Leven Canal - History

History

The idea of a canal to Leven was first proposed in 1786. The low-lying area to the west of Leven had been drained by the construction of the Holderness Drain in the 1760s, which ran broadly parallel to the River Hull and entered the Humber Estuary at an outfall downsteam of the mouth of the River Hull. The Drainage Commissioners asked the canal engineer William Jessop to look at proposals for a navigation from the outfall to Monk Bridge, a little to the south of Leven. Jessop reported that the extra cost of making the drain navigable for boats drawing 4.5 feet (1.4 m), which included two locks and several passing places, would be £5,136, but no further action was taken.

A second scheme was proposed by some promoters in September 1791, which would follow a similar alignment, and they got as far as presenting a petition to parliament in March of the following year, but nothing came of it. Interest died down until 1801, when there were two rival proposals for canals to Leven. The first envisioned a canal from below Hull Bridge, running in a north-easterly direction to Skirlaugh bridge, with a branch to Monk bridge, to serve the town. The second was for a much simpler scheme, running eastwards from the River Hull near Aike Beck to Leven, to be privately-funded by Mrs Bethell.

Mrs Charlotta Bethell, a widow who owned large amounts of land in the East Riding of Yorkshire, commissioned William Jessop to make a survey for the canal in 1799. Jessop had previously been the engineer for the Holderness Drainage scheme, whose Trustees would need to approve the canal for it to be built. He came back with an estimate of £4,041 to make a canal from the River Hull to the village, but the Drainage Trustees asked Mrs Bethell to obtain a second opinion. She employed James Creasey, whose report agreed with Jessop's, that the canal would not harm the drainage of the area, and with the Trustees satisfied, Mrs Bethell obtained an Act of Parliament to authorise construction on 21 May 1801.

The canal was opened in 1805, but its cost had exceeded Jessop's estimate, and tolls had to be increased. This was authorised by a second Act obtained on 5 June 1805. A lock was constructed at the junction with the River Hull, capable of holding keels which were 64 by 14.8 feet (20 by 4.5 m). The lock had three sets of gates, two which acted as a conventional lock when the level of the river was higher than that of the canal, and the third to act as a flood gate when the level was lower. A fourth set of gates was added later, to allow the lock to be uses at all states of the tide. Mrs Bethell's son Richard paid half of the cost of improvements to Hull Bridge, which vessels from Kingston upon Hull had to pass through, on condition that the Driffield Navigation reduced its tolls by 60 per cent, producing a considerable saving on the cost of goods reaching Leven.

The 3.25-mile (5.2 km) long canal was constructed to allow Humber Keels to reach the granaries and warehouses at Canal Head in the village. One of the original two warehouses built at the canal basin in 1825 still remains, though it has been converted into a private residence.

Coal, lime and building materials were imported, while local agricultural produce was sent down the river to Hull.