Sleaford Navigation

Sleaford Navigation
The derelict chamber at Haverholme Lock awaiting restoration
Specifications
Maximum boat length	70 ft 0 in (21.34 m)
Maximum boat beam	15 ft 0 in (4.57 m)
Locks	7 (2 operational)
Status	Part operational
Navigation authority	none
History
Original owner	Sleaford Navigation Co
Principal engineer	William Crawley
Date of act	1792
Date of first use	1794
Geography
Start point	Sleaford
End point	Chapel Hill
Connects to	River Witham

v t e Sleaford Navigation
Legend
River Witham Chapel Hill North Forty Foot Bank bridge Flood gates Twenty Foot Drain and Chapel Hill PS Lower Kyme Lock  B1395  Clay Bank bridge, South Kyme Old course of River Slea Head of navigation Cobblers Lock Haverholme Lock Papermill Lock Corn Mill Lock  A17  Road Bridge Bone Mill Lock Peterborough–Lincoln line railway bridge Cogglesford Mill Lock Old course of River Slea Lift bridge (2010) Navigation Wharf, Sleaford Castle Causeway River Slea and Nine Foot Drain

The Sleaford Navigation was a 12.5-mile (20.1 km) canalisation of the River Slea in Lincolnshire, England, which opened in 1794. It ran from a junction with the River Witham, near Chapel Hill to the town of Sleaford through seven locks, most of which were adjacent to mills. Lack of finance meant that it stopped short of its intended terminus, but it gradually grew to be successful financially. The coming of the railways in 1857 led to a rapid decline, and it was officially abandoned by an act of Parliament in 1878, but remained open for a further three years. The lower part of it remained navigable until the 1940s, when it was blocked by a sluice.

Interest in restoring the canal began in 1972, and navigation was restored to the first 8 miles (13 km) with the re-opening of Lower Kyme lock in 1986. The Sleaford Navigation Trust has been working towards restoring the whole waterway, and succeeded in purchasing the Sleaford end of the river bed in 2004. A short section at Sleaford was opened in 2010, following the installation of a lift bridge.

Nearby, Navigation House, which served as the clerk's office, has been restored as a visitor centre about the canal,^[1] and the adjacent seed warehouse has been turned into The National Centre for Craft & Design.^[2]