Watford Locks

Together they lift the canal 54 feet 1 inch (16.48 m)[1] to the "Leicester Summit", which it maintains all the way to Foxton Locks.

The four staircase locks are equipped with working side ponds which are used to save water.

[2] 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.

The locks are hemmed in by the Roman Watling Street (now the A5 road), the M1 motorway, and the West Coast Main Line railway, which all fit through the narrow Watford Gap, between two hill systems.

At busy times there can often be a delay of two hours or more but transit of the flight takes approximately 45 minutes; it is made quicker by the fact that the locks are narrow beam and the gates are light.