The Grand Union is our longest canal, with branches to The Regents Canal, and branches to Paddington, Aylesbury, and Northampton also the Leicester Branch, this we will treat as a seperate waterway as it also includes the River Soar. we will also treat the Slough Arm as one of the London Canals.
The Grand Union is 176 miles long, with 215 locks, quite a few of these in memorable flights.
The original purpose for the canal was to move goods and materials from the Midlands to the ports of London and to return imports.
There have been attempts at widening the canal to barge status and parts of the canal have wide locks unfortunately they don't provide a usefully link to other broad waterways.
The canal climbs out of London to eventually reach its first summit level, which is three miles long, at Cowroast Lock.
The level contains the British Waterways Bulbourne workshops where wooden lock gates are still made, a little further and the Wendover Arm joins the canal from the left. It constantly supplies water to the main canal, from the Tring and Wilstone Reservoirs.

AYLESBURY ARM
From Marsworth Junction the Aylesbury Canal drops down through sixteen locks, all seven feet wide, the bridges are also narrow. This is a peaceful canal with many places to moor up for a night.
Wilstone is a quiet place to stop over night., I found the Half Moon pub worth a visit. A Tesco supermarket is right on the bank of the canal just before you drop down the last lock, so if you have a hungry family aboard they can all eat cheaply here, which will save cooking and allow you time to look around the town of Aylesbury itself.
It's famous for its ducks, but the only Aylesbury ducks you will see are on pub signs, I've included a couple so you don't have to search for them, the 'Duck In' at Aston Clinton, a good walk from the canal at Wilston, and the 'Aylesbury Duck' on the outskirts of the town.

The pub is also called the' Three Locks', it is very popular, especially with 'Gongooslers', so you had better get it right on the paddles, and steering into the locks, you will have many critics,
locking down there is an awkward turn from under the bridge at the top of the flight, especially in strong winds.

COSGROVE LOCK.
Just before this lock the canal crosses the river Great Ouse on an aqueduct known as the 'Iron Trunk'. The old Buckingham arm leaves the canal at this point, it is expected to restore this canal to Buckingham in the near future

STOKE BRUERN.
Possibly the most popular canal village on the whole of the system, it has a museum and a canalside pub, there is a carpark for visitors, and as one would expect, it can get very busy at holiday times, but you can find a quiet place for yourself and your girlfriend if you just go a short way down the canal.

NORTHAMTON ARM.
This is a short arm, just under 5 miles with 17 narrow locks, the first few locks are grouped together forming a flight, the canal passes under the M1 motorway, see photo of the tunnel like bridge.
The canal eventualy locks down into the River Nene at Northamton, for more details see the page dedicated to the river.

This is a large marina with every facility possible.The area has three pubs, the 'Nelson' at the bottom lock, the 'Boatman' just under the bridge and the 'Old Plough' in the village, but pubs can change their names over night so the may be called someting else by now, but their location will remain the same