The Drainage Commissioners asked the canal engineer William Jessop to look at proposals for a navigation from the outfall to Monk Bridge, a little to the south of Leven.

Jessop reported that the extra cost of making the drain navigable for boats drawing 4.5 feet (1.4 m), which included two locks and several passing places, would be £5,136, but no further action was taken.

The second was for a much simpler scheme, running eastwards from the River Hull near Aike Beck to Leven, to be privately funded by Mrs Bethell.

[2] Mrs Charlotta Bethell, a widow who owned large amounts of land in the East Riding of Yorkshire, commissioned William Jessop to make a survey for the canal in 1799.

Jessop had previously been the engineer for the Holderness Drainage scheme, whose trustees would need to approve the canal for it to be built.

He came back with an estimate of £4,041 to make a canal from the River Hull to the village, but the Drainage Trustees asked Mrs Bethell to obtain a second opinion.

She employed James Creasey, whose report agreed with Jessop's, that the canal would not harm the drainage of the area, and with the trustees satisfied,[2] Mrs Bethell obtained an act of Parliament to authorise construction, the Hull and Leven Canal Act 1801 (41 Geo.

[3] A lock was constructed at the junction with the River Hull, capable of holding keels which were 64 by 14.8 feet (19.5 by 4.5 m).

Mrs Bethell's son Richard paid half of the cost of improvements to Hull Bridge, which vessels from Kingston upon Hull had to pass through, on condition that the Driffield Navigation reduced its tolls by 60 per cent, producing a considerable saving on the cost of goods reaching Leven.

One of the original two warehouses built at the canal basin in 1825 still remains, though it has been converted into a private residence.

[4] Coal, lime and building materials were imported, while local agricultural produce was sent down the river to Hull.