We'd been down the Foxton Locks flight last October in the narrowboat Annabel crewed by Dan and Krisie, and I wanted to return to spend more time there and to visit the museum.
After a filling breakfast at Table Table the drive to Foxton Locks car park too 10 minutes. The day was cold with steady rain. The site of the Inclined Plane boat lift was fenced off, but the museum was open.
We were the only visitors at that time and had the benefit of a personal guided tour by one of the volunteers, dressed as a canalboat man. A working model of the boat lift showed how two boats could float into a tank filled with water (caisson) in the canal. When the caisson's access door was closed, it with the floating canalboats was winched by a steam engine to the canal at the other end where they would float out of the caisson and resume their journey 12 minutes later. But the boat lift cost and, while they took 45 minutes, the locks were free, and competition from railways was taking business away from canals.
The boat lift was in operation only from 1900 to 1911 when it needed expensive repairs so it was mothballed, and sold for scrap in 1928.
We'd enjoyed our bacon butties in October and planned on having them for lunch, but were too full from our breakfast so headed back home.
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| Foxton Locks in the rain |
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