Following the full restoration of the Lengthsman’s Hut in 2020, an information panel is being erected in 2026 to record this part of our village history.

We are very grateful to everyone who has contributed to the fundraising for this project; we couldn’t do it without you!

• Thank you, if you bought cards, books or jam or left donations at our events; these contributions cover the majority of the costs.
• Thank you to Hickling Parish Council whose funding support for our website gives us the ability to work on projects like this.
• And, many thanks to Cllr Tina Combellack for her very generous grant funding of £800 towards this history panel linked to the newly restored Lengthsman’s Hut.

The artwork and the zinc etching are being carried out by a specialist company; Photocast, and local craftsman, Jak Cotterill  is designing, making and fitting the bespoke lectern stand.

Unveiling Ceremony (2026)

The completed Information Panel has now arrived and we can now proceed with making the lectern to support it. We hope to have the completed information panel in place in early Autumn 2026 and we look forward to sharing details of an unveiling event, too.

The Lengthsman’s Hut on the Grantham Canal, Hickling

The Grantham Canal – a timeline

The Grantham Canal was commissioned by subscription in the 1790s and was formalised by Acts of Parliament in 1793 and 1797; It opened in 1797 forming a 33-mile waterway through the countryside from Grantham to Nottingham. Construction debts were paid off by 1806 and it was most profitable in the early to mid-1800s until competition from the railways and unreliable water levels brought a slow decline. By the 1920s its working life was over and in 1936 a further Act of Parliament formally closed the canal to boats (there had been no traffic on it for the previous 7 years). The Transport Act of 1968 categorised the Grantham Canal as a ‘remainder waterway’ with no economic future. However, thanks to local campaigning, sections were saved from infilling and the waterway has been deliberately allowed to evolve as a wildlife corridor and for the quiet enjoyment of visitors with some stretches designated as SSSIs and the Hickling stretch (amongst others) designated as a local wildlife site.

The Lengthsman’s Hut

Buildings evolved gradually following the opening of the canal; inns, moorings, wharf buildings and lengthsman’s huts and, very often, these can’t be dated. It is estimated that there would have been 11 lengthsman’s huts along the Grantham Canal, although there are only two surviving – this one in Hickling and the remains of a brick-built hut in Bottesford.

The lengthsman had responsibility for maintaining his ‘length’ of the canal. The huts were informal structures and were usually built by the lengthsman himself to cater for his own needs – made from whatever materials came to hand. In Hickling, red bricks and railway sleepers were the main components. It wouldn’t have been lived in but it had a small fireplace and chimney and would have been used for shelter and storage. It is understood that Hickling’s last Lengthsman was Shelton Walker who farmed the fields to the north of the towpath and whose father, Vincent, was also a lengthsman. Shelton’s son, John, planted Shelt’s Spinney a little further east (by the swing bridge) in his memory and cared for this stretch of the canal for many years.

Memories

(Wadkin Archive) “Late 1940s. Mr Vincent Walker worked on the canal keeping everything trim and tidy, the canal belonged to the railway. There was a small black workman’s hut between Hickling canal basin and the Grange with a fireplace. In the winter time it was most useful, also a flat bottom boat for using on the canal was fastened near this black hut. One day each year the canal and bank was closed to the public [to protect its private status], and Mr. Walker would stand by the gate letting only farmers with land by the canal to go through, there would be times when some of the public would try to be awkward, but Mr. Walker stood his ground until they saw sense.”

Restoration

As the canal fell into disuse, so did the Lengthsman’s Hut until you could barely tell that it was there – just a strange curve in the hedgerow and a mass of undergrowth. Underneath, though, the structure remained sound and many of the original materials could be re-used during its restoration. Photographs from the 1980s also show the grassed towpath and the old system of gates. With the help of landowner John Walker, The Canal & River Trust and community volunteers completed a full restoration of the hut in 2020; many fascinating original features are now visible again for all to enjoy.

A Wildlife Haven

It is thanks to the foresight of local farmers in the 1920s and 1930s that there is still a requirement to keep the canal ‘in water’. The 1936 Act which closed the canal to boats stated that water should be kept to a depth of 2 feet and could be used for agricultural purposes (irrigation and drinking water for animals).

In the past 100 years the canal has become a valuable wildlife corridor; we have swans, ducks, moorhens and coots plus herons and an array of wildflowers, dragonflies and water insects. Otters and water voles are recolonising and kingfishers are here but elusive. It is a wonderful experience to watch the swallows dipping and diving over the open waters of the canal and Basin in an early evening and equally wonderful to stay and watch the bats as they emerge at dusk, swooping to hunt for insects over the surface of the water.

Also of special note is the line of seven black poplar trees between the lengthsman’s hut and the basin with their beautiful heart shaped leaves and distinctive rustling sound in a breeze or in the rain. And, of course – fishing. The legend of the whale who swam as far as Hickling but could go no further, turning round in the Basin, is just a story but whilst there are no longer eels, there are pike, bream, carp and tench and many decades of fisherman’s tales.

Waymarkers

These markers, placed at quarter mile intervals, were placed to help calculate ‘rates and duties’ owed by the users of the canal. Originally made of stone and marked with Roman numerals, the surviving cast iron examples probably date from the early years of railway ownership.