Local Waterways
In the heyday of canal building, from the 1770s to early 1800s, the country was rapidly covered with a network of artificial waterways, linking most cities, towns, and many smaller villages. After centuries of difficult transport with horses on poor roads, goods could be carried easily and cheaply by barge or narrow boat, and the Industrial Revolution was given its arteries of commerce.
The River Soar was made navigable from the Trent; first to Loughborough (1778) and then to Leicester, enabling goods to come in and out from the Humber ports. It was thought that to continue a line on to Market Harborough ‘would be beneficial to the district’. At the same time the Grand Junction Canal Company were proposing a canal from London to link with the Oxford Canal at Braunston, Northants. This would still leave a north/south gap, and the Northamptonshire landowners wanted a navigation to continue on to meet the GJ near the county town. A meeting for prospective shareholders was advertised in Harborough, to which so many people turned up that no room in the town was big enough, and they had to adjourn to a nearby field! The big names of the day were involved: John Peach Hungerford of Dingley Hall, Sir Justinian Isham of Lamport, George Ashby of Haselbech, Joseph Cradock of Gumley Hall, and many prominent Leicestershire landowners and businessmen. George Wartnaby was appointed Clerk. The ‘Leicestershire and Northamptonshire Union Canal’ (later shortened to LNU or Union Canal) came into being on 30th April 1793.
The route decided upon went from Leicester via Aylestone, Blaby, Wigston, Kibworth, and thence across the Welland Valley to East Farndon, Oxenden, Kelmarsh and on to join the Grand Junction near Northampton. A tunnel was to cut through the high ground at Foxton, and above that a branch would go off to Market Harborough. The canals were the motorways of their day, and suffered the same problems – NIMBY landowners, local protestors, political and funding difficulties, plus an unpredictable and often troublesome workforce, and unknown geology (not only did they not have modern equipment and technical information, the country had not even been accurately mapped at that time).
The route cut the watershed of the Rivers Soar and Welland at Saddington, necessitating a tunnel. This gave unexpected problems with unstable ground, and was initially built out of line, requiring an expensive re-build. It became obvious that the budget was not going to allow for completion of the canal, so a decision was taken to stop at Debdale in 1797. The tiny hamlet became a busy canal terminus, with a purpose-built wharf, warehouse and pub (The Debdale Wharf Inn), and goods were stockpiled for onward transportation by horse and cart to the turnpike (A6) and thence to Harborough and beyond. The main traffic was in coal, from the Leics. Notts. and Derby's. coalfields, for the steam plant powering all the new factories and mills.
Other cargoes included local gravel and Mountsorrrel granite, ironically to improve the roads which ultimately put the canals out of business.
The Company meanwhile considered what to do next, and various plans were commissioned; one by none less than the great engineer Thomas Telford, whose proposed route took a line almost identical to that later taken by the MH to Northampton railway. (Again an irony that the railway is long gone, but the canal, as built, is flourishing). Eventually it was decided to simply carry on as far as Market Harborough, and abandon the idea of continuation to Northampton. So the plan had actually come full circle! From Debdale the canal would now sweep round on the contour and cut through Foxton village. Landowner Sir John Palmer of Carlton Curlieu was dead against this, and declared that he would not have his grounds “desecrated by a band of ruffians”, springs would be cut, and that “incommodious damps and fogs” would kill off all the old people. His objections were eventually overcome, but the canal did neatly bisect the village, and a wharf and forge were established by the main road bridge. Just like motorways, the disadvantages to the locals were balanced by new business opportunities, employment, and increased prosperity. Cheap coal came in, and agricultural produce could be shipped out.
Leaving Foxton, the canal wound round the base of ‘Foxton Moor’, once hunted by John O’Gaunt, later the site of the WWII airfield, and now Gartree Prison. Ancient tracks were taken over the waterway on footbridges, and ‘accommodation’ bridges built for farmers whose fields were severed. Land that was previously unsuitable for stock due to lack of any water supply, suddenly acquired a large linear drinking trough. At Gallow Hill, the turnpike was at its steepest, being in parts 1:3, but in the 1830s this was altered to a lesser gradient, and the ‘narrows’ of the original bridge can still be seen. Wharves and premises were soon established wherever there was a road crossing. Just beyond Gallow, it was proposed to take a branch off down the Welland Valley to Stamford, but this would have required several locks and a reservoir to feed them, and landowner Rev. James Ord of West Langton Hall refused to allow the loss of his “good grazing”. So the LNU lost potentially profitable traffic in coal to Stamford.
Bowden ridge had to be skirted, and unlike Foxton, the waterway passed some distance from that village. Another wharf, pub (The Britannia Inn), boatbuilding yard, and (in the 1870s) Great Bowden Hall were built here. Bridges tended to named after local landowners, and Saunt’s Bridge marks the start of a cutting as the canal doubles back to go under the turnpike again. The Company was later ordered to plant 1,100 trees here. At the next bridge (now no.13) the towpath changes sides, entering the grounds of the de Trafford estate; Stone House was the family seat, and in a ‘wide’ bit of water their charming thatched boathouse was located (it burned down in 1971). Other bridges, now gone, gave access to the estate, as the canal snaked on to its destination, Market Harborough. Again, rather removed from the town centre, but with the advantage of room to establish an Industrial Terminal, and adjacent to a major Leicester to London road to interchange with other transport.
Formal opening was on 13th October 1809, and the VIPs and a band proceeded with a “barge and two boats decorated with flags, from Gallow to Harborough, between banks lined with enthusiastic spectators. They were joined at Bowden by eight laden barges, and the convoy entered Harborough Bason (sic) to the cheers of thousands of spectators. A procession comprising the committee and engineers, navigators, and bargemen, carrying instruments, tools, and implements descriptive of their several occupations – two barge horses, streamers, flags… continued to the Angel Inn for an elegant and sumptuous dinner”. (In fact, benefactor Joseph Cradock of Gumley had sent venison and fish from his estate, without which the meal was the Angel’s ‘ordinary’; price 3/6d). The townspeople made it a public holiday and much ale flowed, but even the navvies behaved themselves.
Two warehouses, plus a wharfinger’s cottage and stabling were built, and the Union Inn opened in 1810. (Knoll House and Holly Bank were added later). Messrs Burton and Furnival were advertising Derbyshire coal for sale, and also ‘boats with proper covers’ for wool and other local produce. Ella, Coleman & Co started a weekly boat service between Leicester and Harborough, arriving at Harborough on Monday evenings, and Leicester on Thursday mornings. Famous canal carriers Pickfords had a resident agent. As time progressed, other businesses flourished, especially Hoptons (later Trenerys) timber merchants; wood would come by sea from the Baltic ports to Boston, where it was tran-shipped to barges and brought by water into the centre of England. Local unemployed men would gather to obtain casual work unloading the cargoes (commemorated in the Millennium sundial sculpture).
In 1810 a new company, the Grand Union (now called the Old Grand Union) started another line, from Foxton to go via Husbands Bosworth, North Kilworth, Crick and Yelvertoft to join the Grand Junction at Norton, so finally completing the north/south link, although the locks were built narrow (7ft) gauge, unlike the LNU which could take 14ft-wide barges. This led to problems…
but that is another story.
In 1849 the first railway came to Harborough: the LNWR Rugby- Stamford branch, which introduced coal from the Warwickshire coalfields, and by 1857 the Midland Railway linked up with London. In 1847 Pickfords had made the influential decision to transfer to the railways, and many others followed suit. The fortunes of the Basin, and the canal in general began to decline, particularly as the Leicester Line (as it has come to be known) was primarily a through-route, with little industry of its own. With the widespread use of road transport by the mid 20th C, the canal was a semi-derelict backwater, but was rescued from oblivion by the advent of leisure use. Harborough was pivotal in this change, hosting the first-ever Inland Waterways Association Festival and Rally of Boats in 1950; a national demonstration ‘of the still neglected potentialities of Britain’s waterways for both commercial and pleasure traffic’, and later becoming a renowned centre for boatbuilding and holiday hire.
Changes too numerous to cover in this article have occurred in the years since the canal came to Market Harborough. An extensive regeneration scheme in the 1990s expanded the water-space, converted the old buildings, and introduced new residential and business developments. There are more boats now on the canals than there were in the days of trade, and people from all over this country and the world visit by water. The town should celebrate the decisions of those early speculators.
The OUCS is celebrating the 200th anniversary of the opening of the canal to Harborough on October 10th 2009.
