[1] It opened in 1670, around 100 years before the start of the Industrial Revolution which brought about the "golden age" for canals in Britain.

Plans to link it westwards to the Oakham Canal, northwards to the South Forty-Foot Drain and southwards to the River Nene in 1809 came to nothing, and it closed in 1863, soon after the arrival of the Midland Railway in the area.

The River Welland was one of the earlier on which improvements, in this case to allow navigation to Stamford, were authorised by an act of Parliament.

[7] However, a report from 1632 on alterations to the river noted that 600 men were involved in the work, so presumably there was sufficient labour locally for such tasks.

[8] The canal enabled goods to reach Stamford from The Wash, which was 34 miles (55 km) away, by way of Spalding and Crowland.

The lower 24.4 miles (39.3 km) used the course of the Welland,[9] after which the two river locks and weirs at Deeping St James were encountered.

The trade amounted to 3,000 chaldrons that year, and he tried to get the tax on sea coal, which Parliament had approved, reversed.

He did not succeed, and failed again in 1706, by which time he stated that the tax had decreased the amount of coal carried to just 500 chaldrons.

Besides coal, the canal carried malt and agricultural produce, groceries, timber, slate and stone.

[11] Although there are no known records from the time the canal was constructed, the lock at Hudd's Mill was documented by Thomas Surbey in 1699.

Surbey was a water engineer, and made notes and drawings when he visited it, during a journey from London to York.

A bill for this, together with one for a rival scheme to link Stamford to the Grand Junction Canal, which also included a connection to the South Forty-Foot Drain, were put before Parliament in 1811, but neither met with any success.

The Midland Railway reached Peterborough in 1846, and opened their line to Melton Mowbray, passing through Stamford, in 1848.

By April 1863, all traffic had ceased, and Stamford Corporation tried to sell the line at auction, but failed because their ownership of it was disputed.

There were buildings associated with the canal on both sides of the river, including a large warehouse next to the bridge, parts of which date from 1671, and which is Grade II listed.

[25] Remains of bridge piers were uncovered during archaeological excavations carried out in 1998 when a water pipeline running from Tallington to West Deeping was installed.

[10] The canal then looped around the northern edge of Horse Marsh to reach West Deeping, where there was another lock.

There are visible remains of this lock, indicating that it had stone piers at both ends to support the gates, with turf sides between them.