The water supply for Market Harborough locomotive shed came from the canal

There used to be a locomotive shed at Market Harborough. It stood to the north of the station and west of the tracks. Opened by the LNWR in 1864, it was closed by British Rail in 1965.

I remember it being demolished in 1977, when I was 17 and old enough to regret such losses.

But what, I here you ask, does this have to do with the photo above?

That photo shows a pipe that crosses the Welland beside the Farndon Road bridge. This is the site of Bloodyman’s Ford, where Charles I was almost captured as he fled from his defeat at Naseby in 1645.

And the pipe used to carry water from the canal at the top of Logan Street. That's Logan as in this blog's hero J.W, Logan MP.

You can see what remains of the sluice where the water was drawn off in the photo below. Before the nearest house was built, this site was much more open to the road below.

From the Farndon Road bridge the pipe headed for the embankment of the line to Rugby and followed that to Market Harborough station and locomotive depot

It used to be possible to see where it arrived at the station. The remains of substantial iron pipework could be seen above the station approach in the abutment of the vanished bridge that had carried the lines to Rugby and Northampton.

I have searched my photos but cannot find a shot of it, which suggests that those remains disappeared more than 10 years ago.

Either that, or I have not taken enough photographs of Market Harborough station.

Reader's voice: To be honest, I think you've already taken too many.

Thank you for that. Anyway, I have long known about this pipe and had the story confirmed by other people in town, but I can't find anything online about it.