I visited Foxton Locks yesterday and if you've never been it is such an amazing place!

Foxton Locks are the largest flight of staircase locks on the English canal system. There are ten locks consisting of two "staircases" each of five locks, located on the Leicester line of the Grand Union Canal. Staircase locks are used where a canal climbs a steep hill, and consist of a group of locks where each lock opens directly into the next, that is, where the bottom gates of one lock form the top gates of the next. Building work on the locks started in 1810 and was finished 4 years later in 1814. There can be lengthy delays at busy times but it takes approximately 45 minutes to one hour to complete the journey through the ten locks.

Alongside the locks is the Foxton Inclined Plane, an incline plane built in 1900 as a solution to various operational restrictions imposed by the lock flight. It was not a commercial success and remained in full-time operation for only ten years. It was dismantled in 1926, but a project to re-create the Plane commenced in the 2000s, since the locks remain a bottleneck for boat traffic. The Plane was designed by Gordon Thomas and had two tanks each capable of holding two narrowboats. The tanks were full of water, and so balanced each other. The lift was powered by a steam engine. The inclined plane had a journey time of 12 minutes for two boats up and two down.

The locks are part of the European Route of Industrial Heritage, which recognises the site as one of the most important industrial heritage sites in Europe.

Chris