Leicester Ring including Nottingham - Advice required.

[Guest Sulou]

Hello, We are planning to do the Leicester Ring from Napton and we have 14 days. We want advice on the following please:

 

• How easy is it to get to Nottingham and moor there overnight.
• Is the Leicester ring an interesting route or would you recommend a different route given our time and starting point.
• We tend to do a lot of hours and therefore could we also do the Ashby canal in our time and is it worth it?

I appreciate any advice given.

 

Thanks

[mrsmelly]

Hello, We are planning to do the Leicester Ring from Napton and we have 14 days. We want advice on the following please:

 

• How easy is it to get to Nottingham and moor there overnight.
• Is the Leicester ring an interesting route or would you recommend a different route given our time and starting point.
• We tend to do a lot of hours and therefore could we also do the Ashby canal in our time and is it worth it?

I appreciate any advice given.

 

Thanks

 

Hi

 

My advice is always enjoy the journey and take your time it aint a race. That route sounds like a good 2/3 months jaunt. However whatever floats ya boat as it were. There are simply loads of moorings in and around Nottingham . There are fab moorings on the river which is the best bit of course just outside County hall with secure rings to tie to. You could also go onto the canal at Meadow lock and again there are several long stretches of moorings possible on that stretch.

The Soar and the Trent are some of the best waterways in the uk.

 

Enjoy

 

Tim

[Chris Davidson]

Easy to get into Nottingham, and as Tim says loads of good moorings.

The ring is a good route with lots of things to see along the way.

I think you will be pushing it, to try and fit the Ashby in aswell though.

[Guest Sulou]

Thanks for that. I wasn't sure about getting to Nottingham because it's on the river rather than the canal and wondered if there were any difficulties with that. As far as distance goes, we always set out to take it easy but end up doing big days. Last year we did the Four Counties ring and took in the Caldon to both the Leek and Froghall on our 11 night break. It was tough as we were caught in the very cold and snow of last March.

[Guest]

Hello, We are planning to do the Leicester Ring from Napton and we have 14 days. We want advice on the following please:

 

 

• How easy is it to get to Nottingham and moor there overnight.
• Is the Leicester ring an interesting route or would you recommend a different route given our time and starting point.
• We tend to do a lot of hours and therefore could we also do the Ashby canal in our time and is it worth it?

I appreciate any advice given.

 

Thanks

We have done the Leicester ring from Napton in 14 days with ease.

 

Yes it's definitely worth doing.

 

We didn't venture up the ashby though possibly we could have done had we maxed out our cruising days, we just took it easy.

 

Rainfall and flooding permitting it's a great route choice....

Edited November 13, 2013 by The Dog House

[mrsmelly]

 

Thanks for that. I wasn't sure about getting to Nottingham because it's on the river rather than the canal and wondered if there were any difficulties with that. As far as distance goes, we always set out to take it easy but end up doing big days. Last year we did the Four Counties ring and took in the Caldon to both the Leek and Froghall on our 11 night break. It was tough as we were caught in the very cold and snow of last March.

 

Hi

 

It will depend on the weather immediately preceding and during your trip as to wether or not the Soar/Trent is advisable. You will go much greater distances on the rivers than on shallow canals usualy but these two rivers realy can rise very dramaticaly with a very substantial flow. Personaly I would do the route if the weather is right at the time as I vastly prefer rivers to ditches but thats a personal thing.

 

Tim

[KJT]

The Ashby is well worth a few days exploring, but you would be hard pushed to include it with the Leicester Ring in 14 days!

 

Ken

[bottle]

Sulou

 

Have a look at http://canalplan.org.uk/ and 'plan a journey' left hand column. go to the bottom of the page and look for 'ring'.

 

Select Leicester ring and whether you plan to go clockwise or anti-clockwise. Adjust you timings, first day, last day etc.

 

You do not say when you are going but if before the end of March you may wish to check the stoppages, http://www.waterscape.com/things-to-do/boating/stoppages

[Guest]

The Ashby is well worth a few days exploring, but you would be hard pushed to include it with the Leicester Ring in 14 days!

 

Ken

 

When we did it a few years ago now we met a crew doing it clockwise (we did it anti) coming the other way at a lock on the T&M.

 

They claimed they were on target to do it in a week which would mean in 2 weeks they would have had time to shoot up the Ashby too.

 

Not my kind of leisure boating mind! - we like to take things a bit slower.

[Proper Charlie]

We did it the ring in 8 days earlier this year, which would leave you with plenty of time to stop in Nottingham and also do the Ashby.

 

http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=56545

 

There's loads of good info on this site if you search for Leicester Ring.

[GoodGurl]

as said above the river soar and river trent are amazing rivers to travel on, depending on when you plan to travel you could hit floods and may not be able to navigate them, but well worth it.

[alan_fincher]

Why do some boaters think they know best and need to tell other people how many hours, miles, or locks they should put in in a day?

 

Some like to potter, and take months to go around a simple "ring".

 

Others who may be paying a large four figure sum for each week they hire a boat, or who only have a set time available, (or quite probably both!), may prefer to put in long days, and hence see a lot more of the canals a lot faster.

 

If you are determined you can get round the Leicester Ring in a week, and it certainly takes only a few days to go up and down the Ashby, so both in a fortnight is easily achieved, but not if you want short cruising days, and to linger at the pub for hours each lunchtime.

You are paying to hire - do what you want to do, and ignore anyone who thinks you are bonkers! Whatever you decide to do, have fun!

[Guest Sulou]

Sulou

 

Have a look at http://canalplan.org.uk/ and 'plan a journey' left hand column. go to the bottom of the page and look for 'ring'.

 

Select Leicester ring and whether you plan to go clockwise or anti-clockwise. Adjust you timings, first day, last day etc.

 

You do not say when you are going but if before the end of March you may wish to check the stoppages, http://www.waterscape.com/things-to-do/boating/stoppages

That's a good idea, Ill do that and see how it works out on the plan. We are going end of April/beg of May.

Why do some boaters think they know best and need to tell other people how many hours, miles, or locks they should put in in a day?

 

Some like to potter, and take months to go around a simple "ring".

 

Others who may be paying a large four figure sum for each week they hire a boat, or who only have a set time available, (or quite probably both!), may prefer to put in long days, and hence see a lot more of the canals a lot faster.

 

If you are determined you can get round the Leicester Ring in a week, and it certainly takes only a few days to go up and down the Ashby, so both in a fortnight is easily achieved, but not if you want short cruising days, and to linger at the pub for hours each lunchtime.

 

You are paying to hire - do what you want to do, and ignore anyone who thinks you are bonkers! Whatever you decide to do, have fun!

 

Your post did make me smile. You've got it about right. Yes we pay to hire each year and that comes at a price. If we lived aboard we'd take it a lot slower. When you said spend longer in the pub at lunchtimes, I was trying to think if we'd ever stopped at a pub a lunchtime. We sometimes allow ourselves time to stop at lunchtime at all and have a quick sandwich or the like. Mostly though one cooks and one steers and we push on through. I think though with our limited time we seem to enjoy the challenge of seeing how much we can do and how much we can get out of our usual a week, last time 11 days and this time 2 weeks.

 

I think this time though, we're going to take it slower!

[ditchcrawler]

We have done the Leicester ring from Napton in 14 days with ease.

 

Yes it's definitely worth doing.

 

We didn't venture up the ashby though possibly we could have done had we maxed out our cruising days, we just took it easy.

 

Rainfall and flooding permitting it's a great route choice....

When we first got our share boat we did it in 10 days with no problems, but in those days we did long days. Also we didnt get held up, dead easy on the Soar

[Mrs Trackman]

Think it's all been said but the Leicester ring isn't much more than a week if you like long days. There are usually only 2 of us so we prefer to go with another boat, some of the locks are quite hard.

I'd probably go anti clockwise from Napton to be sure of getting the rivers done if they aren't already high after rainfall. That way you should be able to tell if you have time for Nottingham and the Ashby.

I think it's a great route and you are unlikely to be held up anywhere at most times of the year. However, if you are planning to go in school holidays you may well be held up at Fradley and the Atherstone locks can be busy. Check the times Watford and Foxton are open too, we arrived a good while before closing time this year and were not allowed to use them that day, very frustrating if you are on a tight schedule to be forced to stop at 3.30 as we were.

I suggest you look back, there was a thread earlier this year about the Leicester ring with plenty of tips.

[Richard T]

Not a problem in 10days - we went round at Easter last year clockwise without problems. For some of the time we boated with Mr & Mrs Trackman which was good. It helped to have two boats in the wide locks. Don't be put off by the tales of Leicester - its fine. Stop on the pontoons in the city centre and go and enjoy what it has to offer. Moorings in Nottingham and Loughborough are also very good.

[john6767]

We did the section from Fradley to Napton via Leicester this summer and the locks through Leicester can be hard work, we were lucky and shared with another boat all the way up through Leicester, but on your own it would be hard going. Leicester despite having the top rugby team is a bit of a dump from the canal/river though (sorry Leicester).

 

We were the last boat through Foxton on the evening after Leicester and the next day we were next to last down Watford and at the bottom there were about a dozen boats who were waiting to come up and the lock keeper said they would not all get up that day. So you can get hold ups there if you are unlucky.

 

But is is a great trip and a good mix of narrow, wide and rivers.

[NickF]

I think you like boating the same way i do ..... you pay so much for the boat you might as well use it!

 

http://canalplan.org.uk/

 

Is a really useful tool. I normally plan in a route I have done in the past ...(for you four counties plus Caldon) and see how many hours it suggests. (this may be more or less than you actually take but that doesn't matter)

 

You then have an idea of how many "route planner hours" you cover in a day so then have a look at Leicester ring and Nottingham and see if the hours look realistic.

 

I personally find the East side of the Leicester ring a bit boring as there are so few locks, when I did it we added on Great Haywood, Autherley, Farmers Bridge, Knowle and Hatton as we came down the east side. We had 11 days and had no intention of going that far but it just happened!.... we did go late June so had late evenings ..... canal plan will give "sunset times" so you need to take that into account.

 

Whatever you do i hope you have a great trip .

 

NickF

[adam1uk]

I personally find the East side of the Leicester ring a bit boring as there are so few locks, when I did it we added on Great Haywood, Autherley, Farmers Bridge, Knowle and Hatton as we came down the east side. We had 11 days and had no intention of going that far but it just happened!.... we did go late June so had late evenings ..... canal plan will give "sunset times" so you need to take that into account.

 

 

We did something similar when we did the Leicester Ring from Warwick a good few years ago on a hire boat. We carried on to Great Haywood, then Autherley, Birmingham, Lapworth, and Hatton. We had two weeks, which was plenty of time.

[Guest]

East side of the Leicester ring boring my big hairy backside... only boaters with no proper appreciation of boating would say such a thing...

[adam1uk]

East side of the Leicester ring boring my big hairy backside... only boaters with no proper appreciation of boating would say such a thing...

 

I think he actually means the west side -- the Coventry and North Oxford -- which is definitely less interesting. After all, Great Haywood etc wouldn't really be an alternative to the east side.

[Guest]

I think he actually means the west side -- the Coventry and North Oxford -- which is definitely less interesting. After all, Great Haywood etc wouldn't really be an alternative to the east side.

I think he does indeed..

 

though TBH I sort of knew it when I posted.

[NickF]

 

I think he actually means the west side -- the Coventry and North Oxford -- which is definitely less interesting. After all, Great Haywood etc wouldn't really be an alternative to the east side.

Oops sorry I meant the West side