Lock 1 or Top Lock, was on the north side of Hudd’s Mill.
Although technically the start of the canal, it wasn’t the head of the navigation. That was the warehouse and storage areas by the London road bridge at the foot of St Mary’s in Stamford. The cut for the canal had come off the river a quarter of a mile below, just before the mill-stream and weir so they had to build a wooden bridge over the bottom end of the lock to regain access to the mill.
The canal channel beyond the mill was lost for many years after closure, with a household rubbish tip covering the whole area.
The route of the canal went behind the new housing estate and across the sports field, heading for the old toll bar cottage and the River Gwash at Newstead corner, before going across the Uffington Park fields and under the Barnack Road bridge behind Copthill School.
< Back Lock 1 at Hudd’s Mill, Stamford
The Stamford Canal << The earliest proper canal in England? <<
