Cambridgeshire, England

St Neots slipway (further north)

Launch — A slipway on the west bank of the Great Ouse within Riverside Park, with a small parking area marked directly beside it.

Parking — Free parking sits directly beside the slipway (unnamed, marked on OpenStreetMap). Riverside Park's main car park, around 250 vehicles plus a further 70 off Hardwick Road with two height barriers restricting some bays to under 2.25 metres, is a level walk of about 550 metres south near the town bridge, along with public toilets and the Ambiance cafe.

Access — Huntingdonshire District Council owns and maintains Riverside Park, including this slipway, under its Open Spaces Water Safety Policy. There is no gate, membership scheme or booking requirement for the public to launch here.

Season — The Environment Agency reverses and closes locks on the Great Ouse to navigation during floods and high flows, affecting passage past St Neots and Eaton Socon locks.

Regulations — Unpowered craft, including paddleboards, need an Environment Agency registration to use this stretch of the Great Ouse, part of the Anglian Waterways. The Anglian Navigation Byelaws set further rules for the reach, including speed limits shown on signs along the river.

A slipway on the west bank of the River Great Ouse in St Neots, roughly 550 metres north of the town bridge and about 160 metres beyond the previous launch point on the same bank. The river here is lock-controlled and freshwater; the Great Ouse only turns tidal much further downstream, beyond Earith.

Riverside Park and the river

The slipway sits inside Riverside Park, which follows the Great Ouse for close to a mile along both banks and is kept as open flood-plain rather than built on. A footbridge crosses the river near the town bridge, linking the two halves of the park.

Two locks bound this stretch of the river: St Neots Lock about 1.5 km downstream, and Eaton Socon Lock roughly 2 km upstream. Between them the water stays within a single lock-controlled pound, away from the moored and powered-boat traffic nearer the town centre.

Nearby

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Ambiance

Independent cafe and kiosk in Riverside Park, about 550 m south of this slipway near the town bridge.

St Neots Camping and Caravanning Club

Club-run riverside site taking tents, caravans and motorhomes; open to non-members as well as Club members, and open seasonally from late March to late October. About 1.25 km south of this slipway.

Website

Conditions to check

Lock

St Neots Lock, roughly 1.5 km downstream: 32.9 m long, 3.3 m wide, 1.05 m deep.

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Overhead cable

St Neots Paper Mill Bridge (B1041 road bridge), close to St Neots Lock downstream: headway 2.9 m.

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Lock

Eaton Socon Lock, roughly 2 km upstream: 31.5 m long, 3.3 m wide, 1.6 m deep.

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Overhead cable

St Neots Town Bridge, roughly 400 m upstream: headway 2.8 m.

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Other

The Environment Agency issues Strong Stream Advice for this reach via a 24-hour hotline (0345 988 1188, quick-dial 033211 for Bedford to St Ives).

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Other

The nearest river gauge (St Neots, station 6174) has a normal range of 0.82 to 1.10 m; the highest level recorded there is 1.85 m.

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Location data

OpenStreetMap

View this point on OpenStreetMap