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Leicester Ring


robtheplod

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Hi All

 

I'm planning on the Leicester ring in the Summer from Yelvertoft - not sure to go clockwise/anticlockwise and also hoping to pickup any do's/dont's/places to stop at and see and places to avoid (mooring wise)... any nuggets of info very much appreciated!!

 

I'm guessing I need plan to avoid stopping in Leicester itself and it'll my first time on a River so I know moorings are very few?

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I don't get this " must not stop in Leicester" . Castle gardens are safe moorings on the offside, Friars mills are secure moorings too.

We did it anti clockwise from Barrow , the Leicester section is very lock heavy.

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Yes, just forget the hysteria about mooring in Leicester, the Castle Gardens moorings are too gloomy for me but Friars Mills are ok.

 

Personally I find mooring anywhere on 'the mile' is as safe as any urban mooring.

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Anothe vote for anti-clock. We've not been that way for some years, but methinks moorings haven't changed that much.

Folks never make comments on 'things to do' but there's quite a lot there -

Large market will all sorts of 'ethnic stuff'

A number of restaurants on the road out of town

The pumping station

A railway line

A Roman something or other

 

You could spend a couple of days easily

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Leicester is not to be avoided. We were there a few months ago. We breasted up, no problem. Then two RN hired boats came in crewed by submariners on leave. Had a chat, declined their invite to accompany them ashore, would have loved it, but, like the Monkees song, then I saw her face. Decision made. To be honest I expected a noisy night but didn’t hear anything. Mind you sludgemariners have to sleep every four or six hours don’t they. 
 

The Leicester ring is well worth it. The river sections can be interesting. We escaped Trent Lock when the river had just come off reds. Turning out of the lock was ‘clenching’. Good job Nightwatch has 50 hp to get to Shardlow. It were rite good fun.

Edited by Nightwatch
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Done the ring several times and prefer anti clockwise. Leicester is a good place to stop. Secure moorings and easy walk into the centre. Most boaters go from Kilby Bridge to Leicester in one go to avoid any trouble. We don’t much like the pub at Kilby but there are a fair few good moorings there, both sides of the bridge itself. On way north of Leicester you can stop at Birstall.

 

Other favourite moorings on the Soar are around Zouch (pronounced Zotch), near the pub but also a few bends downriver for more rural location. Flights into East Midlands go above your head, which we quite like. From there we usually go straight to Shardlow, which is good for pubs but can be busy. Then you’re into some heavy locks until the doubles turn into singles near Burton as I recall. 

 

Willington is ok for shops and pubs. We like stopping in Alrewas. Keep off the weir on the bit of River Trent before you get into Alrewas. Then we’d probably head for Hopwas or Atherstone (we moor below the locks usually as we like rural stuff). Then a night at Hawkesbury and a visit to the Greyhound, followed by Braunston. Loads of lovely moorings on the Leicester Line summit. Not much in the way of shops or pubs after Crick, which is a good mooring. Welford arm is nice but we don’t rate the pub. Others love it. Worth a detour to Market Harborough. Moor as close to the basin as you can. You can actually moor in the basin if you pay a few quid to the marina people. Then on to Kilby Bridge, which is where my version of this tour began.

 

Rugby has good moorings and is close to Tesco.

 

Places to avoid would probably be Nuneaton and I suppose Tamworth. That’s about it. Have a good time!

 

 

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Anti-clockwise is best as the pounds between Foxton and Leicester are often low so you arealways taking a lock full of water with you.

Why not time your trip to coincide with the Leicseter Riverside festival which this year is the 6th and 7th June. Its a great event plenty of live music, food to suit all tastes and an opportunity to see mukticultural Leicester at its best. We will be there. Leicester is a safe place to moor. https://www.visitleicester.info/whats-on/riverside-festival-p704771

Loughborough is another good stopping point - good pubs, market Thursday and Saturday, good choice of supermarkets and plenty of good safe moorings.

A word of warning there are no services between Kilby Bridge and Barrow on Soar unless you use boatyards. Sileby Mill has a good turn over of diesel so a good place to top up your tank - its service point is just below the lock.

Watch out for Barrow bridge if heading downstream and there is any fresh in the river - it has a low sprung arch which can catch you out.

Currently the Soar is in flood and between Leicester and Loughborough is up to a mile wide!! The flood plain is doing what its meant to do.

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When Richard mentions services, he means bog emptying.

Water is now available in the city centre on the new pontoons just after King Richard's bridge. Water is also available outside the Hope and Anchor although pressure drops when the pub is open, so fill up there in the morning.

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thanks so much for the replies, so anti-clockwise recommended and don't miss Leicester - sorry I made that comment, just assumed when a canal goes through a City its best to keep going but very happy to be proved wrong (I love Gas Street in Birmingham for example)….

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10 minutes ago, matty40s said:

When Richard mentions services, he means bog emptying.

Water is now available in the city centre on the new pontoons just after King Richard's bridge. Water is also available outside the Hope and Anchor although pressure drops when the pub is open, so fill up there in the morning.

We were at an IWA meeting the other night and Memory Lane moorings were discussed. When access arrangements have been resolved CRT intend to install full services. There will also be 8 residential moorings on the arm. I would expect the demand for them to be quite high.

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2 hours ago, Proper Charlie said:

Done the ring several times and prefer anti clockwise. Leicester is a good place to stop. Secure moorings and easy walk into the centre. Most boaters go from Kilby Bridge to Leicester in one go to avoid any trouble. We don’t much like the pub at Kilby but there are a fair few good moorings there, both sides of the bridge itself. On way north of Leicester you can stop at Birstall.

 

Other favourite moorings on the Soar are around Zouch (pronounced Zotch), near the pub but also a few bends downriver for more rural location. Flights into East Midlands go above your head, which we quite like. From there we usually go straight to Shardlow, which is good for pubs but can be busy. Then you’re into some heavy locks until the doubles turn into singles near Burton as I recall. 

 

Willington is ok for shops and pubs. We like stopping in Alrewas. Keep off the weir on the bit of River Trent before you get into Alrewas. Then we’d probably head for Hopwas or Atherstone (we moor below the locks usually as we like rural stuff). Then a night at Hawkesbury and a visit to the Greyhound, followed by Braunston. Loads of lovely moorings on the Leicester Line summit. Not much in the way of shops or pubs after Crick, which is a good mooring. Welford arm is nice but we don’t rate the pub. Others love it. Worth a detour to Market Harborough. Moor as close to the basin as you can. You can actually moor in the basin if you pay a few quid to the marina people. Then on to Kilby Bridge, which is where my version of this tour began.

 

Rugby has good moorings and is close to Tesco.

 

Places to avoid would probably be Nuneaton and I suppose Tamworth. That’s about it. Have a good time!

 

 

 

I agree that Nuneaton isnt a place to moor and leave the boat unattended for long,  but there is nothing wrong with Tamworth but a bit of light industry near Fazeley and endless gardens backing onto the canal.

 

I live near there, moor my boat at the end of my garden and have never heard of any trouble in the 6 years i have been here.

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On 16/02/2020 at 13:52, Richard T said:

We were at an IWA meeting the other night and Memory Lane moorings were discussed. When access arrangements have been resolved CRT intend to install full services. There will also be 8 residential moorings on the arm. I would expect the demand for them to be quite high.

Thanks for this, I was just about to add something (out of date!) about Memory Lane moorings. 

 

Like most river navigations you need to plan ahead a bit for moorings, but there are lots of nice places to stop (not least as quite a bit of the waterways is canal rather than river eg the long section through Loughborough. I was under time pressure so did Leicester to Kegworth in a day. You could easily take two or three (including a bit of a walk along the Melton Mowbray navigation).

 

There's a nice mooring at Kegworth herewhere I learnt that the flights into East Midlands airport (you are under the flightpath ...) start at 0330. So I had a very early start the following day. I should have stopped a bit further south, at the Devil's Elbow.

 

Some photos here if that helps you with spotting some nice moorings...  I did find Loughborough basin a bit concrety.

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On 16/02/2020 at 10:04, Rickent said:

I don't get this " must not stop in Leicester" . Castle gardens are safe moorings on the offside, Friars mills are secure moorings too.

We did it anti clockwise from Barrow , the Leicester section is very lock heavy.

If you can get on them! 1 out of 3 so far. 

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  • 4 months later...

so, with July 4th almost upon us I'm now making plans for this!  A few queries and that is the locks on the rivers - do you leave any gates open as i recall or leave them as you find them.... also as the Leicester ring has several rivers do people wear life jackets or is this for larger expanses of water??

 

This is assuming Leicester stays open as i hear it might being going into a lockdown shortly??

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1 hour ago, roland elsdon said:

Watford is still shut I think

Dont forget 2 antivandal keys

brill thanks for that... We're combining this with a Marina move so will end up at Ventnor Marina rather than Yelvertoft so wont be going through Watford.

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48 minutes ago, Nightwatch said:

Good point. Could you still travel through without stopping I wonder!

No idea, we are at Hatton locks at the moment, but are going back to Barrow via the Oxford, Coventry through Fradley then Trent and Mersey, long way round but it bypasses Leicester.

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5 minutes ago, Nightwatch said:

Probably wise to do so.  Nice trip also. Parts of the Coventry is pleasant enough. Fradley and beyond okay also. 

Yes, we came through Fradley and down through Birmingham, wouldn't go back through there if you paid me  it was horrendous.

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I was in Leicester with one of the community health team  only yesterday.

She had spent the last two days taking bloods from all her staff, to test for COVID antibody, to assess for evidence of past infection. She was a bit guarded as to reason . Now we know why. Get ahead of the curve by finding who is immune.

Leicester was always going to have issues with covid.

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