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The River Soar is a major tributary of the River Trent in the English East Midlands, and is the principal river of Leicestershire. The source of the river is midway between Hinckley and Lutterworth, it then flows north through Leicester where it is joined by the Grand Union Canal, and continues through the Leicestershire Soar Valley, passing Loughborough, and Kegworth until it reaches the Trent at the county boundary.

In the 18th century the Soar was made navigable, initially between Loughborough, and the Trent, and then through to Leicester. It was not until the early 19th century, that it was linked by the Grand Union Canal to the wider network to the south and to London.

History
According to a legend, the body of King Richard III of England was thrown into the Soar sometime after his death, having been first interned in Leicester. King Richards body being thrown into the river has now been shown to be incorrect as his body was recovered from a site in Leicester City and identified by University of Leicester experts in cooperation with Leicester City Council and the King Richard III Society in 2013. The bridge carrying the A47 across the Soar at Leicester is known as 'King Richard's Bridge'. King Richard III crossed the Soar on his way to battle at Bosworth Field in the county of Leicestershire in 1485 and after his death in that battle, his body was carried back across the river to be buried in Leicester.

Name
It is believed the name "Leicester" is derived from the words castra (camp) of the Ligore, meaning dwellers on the 'River Legro' (an early name for the River Soar). In the early 10th century it was recorded as Ligeraceaster ("the town of the Ligor people"). The Domesday Book later recorded it as Ledecestre.

Course of the river
The Soar rises near Wibtoft in Warwickshire, and flows north to join the Soar Brook near Sharnford, it then continues in a north-easterly direction, passing through Croft and between Narborough and Littlethorpe, until on the outskirts of Leicester it is joined by the Sence near Enderby. Before flowing through the centre of the city it meets the Grand Union Canal at Aylestone, where it is also joined by the River Biam. After passing over Freemens Weir, the river splits and recombines with the canal, creating an area of Leicester called Bede Island. The navigable arm that runs to the east has been canalised with parallel banks and is known as ‘The Mile Straight’. Beyond Blackfriars, the river splits again to form Frog Island and Abbey Park, it recombines at Belgrave where it passes beside the National Space Centre.

Once out of the city the Soar passes Birstall and threads its way through the lakes of Watermead Country Park, until it reaches Wanlip. The river then meets the once navigable River Wreake, near Cossington Mill, with another tributary the Rothley Brook, joining the river just downstream. The Soar continues north-east to reach Mountsorrel then passes between Quorn and Barrow-on-Soar, at which point an arm of the canal extends into Loughborough, although the river passes to the East of the town at Cotes. Downstream of Stanford on Soar the river forms the county boundary between Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire. Between Stanford and Normanton on Soar, the canal rejoins the river, which then continues to Zouch, passing the ‘Devils Elbow’ to reach Kegworth. Downstream of Kegworth, it meets the Kingston Brook, near the village of the same name, passing Ratcliffe-on-Soar and its power station, before flowing into the Trent at Trent Lock.

Chronology of the River Soar in Leicestershire



 * Leir of Britain is said to have been buried by his daughter Cordelia in an underground chamber beneath the River Soar near Leicester.
 * ca. 1536 Following the dissolution of the Church of the Grey Friars in Leicester, it was claimed that the remains of Richard III were thrown into the Soar, since he was believed to have been interred in the church. In 2013, however, it was confirmed that the skeleton discovered in a 2012 archaeological dig at the site was that of Richard III and thus proved the claim to be false.
 * 1634 Thomas Skipworth of Cotes obtained a grant from Charles I to make the river Soar "portable for barges and boats", though the scheme was never completed.
 * 1794 The Leicester Canal was opened, making the Soar navigable for almost 40 mi. The western line was also opened- this was known as the Charnwood Forest Branch. However, most of the branch was made up of rail tracks rather than a waterway. This included a 2½-mile uphill climb from Loughborough Basin. At the western end of the branch, rail lines travelled towards Coleorton and Swannington. A track to Cloudhill, which would have connected to similar lines on the Ashby Canal, was proposed but never built.
 * 1795 Another branch line (operated by a separate company) opened from the main line of the Leicester Canal (between Cossington and Syston) to Melton Mowbray. The line was 15 mi long and used the River Wreake for virtually the whole of its course. The line was sometimes known as the Wreake Navigation, though it is better known as the Melton Mowbray Navigation. This new line was so successful that within a year William Jessop was appointed to survey another new line which would extend the Melton Mowbray Navigation to Oakham in Rutland, a further 15 mi. The extension would be called the Oakham Canal. An Act of Parliament was passed and work began.
 * 1796 While the lines to Leicester and Melton Mowbray were doing very well, trade on the Charnwood Forest Branch was very slow to pick up. The company even put on demonstrations in an attempt to encourage its use. With no real success being gained from this the company went into the coal carrying and selling business itself.
 * 1797 A proposal to extend the main line of the Leicester Canal much further south was announced. A new canal, the Leicestershire & Northamptonshire Union Canal, would link the river Soar with the River Nene. However, like many great ideas, the money ran out before the imagination did and the line reached just 17 of the proposed 44 mi, coming to a stop at Debdale Wharf near Kibworth Beauchamp. Thus the Leicestershire & Northamptonshire Canal never even got close to Northamptonshire. In fact, the whole project had proved to be something of a failure, the company having spent thousands of pounds building a waterway which passed nowhere in particular and ended in the middle of the countryside miles from any major town. Meanwhile, the Charnwood Forest Branch was still struggling to attract any trade. Water supply was one reason for lack of use, so the company built Blackbrook Reservoir. Following this, trade picked up but only very slightly.
 * 1802 The Oakham Canal opened after costing almost £70,000 to build. It was 15 mi long, with 19 broad locks. Boats could now travel onto the River Soar from Rutland.
 * 1809 The main line of the Leicestershire & Northamptonshire Canal was extended from its resting place near Kibworth Beauchamp to Market Harborough where once again the work came to a stop. All the same, it was now a considerable navigation, linking the south of Leicestershire to the river Trent. However, there was still no link to the Grand Junction Canal.
 * 1810 By now ideas of connecting Leicester to Northampton seemed pointless. The Grand Junction Canal was running a tramway into Northampton and would surely soon convert this to a full navigation. The obvious thing to do now was to connect the Leicester navigations to the Grand Junction Canal.
 * 1814 The new link between the Leicester navigations and the Grand Junction Canal opened and was named the Grand Union Canal (not to be confused with the later canal route of the same name).
 * 1832 The Leicester and Swannington Railway opened from the Leicestershire coalfield to a wharf alongside the canal at West Bridge, Leicester. This allowed Leicestershire coal to be cheaply carried on southwards for sale in London.
 * 1848 The owners of the River Soar Navigation were finally able to officially abandon the Charnwood Forest Branch which had stood idle since 1801.
 * 1877 After 80 years, the Melton Mowbray (or Wreake) Navigation also closed, leaving Melton Mowbray with no waterway outlet to the main canal system.
 * 1886 Mr. Fellows of Fellows Morton and Clayton (who were the main carriers on the Grand Union link) pushed the company to convert the canal to wide beam. When this was not done he tried to encourage the Grand Junction Company to buy the link.
 * 1894 – The Grand Union and the Leicestershire & Northamptonshire Union canals were purchased by the Grand Junction Canal Company. By now, though, even the Grand Junction Company wasn't whole-heartedly in favour of widening the link. Instead they looked into methods of making the lock flights more efficient. The simple answer was to make a duplicate flight alongside the existing locks to make two-way traffic but this would cause other problems, especially water supply, which was already a major headache.
 * 1931 – The whole stretch of waterway from Norton Junction through to Leicester and on to Long Eaton was merged with the Grand Junction Canal to form the Grand Union Canal.

The River Soar is a major tributary of the River Trent in the English East Midlands, and is the principal river of Leicestershire. The source of the river is midway between Hinckley and Lutterworth, it then flows north through Leicester where it is joined by the Grand Union Canal, and continues through the Leicestershire Soar Valley, passing Loughborough, and Kegworth until it reaches the Trent at the county boundary.

In the 18th century the Soar was made navigable, initially between Loughborough, and the Trent, and then through to Leicester. It was not until the early 19th century, that it was linked by the Grand Union Canal to the wider network to the south and to London.

Course
The Soar rises near Wibtoft in Warwickshire, and flows north to join the Soar Brook near Sharnford, it then continues in a north-easterly direction, passing through Croft and between Narborough and Littlethorpe, until on the outskirts of Leicester it is joined by the Sence near Enderby. Before flowing through the centre of the city it meets the Grand Union Canal at Aylestone, where it is also joined by the River Biam. After passing over Freemens Weir, the river splits and recombines with the canal, creating an area of Leicester called Bede Island. The navigable arm that runs to the east has been canalised with parallel banks and is known as ‘The Mile Straight’. Beyond Blackfriars, the river splits again to form Frog Island and Abbey Park, and it combines again at Belgrave where it passes beside the National Space Centre.

Once out of the city the Soar passes Birstall and threads its way through the lakes of Watermead Country Park, until it reaches Wanlip. The river then meets the once navigable River Wreake, near Cossington Mill, with another tributary the Rothley Brook, joining the river just downstream. The Soar continues north-east to reach Mountsorrel then passes between Quorn and Barrow-on-Soar, at which point an arm of the canal extends into Loughborough, although the river passes to the East of the town at Cotes. Downstream of Stanford on Soar the river forms the county boundary between Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire. Between Stanford and Normanton on Soar, the canal rejoins the river, which then continues to Zouch, passing the ‘Devils Elbow’ to reach Kegworth. Downstream of Kegworth, it meets the Kingston Brook, near the village of the same name, passing Ratcliffe-on-Soar and its power station, before flowing into the Trent at Trent Lock.

old
It rises near Hinckley in Leicestershire and is joined by the River Sence (Wigston) near Enderby before flowing through Leicester (where it is joined by the Grand Union Canal at Aylestone), Barrow-on-Soar, beside Loughborough, and Kegworth, flowing into the Trent near Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire. Its major tributary, the once navigable River Wreake, joins it near Syston.

The Soar has been made navigable to boats and several shortcuts have been built. The section between Loughborough and Leicester was made navigable in 1784, and the Grand Union Canal connected it south to the southern canals network and to London, in 1814.

It's actually part of the Grand Union Canal Leicester line, though the line of the Soar below Leicester is not usually referred to by that name. The biggest section of canal is the Loughborough cut. Currently the River Soar article is linked from the Grand Union Canal under both Leicester Navigation and Loughborough Navigation. Under the policy of having a different article for navigations it could well be called the "River Soar Navigation" which had acts of parliament in 1776 and 1791 (not mentioned in the River Soar article), but only as far as Leicester although Cumberlidge also marks the section above Leicester as the River Soar Navigation. It also has the old Melton Mowbray Navigation as a branch.