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Cambridgeshire, England

St Neots slipway (north)

LaunchA slipway within St Neots Riverside Park, a public park run by Huntingdonshire District Council, on the river's mile-long park frontage.
ParkingPay-and-display at the Riverside/The Paddock car park, which reserves some free short-stay bays for park users, or a free car park off Hardwick Road; parking is free on Sundays.
AccessThe park is open year-round, 24 hours a day, with no membership or permit needed to reach the launch; a pedestrian bridge links the park's two riverbanks.
SeasonSt Neots Rowing Club's annual regatta and a dragon boat festival are held on this reach and close it to other river users for the day. The Environment Agency displays Strong Stream Advice — noticeboards, flags and lights on the banks — when river levels rise after heavy rain.
RegulationsThe Environment Agency requires boats used on the Anglian Waterways, including open unpowered craft such as canoes, kayaks and paddleboards, to be registered, and strongly recommends third-party insurance for them; the maximum fine for not registering is £1,000. A speed limit of 4 to 7 mph applies on this stretch.

A slipway on the River Great Ouse in St Neots, a few hundred metres north of the town bridge along the riverside path, within the same stretch of river as St Neots Riverside Park — part of a lock-and-weir navigation that runs from Bedford to the Wash at King's Lynn.

St Neots Riverside Park

The launch sits within St Neots Riverside Park, a public park run by Huntingdonshire District Council with a mile-long river frontage split either side of the water by the town bridge and linked by a pedestrian bridge. Willow-lined banks and open parkland give a gently graded approach to the water, home to swans, ducks and herons. The town bridge itself is a 1963 concrete structure that replaced a stone bridge, which in turn replaced a wooden crossing recorded here since the late 12th century.

St Neots Rowing Club, founded in 1865 and based on this reach, shares the water with cruising motorboats from the private Ouse Valley River Club nearby. Locks bound the reach on both sides — Eaton Socon Lock upstream and St Neots Lock, near Little Paxton, downstream — beyond which the river winds toward Paxton Pits, a former gravel-pit nature reserve in the Ouse valley known for its nightingales and cormorants.

Nearby

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Ambiance

Council-run café and kiosk within Riverside Park.

Website
St Neots Camping and Caravanning Club Site

180-pitch site on the riverbank about a mile from the launch; non-members are welcome to book.

Website

Conditions to check

Weir

Eaton Socon Lock, upstream of the launch, has an associated weir built in 1967.

Source
Lock

St Neots Lock, downstream near Little Paxton, and Eaton Socon Lock, upstream, are both on this reach; Great Ouse locks are generally user-operated and need an Environment Agency navigation key.

Source
Boat traffic

The reach carries powered cruiser traffic from the private Ouse Valley River Club, which keeps two slipways nearby, alongside rowing traffic from St Neots Rowing Club.

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