Market Harborough

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Man & Plank Sculpture

The "Man and Plank" sculpture of a sundial has been erected on a cobbled jetty at the Northeast corner of the basin at a cost of £15,000. It was chosen from three designs put forward in an exhibition held on Saturday March 27th 1999, in the Council Chambers, where the public were allowed to vote for which sculpture they preferred. This winning design is made of a mixture of wood and steel, and depicts a man holding a plank of wood to the ground at a 40° angle.

Did you know... "A National Canal Boat Rally was held at the Basin in 1950." "England's canal network has been run by British Waterways since 1948." "Most canals were built by hand by navvies using picks and shovels." "Harborough's Chamber of Trade pulled out of the Union Wharf development in October 1999." "A bridge that carries a canal above ground level is called an aqueduct." "A section of the canal did not exist in Market Harborough till the early 1800's." "James Brindley was a famous pioneer of canal building in the 18th century."

Union Wharf (formerly known as the Canal Basin), is a British Waterways development project coinciding with the millennium.

The late Georgian building (opposite), originally known as the Union Inn, later became the Six Packs Pub. When plans came about to redevelop the site, it was completely renovated, and has since taken on it's original name and is now known as The Union Inn Hotel.

 

These Canalside Apartments have been erected on the site. They were built on the site of the old Anglo-Welsh Narrowboat building where canal boats were built. During the sixties and seventies, the company also had a thriving business hiring out the boats to holiday makers during the summer.

The old building below, with the black doors and shuttered windows with no glass is one of the oldest on the site. Standing at the very end of the canal basin, it used to be a warehouse which was used for storing cargos such as coal and wood, moved by canal in years gone by. It has now been converted into a waterside Cafe.

The building pictured above, was for many years, the main premises for the the timber merchant Trenery & Son. There were at one time extensions to the building where the white wash area can be seen on the walls, in which an incinerator was housed, the chimney of which can still be seen. The company mainly imported softwoods from Europe, which would arrive at the docks in Boston, and finally be transported by canal in years gone by, and by road after the decline of the canals, to Market Harborough. The firm was later to be taken over by May & Hassle, and then Malden Timber, which moved premises to the Riverside Industrial Estate.

This is the view looking Northeast, showing the addition of a wall, car parking and the old stables which have been converted for commercial use.