The Stamford to Deepings’ Canal
Stamford Canal was one of Britain’s earliest Post-Roman canals, opening in 1670. Towards Stamford, Stamford Wharf was the furthest point of navigation, and from here the canal follows the path of the River Welland, which was expanded to allow the flow of canal traffic in an act granted in 1571 by Queen Elizabeth II. Work on building the canal suffered several setbacks, including not being able to find contractors, until in 1664 David Wigmore took the work on. He built a planned cut from Hudd’s Mill in Stamford to Market Deeping and 12 locks along the route. At its height, the toll on the locks gathered revenue of between £500 and £600 a year (in 1695) transporting goods from The Wash to Stamford.
Once the Midlands Railways opened in 1846, expanding to Melton Mobray in 1848, the canal’s usage began to decline. By April 1693, all usage along the canal had stopped due to the trade from the railways and problems with lock leakage.
Since its closure, most of the canal route has naturally drained. The foundations of several locks are still visible along the route.
The West Deeping Canal Project
The West Deeping Heritage Group received funding to restore the footpaths around the Canal and further research its history. The footpaths and guided routes were formally opened in the winter of 2013 and help to uncover the local history of the canal and its link to the village. Part of this work includes this cache trail.
The Trail
Here, you are in a private road that has a permissive footpath up to this point. The co-ordinates lead you to an attractive garden, maintained by a local resident after he discovered the area during excavation work here. He immediately recognised that this rocky outcrop was something unusual, and upon investigation found that it was Tallington Lock 8, part of the Stamford Canal. Once this was ascertained, the local resident turned the area into the garden you see today, which included digging out plenty of 'rubbish' from the canal bed! To read more, please see this link.
The Cache
Here, you need to use the information board to solve the puzzle in order to obtain the final co-ordinates.
Your final cache location is
N52. A(C+B).DBC
W0 (A-B)A.EAB
Where;
A = The date of the Enclosure Award map (181A)
B = The watermen used to pay a rate of 3p in tolls. In modern value, this is more than £B.
C = When did Stamford Corporation want to auction the canal? 1C65
D = How many bullet points are on the board?
E = How many feet long was an canal vessel? 4E'
The final cache, once you reach it, is a medicine bottle - if you need further opening instructions, please see the hint.