In West Deeping it is known as The Boaty. In Tallington they call it the Boat River or the Old Canal. Officially it’s called the Stamford Canal, part of the Welland Navigation.

Constructed between about 1620 and 1665 it pre-dates the so-called “Canal Age” by 100 years! It was used for around 200 years – lasting much longer than later constructions. It carried goods between Stamford and Market Deeping, connecting with the River Welland to reach the ports of Spalding, Boston and the Wash. In 1863 the railways and poor maintenance brought the canal to an end, so anyone who remembers the canal working has now long gone, and all but the oldest and most curious residents of West Deeping and Tallington believe that it’s just a ditch. But if you know where to look, you can find the traces – and what makes our bit of canal a cut above the rest is that you can see the remains of 2 locks!

This project is to get our village residents, particularly young people:

• Exploring the visible clues – walking the route and photographing the evidence
• Looking at the documentary evidence in its original format – from the orders of the Commissions of Sewers in the 1600s right up to the Parish Council Minutes in 2012
• Talking to industrial archaeologists about how the canal was constructed and why
• Finding out from older residents what they can tell us about the Boaty, the old canal – perhaps from playing by the flooded channel when they were children, or what their parents remembered
• Collating the evidence – list all the sources of information and develop a web site
• Interpreting – publish leaflets and produce interpretation boards – sited at strategic points along the route of the canal in the 2 villages

A grant of nearly £10,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, through the BBC “All our Stories” scheme, will be used for information technology for gathering, storing and presenting information about this section of the canal. The grant will also pay for interpretation boards in West Deeping and Tallington.

The aim is to enable residents and visitors to discover for themselves, as well as to commemorate, the Stamford Canal – before the remaining traces have faded from the community memory.