leighton Buzzard (I think) and had a drunken meander along the Grand Union Canal managing to break the chemical toilet and crash the barge a few times. Good holiday tho and they stumped up for repairs...(who hires a narrow boat out to seven eighteen year olds?) or the parents did anyway...

Bixa...I think that the creatures carved are; crayfish, otter, kingfisher, dragonfly, oak leaf and acorns, a fish (?pike) and an eel..so you got them all There were a lot of people around but we were lucky as everybody was in the pub There are two and both serve lovely food. Beer's good too.

[cheerypeabrain]

and thnk you for your positive comments

[lugg]

Lovely Cheery. I grew up in an area with a network of canals but here in Herefordshire there are only a few mostly dry sections of one that was never completed because it was started late and then along came the railway. I love the horse sculpture photos particularly. When I was a child I used to ride my pony along some of the tow paths it was so lovely not having to worry about passing motor traffic.

[onlyMark]

When I was a kid me, my dad and brother used to send a lot of time down by the canals near where we lived in Eastwood. Trying to hit birds with our catapults. My dad was good but we were pathetic.
(Dialect for catapult is "gadder". Gadders were also what were used by the ladies to hold up their stockings. The Y shaped piece of wood in a catapult is a gadder strag. Just so you know.)

[fumobici]

Looks like a day very well spent, and well shared here as well. Thank you!

[mossie]

A great walk, very enjoyable. Reminds me of when we lived in Bucks and used to take walks along the canal at Marsworth, the Grand Union I think. At the time I was working for a company at West Drayton, close to Heathrow. We had an asphalt plant which sat between the canal and the railway, stone having originally being supplied by canal.

[tod2]

Absolutely delightful Cheery - The view from the top of the hill through all the locks reminded me a lot of the locks at Beziers, South West France. Your locks look more lush with all that green grass.
I would gladly hop on a narrow boat if I did not have to deal with the locks. That is very hard work (not the operating of the mechanism, but jumping on and off the boat, tying up then untying and, Oh my word...lot of graft!
Thank you so much for your lovely walk.

[cheerypeabrain]

You are all very welcome and thank you. X

[patricklondon]

Just to piggy-back on this, for people interested in canal boats and barging, there's been a couple of TV series, one with the actors Timothy West and Prunella Scales, and another with the former BBC reporter John Sergeant.

My blog | My photos | My video clips My Librivox |
"too literate to be spam"

[tod2]

Thanks Patrick - Who would have thought Prunella & hubby loved to canal boat! I will get to John Sergeant next.
The videos show how precarious some locks are - only the fit and the young make it look easy...it darn well isn't!

[mickthecactus]

Great report Cheery. Living by the River Lea I'm always fascinated when something pulls into the lock. I always have to watch.