Round Trip Napton to Foxton Top Lock

[saltyseadog]

 

Wonder if some of you can help me out: have a mid week break coming up & I was wondering could I manage Napton to Foxton Top Lock & back (with detour up the Welford Arm included). Commence voyage on Monday 0930hrs & return to Napton Friday 1200 hrs.

I have been told that you can end up waiting ages at the Watford Staircase Locks.

 

 

 

Thanks,

Salty.

[Keeping Up]

 

Wonder if some of you can help me out: have a mid week break coming up & I was wondering could I manage Napton to Foxton Top Lock & back (with detour up the Welford Arm included). Commence voyage on Monday 0930hrs & return to Napton Friday 1200 hrs.

I have been told that you can end up waiting ages at the Watford Staircase Locks.

Thanks,

Salty.

Hi Salty,

 

You should be able to do that quite easily. You can get bad queues at Watford at weekends or Bank Holidays, or at times like half-term when there are a lot of people out with their kids, but at this time of year you should be fine if you allow for a wait of up to an hour in case someone has just started coming through the other way. Check on the opening times to make sure you arrive in time to get through before they close (you don't want to spend a night at the top, waiting to go down, it's far too noisy with Motorway traffic). You should be able to make at least Crick on the Monday of you get away promptly at 9.30, and of course you need to be back down to at least Norton junction on the Thursday night.

 

You can turn above Foxton so you won't have to go through any locks there, and I've never known a queue for Welford. Enjoy the trip, it's the most beautiful countryside.

 

Allan

[NB Alnwick]

 

Wonder if some of you can help me out: have a mid week break coming up & I was wondering could I manage Napton to Foxton Top Lock & back (with detour up the Welford Arm included). Commence voyage on Monday 0930hrs & return to Napton Friday 1200 hrs.

I have been told that you can end up waiting ages at the Watford Staircase Locks.

 

Its an easygoing trip for five days.

 

The last similar trip in our log took 15 hours from Napton to Welford and 12 hours back to Napton again - that was in January this year.

 

You do need to be at Watford before about 2.00 pm to be sure of getting through - last time we went through we didn't see a lock keeper but a BW man turned up just after 2.45 pm to lock the top and bottom gates. This does mean that you would struggle to get to Watford on your first day, so I would recommend spending your first night moored above Braunston top lock ready to go through the tunnel very first thing on Tuesday and through Watford flight later in the morning - you can then be in Welford for Tuesday evening. There are also very good moorings at the 'arm-end' - just before the Welford arm branches off. It is not good to moor in the vicinity of Watford because of the noise from the M1, West Coast Main Line and A5. Once through Watford and Crick tunnel it is nice and quiet.

 

Welford to Foxton top lock can be done in less than four hours and it is possble to get through Foxton in less than an hour - so if you get the timing right and with a bit of cruising in the dark, you could even get to Market Harborough and back.