effective was done until the Fosse Dyke was leased to Mr. Richard Ellison in 1741 for 999 years. In the lease between the mayor and commonalty of the city of Lincoln and Richard Ellison of Thorne, co. York, merchant, the Act 22 and 23 Charles II for the improving of the navigation between Boston and the Trent is quoted, and it is stated that the citizens were empowered in consideration of tolls and duties thereby allowed to be taken to make navigable the ancient channels of the Witham and Fosse Dyke, so as they should within two years undertake the same, which as regards Fosse Dyke they did, and whereas the locks on the Fosse were in so ruinous a condition and the channel so warped and silted up that the navigation was in a great measure rendered useless, and the said Richard Ellison had agreed to make new locks and all other new works, and to deepen the channel so that boats drawing 3 ft. 6 in. might pass from the Trent to Lincoln, and to rent of them their two-third parts of the said channel and have therefor the tolls for 999 years, for the yearly rent of £50, the mayor, &c., had demised the same to him. The lessee was to repair and maintain the navigation, and all the locks and wharves, and keep the channel scoured. He was to maintain Saxilby Bridge, and if he should take down or alter Torksey Bridge, so that there should be any dispute with the lord of the manor, he was to save the citizens harmless. In dry seasons he might let in water from the Witham into Brayford sufficient for the navigation. Another lease assigned in 1741 to the same lessee at a rent of £25 the remaining third part of the channel of Fosse Dyke and its dues for 999 years, which had before been let to James Humberstone of New Inn, Middlesex.[1] About Car Dyke there is little to say. It is mentioned in proceedings of the Commissioners of Sewers in the fourteenth century,[2] but is generally supposed to have been made many years before that time. When Louth Spire was built 1501–16, stone purchased at Wilsford, south-west of Sleaford, was conveyed to Louth partly by water and partly by land, the carriage to Dogdyke being 1s. 6d. a load, that from Coningsby to Louth 2s.[3] The price appears to be 1d. a mile per load whether by water or road.
The utility of the various rivers for commerce is undoubted. But a word seems necessary about the Witham. It was the great water-way between Lincoln and Boston in the palmiest days of those towns. There were two places on the Witham, Calscroft and Dogdyke, where the bailiffs of the city of Lincoln used to collect tolls in aid of the farm of the city. A complaint is made in 1275[4] that the abbot of Kirstead appropriated to himself five years since a place called Calscroft, to the east of Sheepwash [Sepwas], where ships used to load and unload wool and other merchandise, and the bailiffs of Lincoln collected customs. A complaint was also made[5] that the bailiffs used to take toll at Dogdyke [Dockedig] of divers men taking their merchandise to Boston, but that the steward of the Lord of Kyme had driven them away and forcefully seized the tolls they ought and used to take. In much later times we find Daniel Disney, esqr., lord in 1719 of the manor of Kirkstead, claiming a toll of 4d. a load of goods and merchandise landed from the River Witham upon certain 'Waths,' or brought to them to be put on board any vessel on the river, when a witness from Lincoln deposed that his custom had been to send goods to Horncastle Fair by water carriage as far as Kirkstead 'Wath,' where they were landed and carried on by land.[6] Unfortunately the River Witham was sluggish and easily silted up, and we hear of numerous complaints[7] in the fourteenth century about its condition, so that ships laden with wine, wool, and other merchandise could no longer pass as they used to do; but nothing really effectual was done until the eighteenth century. It is, as might be expected, difficult to obtain evidence about the use of streams and drains for commercial purposes, but an occasional notice may be found. In 1342 the earl of Angus informed the king that the Kyme Eau was so obstructed[8] that ships laden with merchandise could not pass as they used to do, and offered to scour out the channel provided he was allowed to take certain dues from the goods passing in ships. Hammond Beck used to be navigable for boats laden with corn, and the inhabitants of Holland Fen in quite modern days used to bring their dairy and other produce down to Boston to market by this stream or drain.[9] At the end of the eighteenth century a good deal of enterprise was shown in constructing canals in Lincolnshire. In 1794 an Act was obtained for making a canal from the Witham near Chapel Hill, along the course of the Kyme Eau and the River Slea, to Sleaford. In 1792 an Act was obtained for a canal from Horncastle to the Witham near Tattershall Ferry.[10] In 1781 an Act was obtained for the improvement of the navigation of the Bourne Eau,[11] from Bourne to the River Glen. In 1794 an Act
- ↑ Lease of the Fossedike Navigation, etc. local pamphlets, Lincoln, 1826.
- ↑ Wheeler, Fens, &. 248; Bishop Trollope, Sleaford, 69.
- ↑ Louth Churchwardens' Accounts, per Mr. R. W. Goulding.
- ↑ Hundred Rolls (Rec. Com.), i, 397.
- ↑ Ibid. 315.
- ↑ Exch. K. R. Depos. 5 Geo. I, fol. 28.
- ↑ Wheeler, Fens, &. 140.
- ↑ Ibid. 431.
- ↑ P. Thompson, Boston, 264.
- ↑ Wheeler, Fens, &c. 431.
- ↑ Ibid. 435.
