Northampton Canal Arm Walk England photos of every Canal Bridge and Lock

The maximum size for canalboats travelling on the Arm is:
Length 72feet, Beam 7 feet, Height 7 feet 6 inches and a maximum draught of 3 feet. The canal features a flight of 17 single locks - you can see most of them from the top of the flight at Rothersthorpe Top Lock (no.1). In the summer and particularly on weekends this area is extremely popular with visitors on holiday in England - you can see the locks in a much more peaceful way during weekdays of course.

The Northampton Canal Arm starts (or ends) at Cotton End Wharf at Lock 17 on the southern edge of Northampton where it connects with the River Nene and then proceeds on it's fairly short 4 3/4 mile course to link up with the Grand Union Canal at Gayton Junction. Around Lock 17 the canal is somewhat scruffy with some litter and so on lying about but once you get past the first railway bridge things improve a lot. As is sadly the case these days the first few bridges have been painted on with ugly graffitti but again this stupidity disappears quite soon once you are a little way along. The towpath is in an excellent condition throughout the walk - easy to both walk and cycle on and good enough for a comfortable walk using for instance a pushchair. There is a thriving community of ducks (fat ducks of course) plus moorhens, coot etc. living their lives happily all along the canal's route - also lots of reeds, trees and other foliage to be enjoyed - making a walk really enjoyable. Perhaps the only real drawback is the constant traffic noise from the A34 road which accompanies the canal for quite some distance. There are some lovely old bridges to be seen and sadly two modern concrete things (the lack of any attempt at design on modern bridges especially where they have to go anywhere near our lovely canals is disgusting - the attitude seems to be let's just poor a mass of concrete over the poor canal and that will do.). Some of the missing lift bridges (or drawbridges) are being re-instated and these look pretty good - they are fixed open however.
Note: When walked the Arm in April 2008 there was a closure of the towpath where the ugly m1's concrete mess of a so-called bridge crosses the canal near Rothersthorpe Lock 13. The diversion on offer is appalling and the actual area of work is probably only about 45 yards - there are some barriers which are apparently meant to block the towpath.


Cotton End Lock 17	Cotton End Lock 17	Pipe Bridge at Cotton End	Bridge 17	Railway Bridge 16

Unknown ?	Railway Bridge 15	Pipe Bridge	Lock 16	Lock 16 and PipeBridge

Briar Hill Bridge 14	Briar Hill Bridge 14	Bridge 13 and PipeBridge	Bridge 13	Hardingstone Lock 15

Hardingstone Lock 15	A45 Roadbridge 9b	Canal Bridge	Missing Drawbridge ?	Banbury Lane Bridge 9

Banbury Lane Bridge 9	Wootton Lock Gates 14	Wootton Lock 14	Aqueduct	Aqueduct

Drawbridge 7	Rothersthorpe Bottom Lock 13	Rothersthorpe Bottom Lock 13	M1 sliproad Bridge	M1 roadbridge

Rothersthorpe Lock 12	M1 sliproad Bridge	Rothersthorpe Lock 11	Rothersthorpe Lock 11	Drawbridge 6

Rothersthorpe Lock 10	Rothersthorpe Lock 9	Rothersthorpe Lock 9	Rothersthorpe Lock 8	Rothersthorpe Lock 8

Rothersthorpe Lock 7	Rothersthorpe Lock 7	Rothersthorpe Lock 6	Rothersthorpe Lock 6	Drawbridge 5

Rothersthorpe Lock 5	Rothersthorpe Lock 5	Rothersthorpe Lock 4	Rothersthorpe Lock 4	Rothersthorpe Lock 3


Rothersthorpe Lock 3	Bridge 4 and PipeBridge	Bridge 4	Rothersthorpe Lock 2

Rothersthorpe Lock 2	Rothersthorpe Top Lock 1	Rothersthorpe Top Lock 1	Sand Landing Bridge 3

Sand Landing Bridge 3	Arm End Bridge 2 and Pipes	Arm End Bridge 2	Gayton Junction

We walked the canal (and part of the Grand Union) between Northampton and Stoke Bruerne in April 2008. As we are also currently photographing all of the Grand Union Canal's locks and bridges the idea was to park at Stoke Bruerne and take some photos etc along that canal on the same walk. We therefore parked in Stoke Bruerne in the Canal Museum car-park (ukstg2.50 for all day) and then caught a bus (the bus stop is on the museum side of the bridge) which left at 1018hrs into Northampton. You can get onto the Canal from the bridge which carries the A43 south out of Northampton - turn right on the towpath and walk the short distance up to the first of the canal's lock - no.17. Then of course being a canal the route is totally straightforward - just go back past the A43 roadbridge and stay on the towpath all the way down to Gayton Junction.
To continue on to Stoke Bruerne you have to go left along the Grand Union Canal for several 100 yards to reach Turnover Bridge 47 - this is an interesting old canal bridge as it has a walkway for the horses which used to pull the canal boats. Cross the bridge and go back along the other side of the Grand Union - passing Gayton Junction and continuing on South. The canal passes to the west of Blisworth and then reaches the third longest navigable waterway tunnel in the United Kingdom - the 3057 yards long Blisworth Tunnel (which was originally opened in March 1805).

The modernised tunnel allows two 7 foot wide boats to pass - however there is no towpath through the tunnel. To continue walking you have to climb up on a pathway to a small country track, turn left and then almost immediately right onto a road. Follow the road until it bends half right - a wide signposted path on the left hand side of the road goes ahead from here and takes you gently down to reach the southern end of Blisworth Tunnel and the towpath. From here it is only a relatively short distance back to Stoke Bruene.

There are many more English Canal Photographs on our Site
please see our Home Page

The Northampton Canal Arm of The Grand Union Canal - England.

A walk along the Northampton Canal Arm - with photos of every bridge and lock.

The Northampton Canal Arm was opened in 1815 and created a link between The Grand Central Canal system and - via the navigable River Nene - to Peterborough and The Wash.