It ran from a junction with the River Witham, near Chapel Hill to the town of Sleaford through seven locks, most of which were adjacent to mills.

The coming of the railways in 1857 led to a rapid decline, and it was officially abandoned by an act of Parliament in 1878, but remained open for a further three years.

Kyme Eau had been navigable since at least the reign of Edward III, for in 1375 Gilbert d'Umframville was accused of illegally collecting tolls on boats carrying food products to the people of Kesteven.

He had been doing so for 12 years, and he defended his case before the king, explaining that the river was navigable from Dog Dyke to Brent Fen, but that it suffered from silting and the banks were in a poor state of repair.

[3] With influential local landowners such as Sir Jenison Gordon of Haverholme Priory and Sir Christopher Whitchcote of Aswarby wanting to improve communications to the area, a proposal to link Sleaford by canal to Grantham was considered in 1774, but was replaced by a scheme to provide a navigable link along the Slea and the Kyme Eau to the Witham in 1783.

[3] At the time, the River Slea was not navigable beyond Kyme, as the channel was inadequate, and there were fish weirs and water mills on its course.

[5] The plans obtained the support of Sir Joseph Banks, a baronet who was a patron of the natural sciences, and had been the President of the Royal Society since 1778.

[11] Financial difficulties meant that it stopped short of its intended terminus, and instead the company built a wharf to the east of what is now Carre Street in Sleaford.

The company was trading at a loss by 1871,[4] and although an Act of Abandonment was obtained on 17 June 1878, the navigation did not actually close until 14 May 1881, which was also the date of the final meeting of the proprietors.

[17] The society managed to gain the support of the Anglian Water Authority for their plans in 1980,[18] which resulted in the restoration of the Kyme Eau lock, re-opened in November 1986.

With the raising of a low footbridge and the construction of a winding hole at South Kyme,[19]> the first 8 miles (13 km) of the waterway were returned to navigation.

In 1991, work commenced on Cobblers lock, and was completed by 1994,[20] although it has not been fitted with gates as the banks of the section above it need strengthening before the water levels can be raised.

[21] Funded by a Derelict Land Grant,[22] the engineering consultants Binnies carried out a feasibility study in 1994, which concluded that full restoration was possible.

The Trust has continued to work on restoring the structures of the canal, campaigning successfully to prevent the Navigation Warehouse from being demolished in 1998.

[26] Around 0.6 miles (0.97 km) of the waterway from Sleaford to Cogglesford Mill lock were reopened, following the construction of a lifting bridge in the town centre.

[28] Work was also carried out to construct a new slipway on Eastgate Green, to allow trailed boats to be launched onto the town section.

This involved careful planning to avoid damage to 27 mature trees, and the widening of 92 feet (28 m) of the bank to create a mooring point.

[20] A short distance below the terminus, a new steel lift bridge crosses the canal, after which a stream leaves the east bank.

The first lock is 0.6 miles (0.97 km) from Sleaford, and allowed boats to pass Coggesford Mill, an 18th-century watermill which has been restored, and is still used to grind flour.

After a short distance, there is a bend called Heckington Tunnel, where a section of the Car Dyke, a Roman waterway which ran for 85 miles (137 km), heads off in a southerly direction, with the Midfodder Drain running parallel to it.

The village of South Kyme follows, with its four-storey fortified tower, built in the 14th century for Sir Gilbert d'Umframville.

Reasons for the water quality being less than good include physical modification to the channel, which prevents free movement of fish and other organisms along its length, discharge from sewage treatment works, and surface and groundwater abstraction, which affects the flow.

Like most rivers in the UK, the chemical status changed from good to fail in 2019, due to the presence of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE), perfluorooctane sulphonate (PFOS) and mercury compounds, none of which had previously been included in the assessment.