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The Welford Arm of the Grand Union Canal (Leicester Line)

The Welford Arm of the GUC is south of
Husbands Bosworth, entirely within Leicestershire
and was restored to enable navigation in 1969

The restoration of this picturesque little narrow canal was down almost completely to the efforts of the Old Union Canal Society. The society promotes interest in the Welford Arm of the GU Canal - Boating, Conservation, Cycling, Fishing, Photography, Restoration, Social history and Walking, amongst others in the area of the Welford Canal Branch.

The one and three-quarter mile long Welford Arm has but one narrow lock just outside the Welford Wharf to the north-west of the Northamptonshire village of Welford.

The village shop is up the hill about 750m from the basin. We visited in May 2008 during a warm spell and found that the small shop cum Post Office and newsagent, had virtually 'sold out' of salad stuff - as we bought the last packet of 'Florette' mixed salad leaves!

The Welford end of the canal has 48hr visitor moorings, a winding hole, BW services point and a commercial boat services next to a small marina area. The main Welford Marina is about 400m away from the basin area.

At the very end, land side, there is an information point showing a number of country walks and nearby there is a recently discovered Lime Kiln complex with information about the largest lime production unit on the GUC. There is also a pub The Wharf Inn, Welford Wharf (previously The George, Welford Wharf) with beer garden.

There are a number of places along the length of the Welford canal for temporary mooring and the area around the junction with the GUC too, which was quite popular.

We can thoroughly recommend the short diversion off your GUC cruise.

We went looking for the ancient site of Sulby Village the other side of the two reservoirs, Welford Reservoir and Sulby Reservoir, 500m down the Naseby Road but all you can see is a number of grass covered earth mounds (as shown on the OS Map Grid SP654815 - Old Sulby Village).

MAP