On the River Witham by Canoe

I made an interesting journey last weekend along the upper stretches of the River Witham in Lincolnshire .  The Witham is navigable from Lincoln out to Boston on the East Coast; however, that stretch is notorious for being completely bland with little to see apart from high embankments and long straight sections.

The bit I have been interested in for some time is the upper stretch between Grantham and Lincoln.  Although I have been on a small section at Beckingham, near Newark , a few times I haven’t been successful in finding any information on anyone who has tried a passage along the upper reaches.So armed with my 16.5 foot fibreglass Snake River Canoe from a local manufacturer in Wisbech my mate Phil and I set off from Belton Hall, near Grantham at 10.00 this Saturday morning.

It would be fair to say it wasn’t the easiest passage anyone has made with two fallen trees blocking the whole of the river in the first two miles and a total of seven weirs to portage around, that being on top of the five or six smaller ones we shot over.

As expected the upper reaches closer to Grantham ran quite fast and shallow in places and we made good progress even though we scraped the bottom a few times.

Fortunately the water in the river is reasonably clear and everything has a healthy coating of weed so the canoe just slipped over without any damage.

As we approached lunch the river became slightly deeper and wider and consequently the flow decreased.  With progress slowing a little we stopped for a pub lunch in the village of   Marston .  Highly recommended mature cheddar baguette with a salad garnish and big homemade chips.   After lunch we continued along the river, which had become quite sedate by now and passed some beautiful houses and farms backing on to the river.

With only one large weir to portage around at Claypole, by 5.00pm we had made it to the village of Barnby in the Willows near Newark and a rendezvous with my wife and the car.

All in all I can see why there is little information on this upper stretch of the river.  I am not sure if it is legally navigable or not but I can tell you we weren’t challenged at any point, in fact we were greeted with surprise on the odd occasions when we saw anybody.  It is a beautiful peaceful river with plenty of wildlife to see.  In some places the embankments can feel a bit oppressive and you do find yourself wishing there were a bit more water in the river to lift you up enough to see a little more.

If we hadn’t of been a couple of fit strong lads I can see how there might have been a problem carrying the canoe around some of the big weirs and it might have been easier if we had a lighter canoe.  Indeed if I had of been solo in my ancient little stitch and glue canoe I can see how it would have been easier to whip round the weirs in no time.

Although our progress was somewhat hampered by the frequent portages at no time were we digging in Haiwai-5-O style, which reflected itself in the days final achievement of 16.5 miles.  Although my mate can’t join me again this summer I am going to finish the journey off in the next few weeks and complete the last 15 miles to Lincoln .  Anyone interested?  I suspect this will take a similar amount of time but with the width and depth increasing considerably as the river snakes towards Lincoln I suspect there will be many fewer obstacles.