The Grantham Canal
The Grantham canal runs for 33 miles from Grantham to the
river Trent at Trent Bridge, though is inaccessible to navigation from here,
though full restoration it is hoped,
will eventually be achieved achieved.
The original survey for a canal from Grantham to the Trent
was originally made in 1791, with a bill put to parliament the following
year, which was rejected, with a modified plan being passed the following
year in 1793.Work began the same year under
Jessop with James Green and William King as resident engineers. Green
being a given a section of canal from the Trent to the Leicester border and
King the remaining sector to Grantham.
Funds typically fell short of what was required to
complete the project and another
Act had to be sought both to raise additional funds and to clarify the
responsibilities of existing shareholders with regards how much they were
responsible to contribute. It also included an additional allowance to sell
more shares in the project and a removal of the restriction on Toll charges.
The eastern section of the canal opened in February 1797,
with the remainder completed in the same year. The completed canal used
locks 75ft by 14ft wide, to match the Nottingham
canal and
so allow easy passage from one to the
other.
On completion the canal became one of the major midlands
routes and a commercial success, but as will all canal completion from the
Railways brought a decline in business from the mid 19th century.
The canal was bought by the Nottingham, Boston and Eastern Junction railway
in 1845, or at least a sale was agreed at that timem from whereownership
passed to the Great Northern Railway in 1861 and then to the London and
Northeastern Railway.
Traffic further declined until 1936 when the canal was
formally closed by an Act of Parliament after no boat had used the canal for
10 years, though a requirement of the act required that a depth of 2 feet of
water remain in the canal for agricultural purposes, which preserved the
course of the channel itself, though
this did not prevent t he lowering of bridges, which now blocked attempts at
restoration, by impeding navigation, even if the waterway itself was
restored.
By 1947 the canals had been nationalised passing ownership
first to the British transport Commission and
later to British Waterways in 1968
The prospects for restoration of the canal improved with
the creation of the
The Grantham Canal Restoration Society in the early 70’s, who in conjuction
with British waterways, the Inland Waterway Association and the Waterways
Recovery Group have made some rapid improvements towards the eventual aim of
restoring the canal to a complete navigation accessible again via the river
Trent.