The Grand Union Canal

The Grand Union Canal leaves the River Thames at Brentford and climbs over fifty locks up into the Chiltern hills. It descends then climbs again to a new summit in Birmingham, 137 miles and 166 locks. Boatmen used to claim to do it in five days but allow well over a week if you want to get any sleep! The Leicester section branches north at Braunston and climbs a little less less steeply before falling to join the River Soar which flows into the River Trent. It has 59 locks and is 66 miles long.

The Paddington Arm and Regents Canal in London go close to the city centre, through Regent's Park and London Zoo to meet the Thames again at Limehouse Basin. The River Lee and the River Stort open up some fine countryside to Bishops Stortford and Hertford.

The climb up to the Chilterns goes through some beautiful scenery, especially through the partly 17 century Cassiobury Park. Stoke Bruerne and Braunston are old canal towns, the Canal Museum and Boat Inn at Stoke Bruerne are worth a stop. Just north of the Northampton Arm, which gives access to the Lincolnshire Fen district, you pass Weedon barracks, built here two hundred years ago because it was thought to be the place in England farthest from any possible coastal invasion! There are long tunnels at Blisworth and Braunston. The line into Birmingham goes through Royal Leamington Spa, fashionable in Victorian times and Warwick, famous for its medieval buildings and castle.

The Leicester section is interesting and varied, leaving the main line at Norton Junction south of Braunston and joining the River Trent near Kegworth. The canal section before Leicester is very rural at times and has two tunnels at Crick and Husband's Bosworth and staircase locks at Watford and Foxton. Foxton is the site of a steam powered Inclined Plane which replaced ten locks and lifted narrowboats 75 feet. It was opened in 1900 but suffered from mechanical and structural problems and the locks were reopened in 1908. The City of Leicester has Roman ruins. For the last twenty miles or so the route is along the River Soar which is a tributary of the Trent. There is some very pleasant river scenery along the Soar.