Remnants of the Newport Pagnell Canal
researched by Jill Gourlay
Autumn 1996
It is pleasing to read increasingly of the canal restoration projects reaching completion and others progressing so well. It surprises me that there are so many other canals that although long gone still display some remnants of interest that are being researched and recorded for posterity. The Newport Pagnell Canal is gone but not forgotten and has an appendix all to itself in Alan Faulkner's "The Grand Junction Canal". Fortunately there are at least two photos of the canal in use. The canal closed in 1864 and the railway which was built over a major part of it closed in 1964: but there are still signs of the canal's existance.
Some new developments can be helpful in ensuring that old canals are not forgotten and this can truly be said of the Giffard Park housing estate which borders onto the Grand Union Canal at Great Linford and comes within the Milton Keynes boundary. Perhaps you are familiar with the single storey building which now straddles the entrance to the canal at Linford Wharf, alongside which there are the old wharf buildings both occupied by Cooper's agricultural machinery. There is an interpretation board at this point beside the Grand Union briefly recording the history of the Newport Pagnell canal and showing a circular walk where traces of the canal can be seen.
Following the footpath from the board the cottage by Lock 1 is still standing although the site of the lock chamber is now part of the front garden. However just beyond the cottage, the overgrown canal bed is clearly seen and holds water for a while after heavy rain.
The (tow?)path continues through a gate into the Giffard Park estate and follows beside the grassed-over depression, lined with trees on the off side, clearly showing the route of the canal up to the next lock. The site of the lock is now a childrens' play area and the road passing across the canal at what would originally have been bridge 4 is appropriately enough called "Boulter's Lock".
The depression continues more faintly now and disappears into a pond which has been made a feature of the estate. Beyond that there are only hints of the route in old hedgerows behind houses before it again disappears, this time mostly under the line of the old railway between Wolverton and Newport Pagnell which is now a public foot and cycle path.
The remaining group of locks skirted the allotments before the terminal basin area. However there is still one remaining physical reminder of the canal at Newport Pagnell. Again by courtesy of a modern development which has obliterated the old railway station site, a view has been opened up of what must have been part of the wall of the canal basin at the end of the line (see photo).
As far as I know there has never been any move to re-open the old Newport Canal, but I am glad that it has not been allowed to sink without trace beneath the ever expanding city of Milton Keynes.
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