Lots of Locks.

 

For several reasons WMD found itself on a road trip to Foxton Locks in Leicestershire. It is a wonderful place to visit and as Mrs Woody was off work it was a good excuse to visit again. From a modelling view I am going to be modelling a canal wharf on my 009 gauge layout extension so some research was required including whether the ice cream shop at the top of the flight of locks still sold the same mouth watering ice cream. It did! That means I will need to include some form of ice cream selling establishment on my model although Mrs W is of the view that all of the visit was just an excuse to have an ice cream!

The locks themselves are a fantastic piece of Victorian engineering that still operates as it did today. The Canal and Rivers Trust have a short video which is far better than anything I can do!

Here are a few photos that I took. Everyone on the barges and around was so relaxed - a great way to escape everyday life! The lady at the helm of this barge said it took about an hour for her husband to get them down the 10 locks whilst she did the important job of steering! Mrs W seemed to think that this was the way in which barges should be run.

The white building at the top of the hill is where the ice cream is sold. A good incentive to walk up what is quite a steep hill.

A cargo barge that sails the canals and sells coal, wood and gas to people living full time on barges.

A wonderful bridge - the lines are just perfect.

There is a Museum, mainly open at the weekend and there are some interesting old signs and other canal related items dotted about.

A horse drawn ice breaker. Drawn by a team of 8 horses this was towed through the canal to break ice during the winter.

The site is also home of an old disused canal incline. To avoid the 10 locks and the time taken to traverse them an incline was opened in the early 1900s. Basically a barge sailed into a large water filled tub that then went up rails to the top of the hill where the barge sailed out into the canal. It only operated a few years and I do not know the full history to it but it s now scheduled as a historic monument. More details at the Foxton Inclined Plane Trust website located here. 

The pictures below show just what a sizable piece of construction this was and just how steep the hill was that the incline went up.

Well worth a visit if you are in the area of Market Harborough and Mrs W and myself even discussed the possibility of a canal holiday - I suspect if we do I will be the one opening the lock gates though!