Canal Boat Holiday Base Information - Base 44

Base 44 is situated on the northern Edge of the Chiltern Hills, an hour's journey by road or rail from London. Linslade adjoins the Market town of Leighton Buzzard, which over the last hundred years has become famous for its sand. Much of this sand was transported by Narrow Gauge Railway to the canal and loaded aboard narrow boats.

Many of these loading wharves can still be seen today. The Grand Union Canal was one of the last canals to he built and opened in 1806 to provide a direct route from the Oxford Canal at Braunston to the river Thames at London. It has many outstanding engineering achievements like the Blisworth and Braunston tunnels, the aqueducts at Cosgrove and Milton Keynes and the Weedon embankments.

Short breaks - 3/4 nights
North from Leighton Buzzard: Travel north along the Ouzel Valley through the parks of Milton Keynes and over the Aqueduct at Cosgrove and onto the picturesque Northampton shire village of Stoke Bruerne. Moor up at the bottom of the flight of locks at Stoke Bruerne and then a short walk up the locks brings you to the famous canal village with its shops, pubs, restaurants and Waterways Museum.

For the more energetic take your boat up the flight of seven locks and on through the nearly 2 mile long Blisworth tunnel, through Blisworth village and on to Gayton Junction. You can turn all our boats below and above the locks at Stoke Bruerne and at Gayton Junction. This is an ideal mini-break cruise for the novice with plenty of entertainment for your children, some locks, two aqueducts and many good pubs and restaurants.

South From Leighton Buzzard: Head south towards the beautiful village of Marsworth keeping an eye out for the lion cut in the chalk on the side of Whipsnade hill. The reservoirs at Marsworth, which were built to supply water to the canal summit, are now also used as extensive nature reserves. Wild life is in abundance and it is very rewarding to have an afternoon or evening stroll round the lakes and study the bird life. At Marsworth either cruise straight on for Berkhamsted or turn right for the Aylesbury arm.

Berkhamsted: From Marsworth travel up the seven locks to Bulbourne. The canal then enters a three-mile cutting past Tring Station to Cowroast. Be on special alert as Kingfishers are often spotted in the cutting. At Cowroast the canal starts its descent to London, passing through Berkhamsted close to the old castle, outdoor swimming pool and leisure parks.

Aylesbury Arm: This canal runs from Marsworth to Aylesbury and is just 6 miles long with 16 narrow locks, only inches wider than your boat. Aylesbury has a small basin with visitor moorings close to the market town centre.

One Week Holidays
Grand Union North to Braunston (21hours each way): Cruise as for the three day cruise continuing North through the Stoke Bruerne Locks and the nearly 2 mile long Blisworth Tunnel, where you escape underground for 45 minutes, but do not worry you can pass in the tunnel as it is 16 feet wide. On through Northamptonshire and its attractive stone villages through Weedon reputed to be the centre of England and on to the junction at Braunston.

Here the Oxford Canal running from Oxford to Coventry crosses the Grand Union Canal. Braunston village grew up around the canal and became well known for the building of wooden narrow boats. The church steeple can be seen for miles around.
This cruise gives the perfect introduction for a week's canal cruising with the passage of 27 locks, 2 aqueducts, 2 tunnels and the canal museum at Stoke Bruerne not to mention the excellent canalside hostelries and for the younger crew members the many children 's play areas in and around Milton Keynes.

Grand Union South to Croxley Green (20 hours each way): Cruise to Berkhamsted as for the 3 - 4 day cruise and on down the Colne Valley towards the Thames Valley and London. Although there are more locks as you cross the Chiltern hills, the canal is very quiet and extremely pretty through places such as Grove Park with the Earl of Essex's ornamental bridges, Cassiobury Park where you meander though the woods and Croxley Green where you cruise through the middle of a recently landscaped Colne valley nature reserve.

Two Week Holidays
The Warwick Ring (Total hours cruising 95 hours): After Braunston continue along the Grand Union Canal towards Warwick where a stop is essential for supplies and To visit Warwick castle. Up the flight of 21 locks at Hatton which has been completed in under two hours and on towards Birmingham. This section through the Eastern end of the Birmingham canal navigation gives a fascinating insight into industrial architecture and the original function of the canal system.

Under spaghetti junction and after Birmingham you have the rural section which is lightly locked leading you North along the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal to the Coventry canal at Fazeley Junction past Drayton Manor Park and Zoo. Then back to Braunston via the North Oxford canal.

Leicester Ring (Total hours cruising 107 hours): Cruise North to Norton Junction and onto the Leicester section through the locks at Watford Gap. Here you will come across your first staircase locks where the bottom gates of one lock form the top gates of the next. After Watford there is the twenty-mile pound across the summit to Foxton. This is a very rural canal where you hardly see any civilisation for the twenty miles however there are several small villages just half a mile from the canal well worth visiting.

At Foxton there is the remains of the old steam driven inclined plane. The old engine house is now an excellent museum illustrating how the steam driven plane was built and worked. Through Saddington tunnel and on to the city of Leicester where you join the River Soar, which flows, down to its junction with the river Trent just south of Nottingham. Up the river Trent for 2 miles and join the Trent & Mersey to Fradley Junction and then head south on to the Coventry and North Oxford canals.