Sileby Mill - Monday 6th June

This morning we went a walk around Loughborough which turned out to be a very nice town particularly as the main shopping areas have been pedestrianised.

In the Market place is this unusual statue which is known as The Sock and was created by the sculptress Shona Kinloch, having been commissioned by Charnwood Borough Council "to provide an attractive feature and focus of public interest". It was unveiled in 1998. The statue is of a man seated on a bollard, wearing only a sycamore leaf and a sock, which he is looking down at admiringly. His sock is symbolic of Loughborough's hosiery industry, and the rest of the sculpture contains images from the town's history. As is not unusual in these cases, The Sock was far from universally admired when unveiled but, as predicted, hearts have warmed to it and it is now a well loved feature of the Loughborough scene.

After having a coffee in Tylers Department store; one of the oldest shops in the town having started in 1922 we set off through the outskirts of the town which were quite pretty and the canal clean.

We called into Pillings Lock Marina for a pump out. It is a very big marina and you need to follow the signs to find the self service pump out and diesel supply.

Pump out completed we continued through Pillings Flood Lock back onto the river which is narrow and winding with lovely trees down to the waters edge. Travelling under the stone Barrow Road Bridge we came to Barrow Deep lock which is 9ft 7 in deep.

The limited mooring above the lock and that by the Mill Basin were occupied so we carried on passing some great looking houses and gardens and this little foal taking a drink from the river with its mother.

The river becomes more winding and narrow again and we met Symphony returning from the river festival at Leicester held over the last weekend and then just before Mountsorrel lock these lovely new Dutch Style houses fronting on to a new marina. There were no boats in the marina however, even though mooring were on offer at the entrance.

We met a couple of boats coming down Mountsorrel Lock and another as we went up so the girls had some help.

Again the limited mooring was full so we went on to Sileby Mill where the mooring below the lock was occupied but we were able to moor up just above the lock. The chairs we out and we had afternoon tea and cakes on the bank followed by G & T’s later on. There is a boatyard at the mill and I went to have a look around and ended up chatting to the very friendly staff. They seemed to have a good range of bits and bobs for boats as well as some day boats for hire.