Pilling Lock Marina
Pilling Lock Marina is situated to the North West of Barrow Upon Soar on the River Soar Navigation. The Marina is new, having been built in the last couple of years, and offers berths for 240 wide beam and narrow boats.
I visited the Marina today hoping to be able to use the Marina as the starting point for a ramble along the canal. I was disappointed to find I could only walk around the perimeter of the Marina and that I couldn’t get access to the canal towpath. That said, there was an excellent cafe on site which served up a fine Bacon sandwich as consolation. The cafe / restaurant menu seemed quite varied and I imagine it provides an excellent stopping point for boats cruising the canal.
As it’s been such a nice weekend, I wanted to use the location to get some photographs of the Great Central Railway London – Sheffield route as it meanders its way across the River Soar. I was trying to get a “killer” shot of train, boat and idyllic countryside being in perfect harmony. I couldn’t get close enough to the canal, or the railway, to get any decent pictures. All I came away with were a couple of shots of the marina, with its resident boats glimmering in the early morning sunshine.
I’ve come across a number of very different descriptions of this section of waterway. Some call it the Loughborough branch of the Grand Union Canal; others refer to it as the Leicester branch. The British Waterways website, waterscape.com, refers to it as the River Soar Navigation. Whatever its name, the waterway which runs past Pilling Lock connects the Grand Union canal at Norton Junction, where navigation to central London and the River Thames is possible via the Chiltern Hills, to the River Trent at Trent Lock.
The route from Norton Junction to Trent Lock, past Pilling Marina, is made up of three sections which collectively are referred to as “the Leicester Line”. I wonder whether this accounts for the confusion of its name?