After a peaceful night we set off for Market Harborough. It doesn't seem to take long to get to the bottom of Foxton Locks. I am always a little wary of this area as the locks concentrate the boats and added to by the hire boats from Market Harborough, a lift bridge, a junction and boats waiting to go up the locks combined with those leaving the locks can lead to an amusing spectacle for the many onlookers that are hanging about, waiting for any incident to film on their phones.
As tunnels go Saddington is a pussy cat. Whilst there is no towpath you can see down its length and it is wide and dry. It was built in 1797 for when the canal opened and is 880 yards long.
A little after the tunnel is a small aqueduct over the Langton Brook. This was the scene of a canal breach in 1917. I wonder if this was when the concrete coping was added.
For a short branch canal the Market Harborough Arm offers plenty to offer the boater. There are two swing bridges and plenty of good bends and narrows to catch the helmsman out. The bridges are quite distinctive been with a low arch and lower parapet.
It always seems to take a lot longer than it should when heading to Market Harbrough, especially if you are behind another boat. We reached the Basin, and Union Wharf with its hire base. The services are on the left but we winded and headed back out before heading down into the town for a look around.
We have been to Market Harborough several times and I had always been a little disappointed in the pub selection in the town. This time I had heard of a new addition to the scene a micro pub called the Beerhouse. It sounded promising and we found it easily. It is a converted furniture showroom, complete with plastic tiled suspended ceiling. It doesn't sound very promising but it is all about the beer (and cider). Although termed a micro pub there are three rooms and plenty of space, tables bar stools and sofas for all styles of lolloping about with a pint. There were twelve beers on the stillage, all gravity fed (not my favourite method of pouring) and plenty of ciders and craft too. There is a monday quiz night and looked to have plenty of musicians playing through the week too.
Plenty of small and local breweries were represented and I chose a pint from the Nene Valley Brewery. The brewry was set up in 2011 in some outbuildings on West Street in Oundle. They then expanded into a 15bbl unit that was the old Water Board.s building a year later. 2016 once more they needed more space and moved to Oundle Wharf where they are today. There is the Brewery Tap and Kitchen on site too
I had a pint of their Egyptian Cream. This is a 4.5% stout. Here it is drawn from the barrel by gravity so a big headed beer was not to be expected. What head there was was a beautiful caramel colour. The beer itself was a lovely lustrous dark colour. It looked good, and first sip proved it tasted good. It was velvety smooth in the mouth. There are eight different malts used which is bound to give it a balanced feel. This is a great beer and I awarded it a 4 on Untapped, making it in my top ten for 2019. Most of which were stouts and porters it seems.
Just for a change I tried a beer from another local'ish brewery Three Hills Brewing. By the look of their logo you would think that they are an oriental outfit, but no, they hail from Woodford near Northampton. However owner and head brewer Andrew Catherall worked brewing in China for seven years so has brought that to the new venture started in 2017. The Name comes from three neolithic barrows above the town. They are a small and artisanal brewery and they love to experiment with their small batch plant. They mainly bottle the beer, with keg too, and occasional cask. The bottle art work is line print and very chic.. Nice to look at.
I had a pint of Mildavator. It seems to have been one of their experimental cask beers as I can find no record of it anywhere other than this one barrel at the Beerhouse! The beer was a pleasing darker bitter colour and had a nice malty toffee taste. It is an unfined beer that means it is cloudy, deliberately so. It certainly wasn't my best beer of the day but was a good enough pint non the less. I wonder if it will ever be brewed again.
The beerhouse is a must in Market Harbrough for those that like a different beer and a pb with now music and TV or slot machines. I will be going again next time at Union Wharf.
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