Template:FP-Grand Union Canal

The Grand Union Canal in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire

Grand Union Canal The Grand Union Canal, stretching from Birmingham to the River Thames is at 286.3 miles the longest canal in the United Kingdom. Its main line connects London and Birmingham over 137 miles with 166 locks but it also has arms reaching out from the main line to other towns, including Leicester, Slough, Aylesbury, Wendover and Northampton. The Grand Union is not a creation of the great days of canal-building but an amalgamation effected in the 20th century. It was created as a commercial venture, and joined together several canals which were dug in the nineteenth century, with new works of the twentieth. It is now primarily a waterway used for leisure boating, and for beautifying the towns along its route. (Read more)