The Stamford Canal book Chapter 2
The River Welland Navigation Act
During its period of prosperity Stamford had used the River Welland for the transport of goods but, during the period of the town's decline, due to lack of use, the river had silted up. This was despite the fact, according to Wheeler, that the river was scoured three times per year. Wheeler also comments that the river at Spalding was only able to take boats of eighteen inches draft at spring tides. This 'silting up' created serious problems for Stamford. The use of the river for transport was vital if the town was again to trade in any significant way. It is said that during the sixteenth century several water mills had been built along the River Welland between Stamford and Market Deeping. These mills were diverting water from the main stream thus exacerbating the difficulties created by the silting up of the river. This added to the town's problems.
Because this diverting of the main stream prejudiced the transport of goods the merchants of Stamford were prompted to appeal to Queen Elizabeth I to once again make the Welland navigable to the North Sea. They complained that:- "the action and doing thereof was chiefly hindered by the alteration and deviation of the ancient course and passage of the Welland River into divers streams, rivers and branches for the erection of 6 or 7 water mills, now standing betwixt the said Borough of Stamford and the Town of Market Deeping."
They even suggested that Parliament should remove the mills completely, or at least stop their operation for certain times and days so that boats could 'freely pass and repass' along the main channel of the Welland. They also suggested, in support of
their request, what reasonable recompense should be given to the mill owners for their co-operation.
In 1571 Queen Elizabeth I signed the Welland Navigation Act. This was the year before William Cecil was made a Baron and given the title Lord Burghley. The navigation Act was listed, in the House of Lords Journal Volume 1, 10th to the 17th May 1571 thus:-
'River Welland Bill, to make the River of Wellande navigable, que communi omnium Procerum Assensu conclusa est. 22 May 1571 Riv. Welland. Conclus. Prima, To make the River of Weylande navigable'. (see appendix)
Queen Elizabeth appointed commissioners to investigate ways of draining the fens in 1598, possibly due to the influence of Lord Burghley (William Cecil). However, nothing was achieved during her reign, although Thomas Lovell had already done some work on the Welland near Stamford, his efforts to drain Deeping Fen were later sabotaged which resulted in him being made bankrupt. It must be remembered that the Fenland communities relied upon the flooded areas around the River Welland for wildfowl, eels, fish, willow and reeds. It is no wonder therefore that drainage sabotage was rife!
We are unable to find anything else pertaining to the early history of the canal. William Cecil was involved with building his house at Burghley on land that was originally St. Martin's Priory, and this as well as political problems and his declining health (he died in 1598) postponed any further developments. The matter of the River Welland navigation was thus not taken up again, despite various recommendations by Commissioners of Sewers in 1620. (The commissioners of Sewers were responsible for drainage in its widest sense and not 'sewage' as it is understood today).
In 1621 James I signed a Royal charter that granted the corporation of Stamford leave to make a new cut. The charter decreed that it should be:- 'Lawful for the Alderman and burgesses of Stamford and their successors to make a river or new cut of such breadth and depth as they should think fit for the passage of boats, lighters and other vessels, from the North side of the River Welland between the east end of the Town of Stamford and Hudd's Mill, across the river called the Newstead River and thence through Uffington, Tallington, and so on-wards to the fields and meadows of West Deeping and from there into an old ditch dividing the fields of West Deeping and a little land leading toward Market Deeping, until it come to the highway that leadeth from Tallington to Market Deeping and from thence on the south side of the said way to Market Deeping corn mill and so past the said corn mill to rejoin the ancient course before stated, unto the outfall to sea, at Boston Deeps'. This was distance of some six and one half miles. The tonnage was at 3d per lock. The king also granted wharfage and fishing rights to the Corporation. The Charter, with the seal of James I, can be seen in Stamford Town Hall.
The cost to the Corporation for the construction of a canal was to be £2,000 recoverable by the tolls at each lock. Nine miles of construction and excavation (six and a half on the canal and two and a half on the River Welland) were involved and twelve locks had to be constructed (ten on the canal and two on the river). There had already been problems with the finance of a canal. In 1620 the Hall Book shows difficulties in collecting monies. There was no money to pay back loans of £100 and £60, for lands already cut, so £100 had to be put up from the town rent. In October 1621, three overseers were appointed to collect monies, but despite this, a suit was brought against the town for an unpaid bill for timber, bought for the river. The Hall Books up to 1623 report the work was in hand, but this was optimistic as in 1625 when the canal was supposed to be completed, it wasn't, and nothing was reported done two years later! (The Hall Book, or Minute Book, records business of the Stamford Town Council commencing during the year 1461. The very first entry is an English abstract (after a Latin title) of the main points of the 1461 Charter. The recording of the Council Minutes in the Hall Book became continuous from 1465. There are an unbroken series of Hall Books and Minute Books dating from this first one up to the present day).
Time dragged on, and in 1633 there was yet another Commission for making the river navigable but still no movement. David Cecil (William's great grandson and the 3rd Marquis of Exeter) agreed to take on the work in 1636 but terms could not be agreed. From 1637 onwards the situation deteriorated further due to the political situation leading up to the English Civil War. The Cecils, as lords of the manor of Stamford, played no part in the Civil War. David Cecil died in 1643 and his son (born in 1628) was a minor until after the war. The Cecil line had passed the lordship of the manor of Stamford to Lord Grey, who was Parliamentarian. The major landowning families in the area, the Bertie and the Noels, were Royalists as was Geoffrey Palmer, Stamford's MP. Work on the canal must therefore have been suspended, possibly so as not to give either side the opportunity to use it as a supply route.
In December 1650 the aldermen and burgesses petitioned parliament for the sum of £1,500 out of their "discoveries of concealed estates required to make the River Welland navigable. (the 'Concealed Estates’ were those of 'Papists' and Delinquents)
House of Lords Journal vol.6 11th December 1650 Stamford Charter. &c.
The humble Petition of the Aldermen, com-Burgesses, and Common council of the Borough of Stamford in the County of Lincoln, with their humble Desires annexed, concerning the Renewing of their Charter, were this Day read.
Resolved, That Fifteen hundred Pounds be given to the Town of Stamford, out of such Discoveries of concealed Delinquents Estates as they shall make to the Commissioners for Compounding; to be employed towards the making Welland River navigable: and that it be redirected to the council of Trade, to take security, that the same be employed to that purpose; And that the said River be made navigable to the Town of Stamford, accordingly, with that Money.
Resolved, That it be referred to the Commissioners for compounding; who are hereby authorized and required, to receive such Discoveries; and, under security given, as aforesaid, that the said Commissioners do give warrant for Payment of the said Fifteen hundred pounds, out of the Monies arising by such Discoveries, to such persons as the Aldermen and Com-burgesses of the said Town shall appoint; And that the Acquittance and Acquittances of the said Persons shall be their sufficient Discharge in that behalf.
Resolved, That it be referred to the committee for Corporations to consider of the rest of the Particulars in the said Petition, and Desires annexed; what is sit to be granted, and that are not sit to be granted; and in those things that are sit to be granted may be so settled as may consist with the Advantage and Good of this Commonwealth and not prejudicial to the Publick Good thereof'; and to report their Opinions therein to the parliament, for their further consideration and Resolution. (Calendar of the papers of the Committee for the Advance of Money, 1642- 56).
The matter was taken up again in 1651-2, and still nothing was settled. Finally, in 1664, Daniel wigmore took over the building of the canal at a cost of £,000. He was a wealthy merchant, county JP, mercer (trader in cloth) and woollen draper. He had been mayor of Stamford three times. The house he lived in from 1654, number 19 St. George's Square Stamford, can still be seen. Daniel Wigmore received a lease of the toll on the river for eighty years. His efforts seem to have met with success for Richard Blome, in a description of England in 1673, remarked upon the traffic passing up and down the river "now made navigable, which affordeth no small advantage to the town and adjacent places." By that time too, he said, the inhabitants were driving a considerable trade in malt, "which is here made in great plenty." Moreover, they had market well supplied with corn, as well as cattle and other provisions' There is however, apparently no working documents in existence regarding the construction of the canal or anything about its opening.
It is almost certain that the development of the malting trade was a direct result of the resumption of traffic on the Welland (Pigot directory 1834 lists 13 maltsters in Stamford). Most of the corn of the kingdom was carried by water at this period (while stock travelled by road) and no malting town was without its river communications. The towns of north Hertfordshire, for example, specialized in malting and used the River Lea to transport malt to London. Leicestershire farmers on the other hand, resigned themselves to the lack of river transport for corn, and concentrated on growing fodder crops, and feeding cattle, sheep and pigs for the market.
While Stamford was without river communication, therefore, it too was barred from participation in the corn trade. But when the Welland was made navigable once more, it was able to malt and transport the barley crop of the countryside around. As we have seen already, barley was the main arable crop on the heathlands and in the fens, and a subsidiary one elsewhere. By the second half of the seventeenth century, malting and the malt trade were two of Stamford's more thriving activities.
In 1679 the Marquis of Exeter built a new wharf on St Martins side of the river in Stamford where maltings developed. He had previously had a notice served to boatmen regarding landing goods etc. on his land.
Orders to Boatmen 1675 A.D.
'At this Hall it is ordered by ye Major, Aldermen and Capital Burgesses that whatsoever water boatemen or others that shall land, saide to bee landed or take in to their boats or vessells, any goods, wares or merchandizes upon any plase whatsoever on ye south side of ye Welland river to witt on St. Martin's side of ye county of Northants (Except ye sume goods, wares or merchandizes bee for ye use of ye right Hono. ye Earl of Exeter). Shall forfeit for everye Tunn, Last or Puncheon of goods, wares or merchandizes soo landed or taken in ye same of twent. shillinges and six pendes of fair full English money for use of ye Town of Stamford'.
Another development which brought business to the town was the improvement in modes of road travel after the Restoration. Public coaches were put on the streets of London in the reign of Charles I, and in 1636 there were said to be six thousand in use there. By 1658 long distance coach services were available, carrying passengers from London to the north of England. And whereas the old public coaches had been able to travel only ten to fifteen miles a day, because they were drawn by one team of between six and eight horses, by the end of the century the system of changing horses on the journey enabled passengers to travel fifty miles in a day's travel of twelve to thirteen hours.
These developments placed Stamford within two days journey of London, and resulted in a notable increase of travellers on the road. Although it is difficult to pass final judgement on the reasons for the town's improved condition by 1700, it is fairly certain that great benefits accrued from the growth of coaching activity. The number of innkeepers who were made freemen of the town after 1663 was fifteen. while another hundred people, including butchers, bakers, fishmongers victuallers, grocers, maltsters and vintners, were engaged in supplying food.
Although the improvement in road travel had an effect upon the wealth of Stamford, the construction of a canal between the town and Market Deeping as part of the Welland navigation must have greatly improved the transport of goods between Stamford and its suppliers. Barley to be malted and malted barley for the brewing trade could be carried in bulk on barges. A local farmer recently stated that the average farm cart would have been able to carry, in his opinion, no more than one ton of material. Barges, on the other hand, were allowed to carry up to 15 tons A barge required one bargee and a person to lead the towing horse. Fifteen farm carts would require fifteen drivers! The usual number of barges in a string was at least three. Imagine a string of forty five farm carts with forty five drivers!
The Stamford Canal << The earliest proper canal in England? <<
