Welcome to Mayfield Boats based in Nottingham! We are ideally situated for narrowboat hire on the G. U. C. Leicester Line, providing self-drive narrowboat holidays in the inland waterways of central England. Our luxury holiday narrowboats have been designed and built to the highest of standards and provide a flexible layout for families as well as groups of friends.
The Leicester Line of the Grand Union Canal is a quiet canal through rolling hills and beautiful countryside, including the waterway landmark of Foxton Locks and the highest point on the Grand Union. The Leicester section of the Grand Union Canal is interesting and varied. As you leave the main line at Norton Junction south of Braunston, you'll join the River Trent near Kegworth. The canal section just before Leicester is very rural, surrounded by pleasant, typical English countryside.
There are two tunnels at Crick and Husband's Bosworth as well as impressive staircase locks at Watford and Foxton. Foxton is the site of a steam powered Inclined Plane, which replaced ten, locks and lifted narrow boats 75 feet. It was opened in 1900 but suffered from mechanical and structural problems. The locks were reopened in 1908 and now work beautifully!
On route down the canal you'll pass through Leicester where you can tour the town and visit the Roman ruins. For the last twenty miles of the route you'll be travelling along the River Soar, which is a tributary of the Trent, where you can enjoy some very pleasant countryside views.
Boating along the Leicester Line, one of the Midlands’ most remote rural waterways, can be a delightfully solitary experience. A long, lock-free stretch is bookended by the staircase flights at Watford and Foxton, where lock-keepers help to keep traffic flowing in summer months. Then, north of Foxton, the canal slowly descends through a succession of wide locks to Leicester and the River Soar. The sweeping arc of the Market Harborough Arm and the short, wooded Welford Arm are worthwhile diversions. Harborough is a pleasant town with a revived Canal Basin, an excellent spot for overnight mooring. Leicester itself is comparatively short on visitor moorings but has many waterside attractions, including the new National Space Centre and the adjacent Abbey Pumping Station.
The peace of the Leicester Line is disrupted every May by the bustle of the Crick Boat Show. The event, held at a marina between Watford and Foxton, is Britain's biggest narrowboat show.
Mayfield Boats prices start from as little as ?351 for a short break and include diesel, gas, bed linen, towels and welcome pack of tea, coffee, milk, washing up liquid and cleaning cloths.