Grantham Canal - Restoration

Restoration

A plan to fill in a section of the canal in Nottingham resulted in a number of letters appearing in the local press in 1963, and a student at Kesteven College produced a report on the state of the canal, which was presented to the Grantham Civic Society. In 1970, the British Waterways Board attempted to obtain an act of parliament which would have allowed them to cease maintaining the water levels of the canal. The Inland Waterways Association campaigned against the bill, and the clause was amended. The Grantham Canal Society was formed soon afterwards, to promote restoration of the waterway. In 1974, a National Boat Rally was held at Nottingham, to gain support for the restoration scheme, and to promote the idea of a new link to the Trent, which would pass through old gravel workings.

Together with British Waterways, the Inland Waterways Association and the Waterway Recovery Group, the Society began the work of restoration of the canal to navigation, a process which is still ongoing. A major development was the granting of permission in 1992 to remove an old railway embankment, which blocked the route near the top of the Woolsthorpe flight of locks. The task was completed by a number of Waterway Recovery Group workcamps. New gates were fitted to the top three locks, and rebuilding of Casthorpe bridge was funded by Lincolnshire County Council, opening up 4.4 miles (7.1 km) of the canal for navigation. Further down the canal, restoration of a 2.3-mile (3.7 km) section between Hickling Basin and Hose was funded by a derelict land grant of £400,000, received in 1993. The Grantham Canal Partnership was formed in 1997, as a way to take the project forwards. It consisted of representatives from each of the six local authorities through which the route passes, British Waterways, the Inland Waterways Association, the Grantham Canal Restoration Society and the Grantham Navigation Association, a group which had split off from the Canal Society in 1992. As a result of the co-operation, British Waterways formulated a draft business plan for the canal.

Following the restoration of the top three locks at Woolsthorpe in the 1990s, a 10-mile (16-km) section from the A1 to Redmile will be completed once the four locks at Stenwith are restored. The Polser Brook Aqueduct was restored in 2003, and five locks have so far been restored. Approximately one quarter of the canal is now to navigable standard, and much improvement of the towpath has taken place.

A major setback occurred in 2007, when one of the walls of Woolsthorpe top lock had to be propped to prevent it collapsing, and British Waterways took the decision to fill it in, as funding was not available to rebuild it. The Inland Waterways Association received a legacy of £100,000 from the estate of Fredrick Woodman, designated for the Grantham Canal, but British Waterways ruled that no work could start until the whole cost of £175,000 had been found. The balance was made up by grants of £40,000 from Lincolnshire County Council and £35,000 from the East Midlands Development Agency. The wall was demolished and rebuilt in three sections, utilitising 290 cubic yards (220 m3) of concrete and 7,500 new bricks.

Restoration of most of the canal does not present major problems, but challenges are presented by the final sections at both ends. The original route to join the Trent has been severed by the building of the A52 road. A route was identified which followed the course of the Polser Brook, which passes under the A52 to the north of the canal, but by 2009, three possible solutions were under consideration. These pose additional problems in finding funding, since they do not count as restoration, and many of the traditional funding sources are not then available. At Grantham, an embankment carrying the A1 road blocks the line of the canal, and the terminal basin has been filled in. There are plans for a tunnel under the A1 as part of a cycle route to improve access to Grantham, and the basin could be redeveloped in due course.

There is also a 5-mile (8-km) dry section between Cotgrave and Kinoulton, which has presented problems since construction in the 18th century: gypsum in the soil reacted with the waterproof clay leading to leaking. Following closure, this section then became colonised by an invasive shrub.

In early 2005, British Waterways appointed a full-time Grantham Canal restoration manager, Kevin Mann, for an initial 18-month trial period. He would be responsible for planning and managing funding schemes for the restoration, identifying development opportunities and the promotion and interpretation of the canal. The trial proved to be successful, as he was still doing the job in 2009.