Midland meander

摘要

You'll find Market Harborough's canal basin a little way out of the town centre, just off the Leicester Road - and that's for reasons tied up with the canal's history. Originally intended as a through-route from Leicester to Northampton, it climbed to a summit level near Saddington then wound its way south eastwards, clinging to the contour through the hilly country until the money ran out here, at Union Wharf, on the edge of Market Harborough. When the through-route was finally completed it was via a completely different line, so Union Wharf ended up as the terminus of a meandering five-mile dead end from Foxton Junction - and an excellent walk it makes.