Some disadvantages of the Market Harborough arm

Tuesday 6^th June; Market Harborough Arm to bridge 55, Leicester line

We had a quiet night in spite of the busy road not far away.  We are not impressed with mooring availability on the Market Harborough Arm, even allowing for the works taking place near the basin.  Two contractors were strimming along here (our overnight mooring between bridges 9 and 8) yesterday, but they have left the vegetation neither one thing nor the other – short enough to permit mooring, but stout foot-high hogweed stumps and the vegetation long enough to obscure dog poo and dips in the ground.  They did the whole width from the hedge in the same half-hearted way.

The weather unfortunately stayed cloudy and cold.  The stinky factory at Gallows Hill Bridge smelt disgusting, though not quite as bad as yesterday which was just appalling.  I don’t know how the runners we saw going by can cope with that awful pong.  Dave looked it up – it is a meat rendering factory, and not surprisingly there are complaints about the smell and sometimes it discharges effluent into the river Welland.  It says it does its best to reduce the stench and adheres to all regulations, and the council agrees with them. 

Bleurgh!

We decided to moor at Foxton village for an early lunch before joining the queue for the locks. I almost managed the heavy swing bridge on my own – I opened it with (almost) no trouble, and nearly got it closed again, but I hadn’t quite got the momentum to click the locking mechanism shut and it got stuck.  I was just about to try and release the lock using the pull handle when a passer-by weighed in and gave a hand, so I don’t know if that would have worked or not.  But the so-called visitor moorings at Foxton were pretty much invisible.

48 hours? Yeah, right

Nearer the bridge were two little sections where a boater had used their shears, just where our ropes would need to be, so we stopped there, with all manner of nettles and other vegetation leaning on the rest of the boat.  While Dave got on with some jobs, I took Meg for a walk round the village, hoping to find the farm shop I had visited before.  But it had gone, and so had the village shop (though I may have imagined that one).  There was a sign by the bridge which possibly explained the lack of mooring availability.

The sign was on the non-water side of the towpath.  I wonder if CRT actually meant to make the visitor moorings unusable, or did they expect the contractor to mow the water side of the path in the normal way?  I might phone or write to them if I get around to it.  Closer to the junction, there is a long stretch where 7-day mooring is apparently permitted, but how you'd take advantage of that I have no idea -  it’s a concrete edge with no rings, or anywhere to bang in a stake.  Bonkers.

7 days apparently

There was one boat already waiting at the bottom of Foxton locks, and as there is only room for one to wait, we had to stay on the swing bridge mooring.  Kestrel had already been waiting an hour, and was still waiting for two boats to finish their descent so he could move up to the half-way point.  Once he’d gone we could move over, and as we had to wait for another three boats to come down once he’d reached the half-way point, we took the opportunity to get an internet signal and catch up with emails and I finally got another blog post posted.  After a while I went up to the half-way point to see how Kestrel was doing – still waiting for the last boat to pass him - and on the way back I noticed an artwork in the form of a large sloping plaque by the towpath, entitled ‘Canal Life 1900’.

A bit of a clean might make it easier to see! A boatwoman is holding the rope of what looks like a boat going up the staircase, and the caption at the bottom reads ‘A bower of wild roses in June and a hell of ice in winter.’ 

We finally entered the flight after a wait of a mere two hours.  Kestrel is a veteran of 4-hour waits in past years.  Once we had cleared the first lock of the staircase the lockie asked if we were happy to continue on our own, which of course we were, and to wait in the top lock of the first staircase for a descending boat to pull into the layby so we could then go straight up.  She went back to assist a hire-boat.  We arrived and waited as directed, with the top gate closed as apparently it can help descending boats get out of your way though I didn’t quite see how that worked myself.  We only had to wait for a couple of minutes.  The little pound is kept topped up from the side pond above (I think).

Once the descending boat was secured, Dave brought Bonjour past and off we went again up the second staircase.

Passing at the half-way point

When we were going down yesterday one of the lockies was explaining to a visitor how the paddles on the staircase work to ensure water isn’t wasted.  The red paddle gear (which you use first) opens the culvert from the side pond to start filling a lock, and the white one (use second) takes water from the lock above into the side pond.  The lockie put it brilliantly – ‘the water zig-zags its way downhill’.  Isn’t that a good explanation?  If, as happens sometimes, the paddles in the locks closer to Leicester are left up either accidentally or deliberately, pounds run dry.  To fill them again, there is plenty of water on the long pound between Foxton and Watford locks at the other end, which is topped up when necessary from three reservoirs.  But the water still has to take the zig-zag route down Foxton locks, with all the paddles open all the way down, and CRT staff work overnight when this happens as it takes more than just an hour or two - unlike 'ordinary' locks there is only one paddle at the top and bottom of each lock.

Filling the side pond

You can’t really see the water swirling into the side pond here, I left it a bit late for a good photo.  We arrived at the top of the staircase to find a lockie ready to take the top gate after I’d raised the paddle (and taken the picture below) and I was back on board 48 minutes after we started.

View from the top lock

The brick building on the right is the little museum, and the white one at the bottom is the edge of the pub.  We decided to cruise on for a bit as we had spent a while hanging about, and carried on till we found a quiet and extremely pretty mooring just before bridge 55.

With sheep and wild roses on the opposite bank, and ragged robin and other assorted wild flowers just behind the stern, we loved it.

Ragged Robin

 4 miles, 10 locks, 2 swing bridges