Wednesday 3rd
October 2018
We had a maintenance day today. The side doors were removed and varnished.
This is a job that has been waiting for a long time and needed doing before the
winter sets in. These doors, along with the front and back, were never properly
finished off from new build. The wooden panels
on all doors had started to fall off and so have had to be re-glued and now need
varnishing to prevent any moisture getting behind the panels. Trouble is, they
really need at least three coats of varnish and it takes all day to dry. The
job really should have been done in the hot weather.
The starboard side was blackened. Without a doubt the fendering
arrangement works very well and protects the paintwork no end, but it was beginning
to look neglected. The PU100 Matt Black paint bought in Stone was used and
feels so much more superior to the satin black.
This Leicester Section has been very quiet the whole time we have been
on it. Today, just four boats have passed.
Harvey was groomed and cleaned with his hygiene wipes. We cannot get
over how well he now takes to being groomed whereas, when we lived in the house
he wouldn’t let us groom him at all, it was always a fight. We think he enjoys
the attention.
We sat in the front cratch with the setting sun behind us and watched all
the colours changing in the trees as the sun went down. There were many reds
and oranges, the autumn is definitely here.
We changed yesterday, from the river to the canal section of the Leicester
Section of the Grand Union Canal, but it was unclear as to where this change actually
happened. The Grand Union Canal links London with Birmingham and the Leicester
Section links the Grand Union to the River Trent and the wider canal network in
the north and east, via Leicester and Loughborough.
Originally, the Leicester Section was known as the Grand Union and the
Grand Union, as we know it today, was called the Grand Junction Canal but only ran
from London to Braunston where it linked into the canal system and provided a
route to Birmingham. In 1929 the Grand Union Canal Company was formed and, using
part of the Oxford Canal, provided a through route from London to Birmingham. The
Grand Union Canal Company bought the Leicester Section in 1931. At this time
each individual canal was owned by its own private company, in competition with
each other, and remained so until nationalisation took place in 1948.
The Leicester Section, as a through route, was created from three
different sections. The Loughborough Navigation was created by making the River
Soar navigable. It opened in 1778 and runs for 9¼ miles from the River Trent to
Loughborough.
The Leicester Navigation also uses the route of the River Soar. It was
opened in 1794 and runs for 15¾ miles from Loughborough to Leicester.
The canal section from Leicester to the junction with the Grand
Junction Canal at Napton was not opened until 1814 and is 41¼
miles long.
The River Soar leaves the navigation at Aylestone, south of Leicester,
just below Kings Lock, so this would be considered the start of the artificial
cut of the canal section. However, the bridges on each section of the Leicester
Line are numbered differently and the bridge numbers do not change until the
Mile Straight in Leicester, some 2½ miles further on.
Old, original Grand Junction Canal marker posts indicate distances to
Leicester. Locks are numbered continuously and sequentially from Napton to the River
Trent.
With all these differing factors, it is confusing just where the canal
section actually starts.
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