Watford Locks

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Watford Locks are seven locks on the Leicester Line of the Grand Union Canal, close to the village of Watford in Northamptonshire, famous for the Watford Gap service area.

The locks are formed (from the south travelling up the locks) of two single locks, a staircase of four, and a final single lock. Together they lift the canal 16m (52ft 6in) to its summit level, which it maintains all the way to Foxton Locks.

The locks were built to carry narrowboats, and in the early 20th century there were plans to build an inclined plane similar to that at Foxton as part of a scheme to allow the passage of barges, but the plan was abandoned when the inclined plane at Foxton proved uneconomic.

When the Grand Union Canal was formed in 1929, there were further proposals to widen the flight as part of the modernisation going on elsewhere on the Grand Union's network, but nothing came of these either.

The locks are hemmed in by the Roman Watling Street (now the A5 road), the M1 motorway, and the West Coast Main Line railway, all fitting through the narrow gap in the hills.

The locks are usually manned during the summer to prevent water shortages in the pounds between the locks. The keeper also ensures the locks run smoothly and quickly. It should take approx 45 Mins to complete this flight, it is made quicker by the fact that the locks are single beam and the gates are light.