These were Leicestershire & Northamptonshire Union Canal and the ‘old' Grand Union Canal.
The River Soar had been made navigable up to Loughborough by 1780, and the route was extended to Leicester in 1794. The Leicestershire & Northamptonshire Union Canal was promoted to continue the waterway to Market Harborough and Northampton, where it would meet the River Nene and the planned branch from the Grand Junction Canal at Gayton.
By 1797, when construction had only reached Gumley Debdale, the money had been used up. More was raised in 1805, and the canal got to Market Harborough four years later.
Meanwhile, the Grand Junction Canal from London to Braunston had opened. Alternative routes for joining the two canals were discussed and it was decided that a separate waterway called the ‘Grand Union Canal' should be formed to make the link. (It is now often referred to as the ‘old' Grand Union, to distinguish it from the canal of the same name created in 1929, when the Grand Junction merged with several other canals.) This opened from Norton Junction to Foxton in 1814, providing a direct route from the [East Midlands](/ /about-us/where-we-work/east-midlands) coalfield and industrial towns to London.
Bought out
Never prosperous, railway competition from the 1840s meant declining revenues, which led to reductions in maintenance. When in the early 1890s the Grand Junction was looking to revive the East Midlands trade, the two companies were very willing to be bought out, so in 1894 the Grand Junction paid £6,500 for the L&NU and £10,500 for the ‘old' Grand Union — the better price for the latter probably reflecting the value of its reservoirs rather than its canal.
The Grand Junction rectified the arrears of maintenance, dredged their new purchases, and built the inclined plane at Foxton, bypassing the ten locks and speeding the passage of the boats. A further inclined plane was planned to bypass Watford Locks but was never built.
It was all too late: traffic grew slightly, but not by enough to make working Foxton incline economic, and in 1910 it was closed and traffic reverted to using the locks.
