Blisworth Stoke Bruerne and several other villages. There is a small supermarket/post-office/newsagent, being the only shop. There is a modern well-equipped doctor's surgery in Stoke Road serving several surrounding villages as well as Blisworth itself. The village has a pub, The Royal Oak. A second pub, The Sun, Moon and Stars, near the canal closed at least 50 years ago. A third pub, the Grafton Arms, is now a private dwelling. After several years of neglect the listed building was the subject of a compulsory purchase order by South Northants Council in 2007 and may now be restored partly for accommodation
Kilsby Tunnel presence of large amounts of quicksand; trial borings into the hill had not revealed any quicksand in the vicinity, but Stephenson had already made efforts to avoid any such an encounter being made. However, similar problems had previously been encountered during the construction of the nearby Blisworth tunnel on the Grand Union Canal only a few decades earlier. The problems that were posed by the quicksand, which was eventually revealed to be quite prevalent at tunnel level, were so severe that some considerations were allegedly made towards the abandonment of the shaft and restarting work afresh elsewhere; the resulting stress