The Stamford Canal was part of the Welland Navigation in Lincolnshire, England. It was first authorised in 1571, but construction did not start until 1664. It ran for 9.5 miles (15.3 km) from Stamford to Market Deeping and had 12 locks, two of which were on the river section at Deeping St James. It opened in 1670, around 100 years before the start of the canal age in Britain. No plans of its construction survive, although one of the locks was documented by a visiting water engineer in 1699. It contributed to the wealth of Stamford, allowing barley to be transported to the town for malting.
Plans to link it westwards to the Oakham Canal, northwards to the South Forty-Foot Drain and southwards to the River Nene in 1809 came to nothing, and it closed in 1863, soon after the arrival of the Midland Railway in the area. Although Stamford Corporation attempted to sell it after closure, its ownership was disputed, and they were unable to do so. Its course and some of its structures can still be traced in the landscape.
Read more about Stamford Canal: History, Route, New Plans, Points of Interest, See Also, Bibliography
Famous quotes containing the word canal:
“My impression about the Panama Canal is that the great revolution it is going to introduce in the trade of the world is in the trade between the east and the west coast of the United States.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)