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The charity making life better by water

New vintage festival at Foxton Locks

Foxton Locks in Leicestershire is set to host a new waterway event with a Foxton Vintage Festival due to take place on 16 and 17 September.

Foxton Vintage Festival

The festival will bring to life the stories of what it was like to live and work along the canals during the height of the Industrial Revolution.

The two-day family friendly festival will include a wide variety of heritage and vintage working boats, steam engines, a vintage fun fair, local food and drink stalls, craft stalls, boat trips through the locks and costume characters.

Foxton Locks is home to a staircase of ten locks which enables boats to navigate up and down the hill at Foxton. Built in 1815 the locks are 200 years old and around 4,000 boats travel through this famous flight each year. The site is also home to the now disused boat lift which was originally designed to speed up travel by bypassing the locks before it fell into disuse in 1911.

Vicky Martin, waterway manager from the Canal & River Trust, said: "Our waterways are as much alive today as they were when they were used to transport cargo around the country and are a great place to visit as a family.

This festival will give people the chance to get up close to our canal heritage and discover how important our waterways were in helping to shape modern day Britain. Nowadays our canals are places where you can enjoy a much slower pace of life and, as a charity, we're really keen to showcase all they have to offer to a new generation of enthusiasts."

Tickets are £12 per car and are on sale now. Go to our events page now to buy your tickets. The price includes parking and entry into the festival.

Last Edited: 03 August 2017

photo of a location on the canals
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