Around £6,000 was subscribed to fund the scheme, and thoughts of upgrading the River Eye to enable boats to reach Oakham, and of cutting a canal to Stamford were also voiced.

A single bill combining both of the previous two plans was submitted in 1789, but was again defeated, due to opposition from the Leicestershire coalfields.

Work began soon after the award of the act, with Staveley employed as engineer, although there are few details of the construction, as the company records have not survived.

In March 1795, a special meeting was held to consider how to raise more money, while in July, Staveley was 'voted out', to be replaced by William Green, who had been involved in the construction of the Grantham Canal.

The navigation was 14.75 miles (23.74 km) long, with twelve broad locks,[5] which raise the canal by 71 feet (22 m) between the Soar and Melton.

In Melton itself, new wharves were built, which provided warehousing, a granary, a coal yard and malt offices, to the west of the main basin.

[1] The Oakham canal had never been so profitable, paying dividends of around 3.8 per cent, and lack of water during the dry summer of 1844 resulted in it closing for five months.

Crescent shaped weirs were built in place of the upper lock gates, and some of the bridges were lowered while others were rebuilt.

A slipway has been built in Melton Mowbray by Waterway Recovery Group volunteers, some dredging and towpath repairs undertaken, and the society has worked with the Sustrans Connect2 project to replace the entrance footbridge at Syston with one offering navigable headroom.

Work began on the new bridge, which provides 8 feet (2.4 m) of headroom, in late 2012, following lengthy discussions between the society, Sustrans, Leicestershire County Council and British Waterways,[12] and it was completed in 2013.

[13] The demolished Syston Lock needs to be rebuilt to open up the first 1 mile (1.6 km) of the waterway to Lewin Bridge and the Gate Hangs Well public house.