Locks and more Locks as we near Northampton

Denford to Great Doddington, River Nene, 14.5 miles 10 locks

Much cooler this morning, the northerly wind forced out the winter coat and a pair of woolly gloves.  We pulled the pins on Denford resisting the temptation to stay for another Sunday roast at the local pub and made our way upstream.  It was noticeable today that the river was flowing a little faster than of late, but with yesterday’s rain perhaps I should not be too surprised.

Woodford is a lovely village…

It is a great pity that there is nowhere to moor here, OK so you could get into the side if you really, really wanted to, but there are no official moorings to be had.  There are a couple of pubs too, so I am sure that some ‘village’ moorings somewhere would give them some river trade.

Locks are coming thick and fast at the moment, just about 1 lock every mile on this upstream stretch as we near Northampton.  Some are guillotine, some have pointy gates at both ends, and this one at Ditchford Lock has a rather odd looking contraption that sort of ‘rolls’ down, forming the bridge while up!

We have settled for the weekend between Doddington and Earls Barton Locks, it is beautiful here, and not far away is another of these glorious Nature Reserves that have sprung up from the many gravel workings of some 10 to 20 years ago.  I am off tomorrow to see if I can spot any early winter visitors landing on the lakes over there.. no doubt I will incorporate it in an interesting walk around the valley.

We should be through Northampton on Wednesday or Thursday by the look of it, so if anybody would like to come see us up the Rothersthorpe flight of locks on the Northampton Arm of the Grand Union Canal on one or other of those days you would be more than welcome, I know John mentioned joining us for that when we met in Bedford… anyway just drop me an email or use the comment thing on here if you would like to join NP back up to ‘the system’!