Pilling's Lock Marina

Pillings Lock Marina is a new breed of marina to the East Midlands area, Leicestershire. Situated ideally for cruising any part of the canal & river network, it's modern facilities raise the standard of a traditional inland marina and bring them into the 21st century.

Flesh Hovel Lane,
Quorn,
Loughbrough,
LE12 8FE

Telephone: 01509 620990

Email: pillingslock@btconnect.com

Facilities for visitors:

Day Boat Hire
Restaurant & Bar

For further details, see website: http://www.pillingslock.com/

History

Article written in 2007

Plans were submitted in 2002 to extract gravel from a site down Flesh Hovel Lane, adjacent to the canal at Pillings Lock, yet I never got round to going to have a look.

At the end of last year some friends of mine who have sold their house and bought a narrow boat, informed me that they have bought a berth at the new marina which is due to open some time later this year. So I decided it was time to go and have a look.

Pillings Lock lies on the river Soar just outside Barrow, on the way to Loughborough and there is a lovely walk along the canal side, all the way to Loughborough, a place teeming with wild life and a popular area for fishermen.

Imagine my surprise when I eventually saw what used to be fields, with herds of cows sweeping majestically across them, quietly grazing, having been replaced with a huge reach of open water, accessed by boat from the canal by a narrow opening a hundred yards or so beyond the bridge over the canal to the weir and about 50 yards this side of the old turning point.

According to the project’s website, which can be found at www.pillingslock.com and application (P/06/3470/2) plans submitted to Charnwood Borough Council there are to be at least 358 mooring spaces berths for a mixture of canal craft, wide and narrow boats etc with at least 80 for sale on a lease basis. There are to be shopping, shower, laundry, recreational bar & cafe and maintenance workshop facilities available for the users of the marina. There are to be car parking spaces for 56 cars on a main car park and 50 more on an overspill car park along with fishing lakes and additional wildlife habitats.

Obviously this will have an impact on the amount of traffic along the narrow lane and already a filter lane has been constructed on the approach to Flesh Hovel Lane just beyond the roundabout as you go over the A6 towards Quorn.

It will be interesting to see how the site matures to blend back into the surrounding countryside.