An initial meeting was called by a Mr Hall on 3 July 1792, at which it was decided to ask the canal engineer William Jessop to prepare a report.

[3] The potential for flooding was to be mitigated by routing the local springs into the head of the canal,[4] and Robert Dickinson acted as engineer for the scheme.

The treasurer at the time stated that there was no money available to pay £60 for some work which had recently been completed, and there are no records that the loan was repaid.

A meeting held at the White Hart Inn in Market Rasen was attended by 26 local gentlemen, and they agreed to proceed with the plans.

Following the sale of the estate by the Skipworth family in the early years of the twentieth century the canal and its associated drainage system fell entirely out of repair.

The remains of the lower five lock chambers and the abutments of the tow-path bridge where the River Ancholme towpath crossed the canal are now grade II listed structures.

[13] As a response to the flooding of homes in South Kelsey during the summer of 2007, the Environment Agency dredged part of the canal to return it to its original depth in March 2010.

Around 1 mile (1.6 km) of the bed, between the locks either side of South Kelsey village, was affected by the work, which increases the capacity of the watercourse and reduces the risk of future flooding.

Environmental consultants assisted with the work, to ensure that the resident population of water voles were not harmed by the operation.