Grand Union Canal – Leicester Section & River Soar – Lock 42 - North Lock, Leicester, UK - Waterway Locks, Planes and Lifts on Waymarking.com

This is lock 42 on the Grand Union canal – Leicester Section & River Soar, known as lock.

The Grand Union Canal - Leicester Section & River Soar runs for 66 miles through 59 locks from Norton Junction on the Grand Union Main Line in the south to the River Trent at Trent Lock in the north. The locks at the southern end up to Foxton are single width and the remainder are double width. The Foxton section is one of the pinch points that mean broadbeam craft cannot travel from north to south and vice versa. The other pinch points are in the Birmingham area.

The River Soar section is 40 miles long and was opened to navigation down to Loughborough in 1778. In the early days it was known as the Loughborough navigation and was extremely prosperous.

In 1794 the navigation was opened from Loughborough down to Leicester.

The Grand Union Canal was formed in 1929 from many separate canal systems and consists of:

- Grand Union Main Line
- Grand Union Leicester Section
- River Soar
- Erewash Canal
- Northampton Arm
- Aylesbury Arm
- Wendover Arm
- Slough Arm
- Paddington Arm

The lock numbering runs from 1 at the southern end up to 59 at the northern end; this is why the locks are numbered from 60 upwards on the Erewash canal which became part of the Grand Union in 1929.

Waterway Name: Grand Union Leicester Section & River Soar Connected Points: The Grand Union Leicester Section & River Soar links the River Trent in the north to the Grand Union Main Line in the south. It has arms to Market Harborough and Welford. Type: Lock Date Opened: 01/01/1794 Elevation Difference (meters): 1.00 Site Status: Operational Web Site: [Web Link] Date Closed (if applicable): Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   09/27/2015 ntpayne visited it