[10] In the 19th century, boats plying their trade along the river were typically 48 feet (15 m) long, and were able to carry loads of 12–24 tonnes (13–26 tons).

[11] The hinterland of the port had great importance during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, as it proved to be an easy route to transport timber to the Royal Navy shipyards in the south at Chatham and Woolwich.

However, a great deal of the felled timber rotted at the port of Bawtry and that at Stockwith (on the Trent, a trans-shipment point) as the organisers faced logistical challenges in exporting the commodity.

[12] Other timber carried from the port included a consignment of oak in 1695, which was floated downriver from Bawtry bound for use in St Paul's Cathedral, London.

[13][14] Daniel Defoe visited Bawtry in the 1720s and described the port as being "..on the little and pleasant River Idle [which] has become the centre of exportation for all of the country.

[17] Imports consisted of iron ore, timber, groceries, copper tin, hemp, leather hides and flax.

[20] George Talbot, the Earl of Shrewsbury, owned a warehouse at Bawtry wharf and was exporting about 100 tonnes (110 tons) of lead per year, whilst also importing Spanish steel for Sheffield.

[26] In the 1830s, coal was being forwarded in to feed the gasworks adjacent to the wharf basin, and one of the wharf-keepers was running a passenger steam-packet service to Gainsborough.