July 2025 - New Waters

Sandlanding Bridge - No 3 - (Grand Union Canal/Northampton Arm) - Sunday 27th July  

To get back to Gayton Junction we either had to go down through five locks, turn round and then come back up the same five locks or we could reverse back to the winding hole before Blisworth Tunnel.  Mary H does not like going backwards and it is always a problem but it seemed the lesser of two evils!  To Richard’s credit he did it very well, managing to miss moored boats on the way.  One of the boats was a hire boat and I said to them that Mary H didn’t like going backwards and they said that their boat didn’t like going forwards!

All canal tunnels have history but Blisworth has a lot of it.

It is

• 3,075 yards long
  

• The longest wide, freely navigable tunnel in Europe (it's wide enough for two narrowboats to pass in opposite directions)
  

• The ninth-longest canal tunnel in the world
  

• About 143 feet below ground level

Work began in 1793 on the tunnel and at the time was a major feat of engineering with no mechanical machine beyond the basic picks, shovels and wheelbarrows available, all done by hand by the navvies.  But errors made by the contractor left a wiggle in the tunnel, and after three years' work it collapsed due to quicksand, claiming the lives of 14 men. All work had to be abandoned.  In 1802 they tried again. William Jessop, the main civil engineer on the Grand Junction Canal, proposed a flight of locks instead of a tunnel. James Barnes, the resident principal engineer, insisted on the tunnel.  In March 1805, the tunnel was finally opened.

Due to changes in the shape of the tunnel over time, the tunnel became unnavigable. And finally, being un-used it had become in danger of collapse. British Waterways, who ran the canals from 1962 to 2005, were responsible for the major rebuilding of the tunnel in the 1980s, with sections lined with pre-cast concrete rings. It was also used to test out the new materials and techniques that were later used on the Channel Tunnel. 

As you approach the south portal of Blisworth Tunnel (which is Grade II listed) there are a couple of buildings.  I’ve seen both of them being used but they looked very shut up today, but it was a Sunday.

At the other side of the tunnel is an old mill, Blisworth Corn Mill which was built in 1879 by Joseph Westley.  It, too, has a lot of history but I’m sure you are all historied-out by now!  When Richard and I used to pass back in 2009 the building was derelict, but today it is flats, what else?

We stopped at Gayton Junction to use the facilities and I found a swan family - I think there were six!!

 

It was then on to pastures new along the Northampton Arm.  Passed Gayton Marina and onto the moorings on the other side.  Sadly the moorings are right alongside the A43 and it is a busy road, but such is life.

At Gayton services there is a ceramic mural on the wall which marks the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Northampton Arm on May 15th 1815.

4 miles

0 locks

Northampton Town Quay Visitors Moorings (Northampton Arm/River Nene) - Monday 28th July

We really weren’t sure what to expect with the Northampton Flight, which are actually called the Rothersthorpe Locks.  We had heard horror stories of no water, locks that didn’t work and such like.  But hey ho, we were going down!  There are 17 single locks along the 4¾ mile length but the actual flight is 12 locks and they are, literally, one after the other.  Locks 1 to 13 are Grade II listed and date from 1815.

OtM went first and lifted the top paddle as they left the lock so it was full when we got there.  We got about half way down when we started to meet boats coming up, they just slowed us down a bit, but we still did the actual flight (1 - 12) in 2 hours.

Next to Lock 10, a group of wire sculptures stand amongst bits of canal infrastructure, a memorial bench and a bug hotel.

There were still 5 locks left to do, but they were spread out and gave us time to breathe between them.  

Lock 12 is under the M1 and approaching it you can see the A43 too.  In this photo you can just about make out a white lorry through the trees which is on the M1!

The other side of the M1 is a Landrover Jaguar dealership which is huge and must store hundreds of vehicles.

Once through Lock 16 there were some moorings listed, but they really weren’t very nice with blocks of flats overlooking us and goose poo everywhere, so we went down through Lock 17 and out onto the River Nene.  We weren’t too sure if we could moor on the Town Quay but OtM found a space and we breasted up.  It wasn’t a very salubrious place as there was definitely some drug dealing going on.  There were also lots and lots of e-scooters that were whizzing along much too fast - I was glad I wasn’t a pedestrian.  Still at least it wasn’t a noisy spot.

I had read that as part of the IWA Northampton Branch's Art On The Arm initiative, at each lock there is a mosaic plaque set into the grass. Each one depicts an aspect of canal heritage and has a letter with an associated image taken from nature, the letters eventually spell 'The Northampton Arm'.  I forgot about them but Richard said that he had seen them.  I must make sure I look out for them on the way back.

5 miles

17 locks

Hardwater Mills Moorings (River Nene) - Tuesday 29th July

It was a nice quiet night, I had been a bit worried.  Richard and Steve walked up to Northampton Marina to get our EA licences, we are no longer on CR&T waters.

We have 37 locks and 61 miles to cover before we reach Peterborough where we turn on to the Middle Level. Many of the locks are going to be guillotine locks and we soon approached our first one.  The guillotine is electrically operated and is very slow to lower and raise.  All the guillotine gates have to be left open which is OK going down stream but more difficult when we come back.

Some of the gates are quite strange being hollow at the top.

This lovely old bridge has been extended or rebuilt but I just loved it.

We went through Billings Lock where there is Billing Aquadrome, a popular caravan and camping park with leisure facilities and a funfair, which is based around the river and various mature gravel pits. The park is popular with fishermen and water skiers alike

The River Nene flows through the counties of Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, and Norfolk from its sources in Arbury Hill in Northamptonshire.  At 105 miles long, it is the tenth-longest in the UK, is navigable for 88 miles and falls a total of 300 feet in 17 miles.

We joined the Friends of the River Nene before we came away, really so that we could use their moorings.  Environment Agency moorings are few and far between, so it was a good idea to have some extra opportunities to moor.  We chose the first FOTRN mooring which was on the edge of a field and really quiet.

10 miles

10 locks