On the Grantham Canal

Last Traffic: NarrowBoat, Winter 2019

Christopher M Jones

Chris M. Jones studies two images showing the latter days of carrying on this East Midlands waterway

Alongside the Grantham Canal in Cropwell Bishop in Nottinghamshire, the land was once rich with deposits of gypsum and limestone. In around 1880, these minerals were being exploited by a partnership between local landowner and market gardener, Richard Bagnall, and plaster manufacturer Joseph Dawes Snaith of Nottingham. Snaith had grown up in Leicester, where his father had a wine merchant’s business. His plaster works was approximately 8 miles from the junction with the River Trent at Trent Lock, and just over a mile from Cropwell Top Lock No 11. Snaith at Cropwell Trading as Bagnall & Snaith, the firm only lasted until January 1881, when Bagnall left. Snaith continued in business as Dawes Snaith & Co, employing 14 men and a boy. This soon became the Cropwell Plaster, Cement & Brick Co Ltd, with Snaith as managing director. To serve the works, the company bought two narrowboats, named Providence and Perseverance, which were registered in December 1882. They were u…