The Market Weighton Canal
Market Weighton canal though abandoned in 1900 was at
least partially navigable in 2002 as far as its junction with the river
Foulness.
The canal is a 9.5 mile stretch of waterway running from
the Humber Estuary to Weighton Market.
The primary purpose of this canal was as part of a land
drainage scheme for the fens between the Humber and Market Weighton, to help
protect some 50,000 acres of land from flooding and drain existing
marshland, thus increasing potential of the land for growing crops and
increasing its general value. The required Act of Parliament
was passed in 1772 with the waterway
opened in 1782. While drainage was the main role, navigation was also a
convenient second purpose that served agriculture and the development of a
number of brickworks. That is not to say the two roles always lived in
harmony as water levels required for navigation would not always have been
supplied by drainage alone. The canal was funded by a tax on the landowners
benefitting from the land improvement, plus the usual tolls.
The Railway arrived in market Weighton in 1847 , which
inevitably diminished trade and resulted in the neglect of the canal to the
point where an Act of Parliament was sought in 1900 to abandon it as
a navigation, though bricks were actually still carried on parts of
the waterway until the 1950’s.
In 1934 the waterway came under the authority of
Market Weighton Drainage Board
and then under the Yorkshire Rivers Authority, its role as a land drain at
least preserving the line of the canal. Weighton Lock ( Humber Lock ) was
abandoned in 1971, but preserved by the Market Weighton Civic Trust having
it listed as an ancient monument in the same year and further repairs were
made in 1994 by the National Rivers Authority. There is no current right of
public navigation; those wishing to use it should seek the authority of the
Environmental Agency who currently own it.