Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
leaving at the Navigation Inn. Superior housing surrounds lawns sloping down to the canal
with the occasional dovecote or tree house.
Barrow upon Soar was the site of a Roman settlement and later limestone quarries. Beyond
Barrow-on-Soar Deep Lock, the canal meets the river again below a restaurant and the Soar
Bridge Inn, the latter making reference to the venerable red brick bridge across the river. Bey-
ond the inn are more arches, this time supporting the railway as part of a retaining wall built
into the side away from the river.
Pilling's Flood Lock is usually left open as the canal leaves the river at the foot of Catsick
Hill. The canal crosses Loughborough Moors at a level higher than that of the surrounding
land, giving extensive views south-west to Charnwood Forest and northwards over the Soar
valley.
An anti-aircraft gun at the front of TS
Venomous
, devastated by a fire in 2012, gives notice
of arrival in Loughborough, named after the Old English man Luhdede. Beyond it is the ter-
minus of the Great Central Railway, Britain's only remaining mainline steam railway, run-
ning for 13km from Birstall. There is a museum and historic locomotive collection here. The
line was used for filming the 1993 Richard Attenborough-directed film,
Shadowlands
. The
bridge that extended the line to the current freight line to Nottingham still stands across the
canal among the derelict factory buildings.
One factory still active is 3M's beauty products mill next to the A60, which crosses on
the Duke of York Bridge and leads towards the John Taylor Bellfoundry Museum. This is
situated in the world's largest bell foundry complex, the products of which have included the
Great Paul bell for St Paul's Cathederal in London. A tower of 1922 was Britain's first grand
carillon. It is 46m high and now houses an armed forces museum. All Saints church has an
exceptional 15th century roof and clerestory and a magnificent and unusual Somerset tower.
The derelict factories appear to not bode well for Loughborough but the atmosphere im-
proves and the authorities really make maximum use of the canal as an asset as it curves
round the town past the Boat Inn, recent housing and a playground to enter from the north-
east. A branch of the canal leads back to the south-east to serve Loughborough Basin. Just
before the junction is the Chain Bridge, the predecessor of which used to have a chain across
at night to prevent boats slipping through in the dark without paying tolls.
