The Grand Union Canal

Built to transport goods between London and Birmingham, today the Grand Union Canal is alive with pleasure boats, walkers, cyclists and wildlife

Stretching 137 miles through 166 locks, the Grand Union Canal emerged as a result of the joining of several waterways.

It cuts across the country from the River Thames at Brentford in London to the Digbeth Branch canal in the heart of Birmingham.  The Grand Union Canal takes boaters up through the rolling Chiltern Hills, rural Northamptonshire and Warwickshire.

Along the way, it has a series of branches, including the Paddington, Slough, Wendover, Aylesbury, Leicester and Northampton arms.

Some of its most dramatic features include the magnificent Iron Trunk Aqueduct carrying the canal over the River Ouse in Buckinghamshire, the 2,795-metre long Blisworth Tunnel in Northamptonshire and the Hatton Flight of 21 Locks in Warwickshire.

Just some of the canal’s key destinations are the county town of Warwick with its jaw-dropping castle on the banks of the River Avon. And the charming canal villages of Braunston and Stoke Bruerne.

You can reach the Grand Union Canal from our base at Wootton Wawen.