From one canal to another, then another...

On Wednesday Susan and I left Beeston for the day with a friend. It was her birthday and she got to decide where we went, and she chose Foxton Locks near Market Harborough in Leicestershire. 

By coincidence it was to another canal. A few weeks ago I posted photographs of a chance visit we made to Bratch Locks in Staffordshire on the western edge of the Black Country and I have another canal walk to make with my daughter.

I will let the photographs tell their own story. I have overlaid the Canal & River Trust map with numbers showing the direction of the photographs and our walk. It was a lovely five hours, including a good lunch at the Foxton Locks Inn.

Some of the photographs have text below them.

The Union Jack flying at the top of the incline plane is actually on the roof of the Foxton Locks Museum (see below)

This is a close-up of what brickwork remains from the incline and reminded me of Roman foundations you might see at a excavated site almost anywhere in England. There is something ageless about what is left to remind us that once there was a great working structure where now only cemented bricks and rubble remain.

Look closely and you can see the front of a narrow boat in among the trees. It is in line with the top of the incline plane. The picture was taken from the viewing platform marked on the map above.

The Foxton Locks Museum is run by Foxton Inclined Plane Trust, which exists to promote and preserve the site. Until visiting the Museum, I had not realised how short-lived the inclined plane was. It only operated for eleven years between 1900 and 1911, and sold for scrap in 1928. 

The Museum is actually new and was built by the Trust. Only its back wall is original.

Any 'experience' you have on a visit to a museum or similar venture begins with the welcome you receive and it is obvious that the Foxton Inclined Plane Trust understand this well. This is Penny, there to welcome us and take our money, and to sign me up so our £12 entrance cost (3 x £4) could be turned into a gift-aid donation. With it came membership and free admission for the next twelve months. A great deal if you live near-by.

Over the years I have visited too many places where the staff have been sullen at best or indifferent at best. I want to shout at them and say you have a job many would love; working in a public space, surrounded by history or attractions that people have travelled miles to see and all you can do is welcome them with disdain.

Penny here at Foxton Locks Museum could give lessons in how to be a great 'meeter and greeter'. She checked more than once that we were enjoying our visit and her colleague was just as cheerful and helpful. A real credit to the Trust and its museum.

The museum is child friendly with lots of exhibits aimed at children, like this mock up of a boiler. The two black square holes in the corners contain lots of wooden balls which when put into the round holes in the boiler door set the large gauge on the top edge of the boiler turning, together with suitable steam engine like noises. The balls then roll back into boxes located behind the square black holes at the bottom. It sounds very realistic.

My selection of photographs has been chosen in the hope that you might want to visit Foxton Locks as a result of reading this blog. There is a lot to see and it really is a great day out, especially if you drive down to Melton Browbray, then down the B6047 towards Market Harborough. From Beeston it's 46 miles my way.

I have been a great fan of canals all of my life and have written about them on and off for over forty years. I like them for walking along because they are, for the most part, flat. My old Lenton parkviews blog contains a number of canal related posts, including entries for the Nottingham & Beeston canals and my favourite, the Erewash Canal.

A day out

We recently went to visit friends from Greenwich holidaying on the western edge of the Black Country in a small town/large village called Wombourne. A part of the country we know well since Susan grew up in Black Country and first came to Beeston in 1969, when she lodged for two years in Chilwell vicarage whilst at Nottingham University.

It was a leisurely drive of just under two hours and we tend to forget how close we are to places.  Whilst we were in Wombourne we went on a walk and found ourselves at Bratch Lock and the four of us were invited to join a couple on their narrow boat as it made its way through the three locks. It was a wonderful treat. I hope the pictures tell the story:

A sign by the top lock.

...but I am going to start at the bottom by a canal pond, which takes water from the top.

The road across the canal runs immediately in front of the first pf three locks.

A narrow boat exiting the lower lock.

You can walk under the road bridge along a passage more like that you would expect to find in a medieval castle.

A view of our ride as it disappears into the middle lock.

A narrow boat waits as the water drains from the middle lock so that it can continue its journey after passing through the lower lock, which you can just see.

These three pictures show us entering the top lock and then it beginning to fill, rushing in with a roar.

The kind canal folk (bargees?) who invited us to go through the locks on their narrow boat. Thank you once again for the treat and, if you see this blog, I hope you enjoyed the rest of your trip around England's canals.

At the top, excess water flows down a race to the kind at the bottom (see my second picture).

The locks were worked by two Canal Trust volunteers and this was the little lock keeper's lodge by the top lock, which you glimpse in our the earlier pictures

Susan with our friends Ivy and Keith, resting by the top lock. They look remarkably happy for three Labour Party members still recovering from the general election result. Our fiends are great country walkers, whereas I prefer urban and canal walking. By any measure a good day out.

From the top lock you could look across the trees and see the roof of the Severn-Trent Bratch Pumping Station which, at a distance, could be mistaken for a French chalet.

From the road, walking back to Wombourne, I took this pic through the gate railings of the decorative brickwork and through the window you can just see what looks like an old beam engine. The chance are that it will now have electric motors to drive the pistons, but just this corner view captures what a wonderful building this is.

This is how I like to live life. Last Saturday we spent a long afternoon in Bestwood Country Park, first at the winding engine with Nottinghamshire Local History Association, then we struck off on our own with two friends from Stoke-on-Trent and explored the other side of the park, ending with tea and biscuits in Berstwood Lodge Hotel. I hope my friend Rosie is going to blog about the visit and if she does I will out a link in here. It was Rosie who got me into blogging in 2007. There is a link to her blog, Corners of my mind, in the sidebar.

Next year though we will make sure we are about for the Beeston Carnival. We are sorry that we missed it, but our visit to Bestwood was planned a long time ago.