Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
12
Grand Union Canal: Leicester Line
Distance
106km from Norton Junction to the River Trent
Highlights
Foxton locks, the largest example of staircase locks in Britain
The Mile Straight in Leicester
The National Space Science Centre
Museum of Science & Technology
Navigation Authority
Canal & River Trust
Canal Society
Foxton Inclined Plane Trust
www.fipt.org.uk
OS 1:50,000 Sheets
129 Nottingham & Loughborough
140 Leicester
141 Kettering & Corby
152 Northampton & Milton Keynes
The Loughborough Navigation made the River Soar navigable up to Loughborough in 1778,
the most profitable canal in Britain for a while. The Leicester Navigation continued this to
Leicester in 1794. The Leicestershire & Northamptonshire Canal extended the line to Debdale
Wharf in 1797 and to Market Harborough in 1809. It had originally been planned to go from
Debdale Wharf to Northampton but technical difficulties proved too great. Once what was to
become the Grand Union Canal main line was built from London with a branch to Northamp-
ton, it was decided to change the plan and run from Foxton to Norton Junction instead, this
Old Grand Union Canal being completed in 1814. It carried Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire
coal, Mountsorrel and Quorn granite and through traffic but was damaged by coal-carrying on
the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Canal and by the London & Birmingham Railway from 1838. In 1894,
the Grand Junction Company bought the line from Leicester to London, expanding it to form
