Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the form of a black figure who walks through a blocked-up doorway, causing glasses to rattle
on the bar and pictures to fall down.
The Hatton lock flight, the best locks on the Grand Union Canal
.
The summit pound brings moorhens and, more importantly, the 1.9km Braunston Tunnel.
It was cut through an ironstone outcrop although 300m of it had quicksand. Setting-out errors
resulted in an S-bend in the middle so that it is not possible to see through it. This added to
the friction in the endless wire loop installed in 1870 and driven by a steam engine at the
Welton end. This was short-lived. From 1871 to 1934 the tunnel was operated by steam tugs
that started at hourly intervals from alternate ends. One of the leggers superseded by steam
tugs was 75 years old and had worked in the tunnel for 44 years.
The walking route is unmarked. At first it is obvious enough, a track climbing up past rape
fields and passing over the English watershed before dropping down near Drayton Reservoir
to reach the A361 via a kissing gate that is badly overgrown with stinging nettles. Opposite
is a recent concrete farm track. When the track reaches a grass-filled cattle grid and rises to
the left it is necessary to take an unmarked footpath to the right.
In 1793, permission was obtained to build a canal link to Daventry. There are now plans
for the work to actually go ahead.
At Norton Junction the Leicester Line of the Grand Union Canal leaves, observed by a
single-storey 1914 toll house and by two Victorian cottages, which were occupied by the Sal-
vation Army who helped the boat people.
From here the canal gets very busy for a while as successive major transport links are
met. The first in time and position is the A5, the Roman Watling Street, immediately below
Buckby Top Lock where, until 1978, a shop used to sell decorated Buckby water cans. It still
has the New Inn, the only public house remaining, where there were formerly seven for the
