Foxton Locks and Foxton Inclined Plane in England.

Visiting the two sets of Staircase Locks at Foxton Locks and Inclined Plane plus other features from the area in England - with pictures.

Foxton Top Lock and the Lock Keeper's Cottage

How to get too Foxton Locks.

Foxton Locks are located around 3 miles to the northwest of Market Harborough in the English County of Leicestershire - just a little way off the B6047 Kettering to Market Harborough road. There is a Long Stay car park on one side of the road or you can go into the Short Term (for up to 4 hours) British Waterways car park in their Country Park. If using a satnav to find the way there the postcode is LE16 7RR. Located on the Leicester Section of the Grand Union Canal, Foxton boasts the largest set (two lots of 5 in fact) of staircase locks on the canal system in England and has to be a must see place to visit if you enjoy canals and related buildings etc.. The Foxton Locks area has been really smartened up - the paths are all in good condition, as mentioned there is lots of parking available, there are several canal side pubs at the bottom of the flight or you can get a cup of coffee if you wish by the lock-keepers cottage by Foxton Toplock (photo on the right). Foxton Locks old engine house now contains a small canal museum where amongst other things you can see a working model of the boat lift.

Below you will find quite a few photographs taken around Foxton Staircase Locks including the lock flight itself plus various canal bridges - also several pictures of where the inclined plane was located. Foxton inclined plane has so far not been restored but hopefully one day narrowboats may yet again have the facility available. At the moment the only way boats are able to continue along the Leicester (Canal) Section is to use the lock flight - these are narrow locks only able to accommodate one boat at a time and there is only a small basin between the two staircase flights.

Bridge 60 - Gumley Roadbridge

Grand Union Canal - Gumley Road Bridge

Foxton Lock Flight
Top Lock 8

Foxton Lock 9
Leicester Section

Footbridge going over Foxton Lock 9

Staircase Lock Gates at Foxton Lock 10

Foxton Lock 11 leading to Lock 12

Foxton Lock 13
Foxton staircase locks

view of the narrow lock 14 plus small reservoir at Foxton Locks

Foxton Lock 14 and a storage pond

trolley used when the inclined plane was built

Trolley used during the inclined plane constuction

Concrete base for the runners at Foxton Locks

Site of the inclined plane showing the concrete base

part of the inclined plane at Foxton Locks

Concrete base for the inclined plane

Foxton Lock 16
with Bridge 61

View looking up several
of Foxton's Staircase Locks

Part of the two sets of staircase locks at Foxton

Lock 16 with Lock 15 behind it

The short Market Harborough Canal Arm leaves the Leicester Section of the Grand Union Canal from the bottom of Foxton Lock Flight and heads off for around 5 miles to arrive at the really nice town of Market Harborough - this makes a very pleasant walk along the Arm's towpath.

View of Bridge 61 from Foxton Bottom Lock

Leicester Section Bridge 61 at Foxton

Foxton Lock Flight
Bottom Lock 17

Foxton Locks - Leicester Section + Market Harborough canal junction

Market Harborough Arm - Leicester Section junction

Foxton Locks
Rainbow Bridge 62

About Foxton Staircase Locks and Foxton Inclined Plane.

The two sets of staircase locks were designed by Benjamin Bevin to take the canal down (or up) a total of 75 feet and comprise of two lots of 5 locks - these were built between 1810 and 1814. Staircase locks are different to normal canal locks as the intermediate locks share the same gates - the locks at Foxton are just 7 feet wide so cater for only one boat at a time - it can be a lengthy process traversing the flight. The canals were of course originally designed as highways for transporting goods around the country and because of the delays in getting through Foxton Locks in 1894 the Grand Junction Canal Company asked an engineer called Gordon Cale Thomas to find a solution to the bottlenecks.

Bridge into the Upper Side Arm - lower channel to the inclined plane

A pulley wheel - pulleys were used to drag the tanks on the inclined plane

Bridge near the site of the inclined plane

Canal Bridge by
Foxton's
inclined plane

view from the base of the inclined plane at Foxton

Bottom view of where the inclined plane was situated - top to bottom it's 75 feet

The feeder arm bridge at Foxton Locks

The result was the building of an inclined plane counter-balanced boat lift - two massive tanks which could each hold two narrow boats or one up to 10 foot wide barge. Once parked inside the tanks the guillotine gates would be closed trapping a tank full of water. Then a huge winding drum powered by a 25hp steam engine reeled in the upward moving tank using a heavy steel cable whilst simultaneously letting out the cable which was attached to a descending tank.

View looking up the Staircase Locks at Foxton

View down the inclined plane at Foxton

Now a museum this was originally the engine house

The old engine house at Foxton Locks

part of the staircase locks at Foxton - Lock 14

Foxton Lock 14 looking down the flight

Foxton Locks looking up the flight

The boat lift opened in 1900 but although the through-put of boats was much improved at Foxton Locks all that really happened was that the problem was pushed elsewhere along the canal - namely to the set of narrow staircase locks at Leicester Section Watford Staircase Locks. These locks at Watford Gap were also meant to have be widened but it never happened and eventually the Foxton Boat Lift was closed in 1911 and everyone had to use the staircase locks again.