GRANTHAM CANAL
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The Grantham Canal was opened in 1797 and ran for a distance of 33 miles from the River Trent at Trent Bridge Nottingham to the centre of Grantham. The canal carried commercial traffic until 1929.
Between 1940/60s some of the original humped back bridges were removed and the canal culverted under the roads.
The link to the Trent has been severed by improvements to the West Bridgeford area of Nottingham, at the Grantham end is cut short by the A1 close ot Harlaxton, although the canal is in water on the other side of the A1 it is not used as a waterway, the canal towpath continues for some way towards the centre of Grantham.
Today the canal is used by walkers and cyclists, it forms a part of the long distance Viking Way footpath, and an improtant part of the Sustrans network of cycle paths.
At present there has been no attempt at restoration, although it would be simple to have the canal as a stand alone waterway as is the Brecon & Abergavenny canal.
canoeing would be possible for the whole lenght with portage around the obstructions. At present it's a superb wild life habitat.
Coots nest with chicks
Swan family
Distance post at Hose.
Hose village sign.
Two good pubs in this village, just a short walk down a quite lane.
Duck family
Mock repair to the bridge sign.
Brilliantly executed.
Obstruction at Redmile.
Pub above this bridge good food.
A TYPICAL BRIDGE ON THE CANAL
Originally all the bridges would have been accomodation bridges but with the coming of the automobile they had to take road traffic, this is where some of them failed to fit in with modern times and those where removed.
BRIDGE AND OLD WHARFE.
nr. Plunger
THE PEACOCK INN.
At Redmile Bridge.
CHURCH AT REMILE.
From the Tow path.
A TYPICAL SCENE ON THE CANAL.
Rich reed growth for a wild life habitat.
BRIDGE 69, LAST BRIDGE ON THE CANAL TODAY.
There maybe other bridges still intact in the Town but I hadn't any time left to find them, although I did find that the cycle path continued at the other side of the A1 main road.
THE CANALS OFFICIAL
END TODAY.
Sir ISAAC NEWTON
The statue in front of the Guildhall
GRANTHAM.
Originaly a staging post between London and Lincoln.
It was here in 1483, at the Angel Inn that Richard III signed the death warrant of Henry  Duke of Buckingham.
Cromwell made the town his centre of operations in 1643.
The town has many fine buildings and a museum.
Sir Issac Newton went to the Grantham Grammer School. He was born a few miles from the town at Woolsthorp Manor.
He graduated from Cambridge in 1665, and between the ages of 22 and 24 he concieved his famous theories of Gravitaion and the Nature of light, he divised the mathamatical process later known as Calculus.
Newtons greatness lay in his ability to explain and demonstrate in the simplest terms an explanation of natural happenings.
We all know the story of the Apple that fell on his head, this fruit has now become quite common and can be puchased at any supermarket or fruit shop if you wish to repeat the experiment.
NOT NAVIGABLE
GRANTHAM CANAL WEB SITE