A quintessentially rural canal, the 33 mile long Grantham traverses three shire counties

Rebirth

The canal's future looked bleak. The line of the canal was severed by a railway embankment at Woolsthorpe, locks fell derelict (with concrete wiers installed to control the water levels) and many hump-backed canal bridges were replaced by concrete pipe culverts with flattened decks.

The Grantham Canal Restoration Society was formed in the early seventies and in colaboration with British Waterways, the Inland Waterways Association and the Waterways Recovery Group, began the long road to full restoration. Early successes were the award winning slipway at Denton, the removal of the railway embankment at Woolsthorpe and the restoration of the top three locks of the Woolsthorpe flight. The restoration section of this website has detailed accounts of these achievements.

With restoration gathering pace, it became clear that full restoration was going to involve many organisations - the GCRS, BW, the IWA, local authorities and the newly formed Grantham Navigation Association. Understandably, there were a few organisational problems. These groups were all brought together with the formation of the Grantham Canal Partnership, an umbrella organisation which everyone concerned with the canal reported to.