Foxton - Foxton Locks - Market Harborough Arm

Ron and Jenny Glynn

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From the pretty little church at Foxton, the route heads for the Foxton Locks on the Leicestershire section of the Grand Union Canal. The staircase lock flight raises the canal to the 412ft summit, with side ponds acting as mini-reservoirs to fill the lock chambers with sufficient water. A canal museum stands along the way in a restored boiler house, near the site of an inclined plane that was built to enable two narrowboats or a single 100-ton barge to be lifted to bypass the bottleneck of Foxton Locks. Over the turnover bridge, the route takes the towpath of the Market Harborough Arm, a lengthy stretch of canal that encircles Gallow Hill on its way to the basin of Market Harborough. Leaving the canal at the turnover bridge shortly before the terminus of the arm, the rest of the walk is on field-paths back to Foxton.

England - Central England - Leicestershire - Canal Walk

Features

Birds, Cafe, Church, Flowers, Gift Shop, Great Views, Mostly Flat, Pub, Tea Shop, Wildlife

02/03/2019 - Kirsti Smith

There is more change from WP 8 now. When you go over the bridge, a new housing estate is being built the other side of the wasteland. Some fencing has been put up which forms a footpath but doesn’t strictly follow the instructions here. If you follow the fencing path, you will eventually come to a T-junction. Go right towards Foxton (there’s a sign) then after you turn the corner, go round or over some concrete blocks, cross the single track road and keep going straight on with a wooden fence on your left. You can see the prison ahead and will pick up the markers at the end of this field.

20/02/2019 - SUSAN JONES

Path between points 9 and 10 passes through extensive building site. It is fenced off and clearly signed but in places can be very muddy and under water.

19/05/2013 - Ron and Jenny Glynn

The crops over the paths, mentioned in Jill's comment are seasonal and not permanent. Walkers are in their rights to walk through crops if the land owner has planted over the footpath.

15/05/2013 - Jill Stacey

A nice walk, especially around the locks and along the canal. As noted previously the paths from point 8 and 9 are not clear. The farmer appears to have deliberately sown crops over the paths. From point 8 rather than walk over crops we followed the hedge to the left to a yellow marker and then walked towards the next yellow marker. We then had to keep the hedge on our right rather than the instructed left, again to avoid crop damage. We cut back to the correct path just before the scrambler track. The path towards Gartreewas not clear and the end has been completely planted over with Rape so we had no option than to go through it, it was signed, just not kept clear. Otherwise an enjoyable walk.

14/11/2012 - Shirley Wild

A very enjoyable and recommended walk completed end of October 2012. The only comment is that some of the paths around section 9 were not that clear at the time but caused no problem other than a slight detour.

20/07/2011 - Walkingworld Administrator

Our thanks to Ron & Jenny Glynn for their full update for this walk. July 2011. Adrian (Admin)

21/05/2011 - Steve Moore

A very nice walk. If you have also downloaded the route to a GPS, it shows you are off track from point 7 until you get to point 9. (Due to the winding track of the canal).

27/09/2005 - Walkingworld Administrator

Thanks to Roy Davenport this walk was updated September 2005.