Foxton Locks to Husbands Bosworth

We've had a lovely weekend the highlight of which was a visit from Keith and Leesa. My lovely son treated us to Sunday lunch at the Foxton Locks Inn, very tasty and enjoyable. It was so nice to see them.

Foxton Locks Inn

Foxton Locks

We spent Saturday doing bits around the boat and going for a walk up the locks. It is probably about six years since we were last here. As well as the locks there are the remains of the inclined plain boat lift here. The inclined plane was a system which bypassed the locks. There were two sets of rails set on the hill, each set of rails had a caisson ( a watertight container) Two boats were loaded into the caisson at either the top or bottom of the incline (or both) and were then winched up or down with the other caisson acting as a counterbalance. Not a brilliant description but if you're interested there is information online about it. There are plans to restore the inclined plane but I'm not sure I will ever see it working. It was built to ease the congestion at the locks as a journey up the plane took about five minutes compared to over an hour using the locks.

The remains of the Inclined Plane

This morning we made our way up through the locks and almost as far as Husbands Bosworth, the weather forecast is for some wet and windy weather so our journey will probably not continue for a couple of days.

Today's journey 2.9 miles, 10 locks and 1 swing bridge

So far this year we have travelled 811.4 miles, 645 locks,  54 swing bridges, 23 lift bridges and 28 tunnels

In 2011 we travelled 461.4 miles, 444 locks, 3 swing bridges, 34 lift bridges and 15 tunnels

During 2010 we travelled 740.3 miles, 642 locks, 53 swing bridges, 4 lift bridges and 25 tunnels

Since Ray retired we have travelled 2013.1 miles, 1731 locks, 110 swing bridges, 61 lift bridges and 68 tunnels