Let battle commence! Running diagonally across the country from the south coast near Exeter to Lincoln, using the rivers Severn and Trent in parts for added security, the Roman Fosse Way travels unerringly its 200 plus miles. In our region, we have the Roman fort of Margidunum, thought to be the largest along this road. Margidunum is perhaps more familiar as the name of the big roundabout on what is now the ‘old’ Fosse Way near Bingham. These Roman interlopers made life a little uneasy for our native Corieltauvi tribe whom, largely occupying the area we now call the East Midlands, had been quite happily getting on with things for a couple of thousand years or so when the Romans came and unsettled them. Iron Age finds have been discovered at Margidunum. To give you a handle on these times; Boudica, Queen of the Iceni in East Anglia was busily knocking six bells out of the Romans; intent on taking her lands bequeathed to her by her father – gawd, she was riled! Still on the Fosse, and towards Newark; a mere 1,400 years later, we have the last battle of the Wars of the Roses at East Stoke – not wishing the facts to get in the way of a good story – the battle of Bosworth Field also lays claim to being the last. It is thought by some, that East Stoke may have been a larger battle than that of Bosworth. However, archaeologists working for the Highways Agency (HA) on the dualling of the Fosse Way - less romantically if you must – the A46, found little evidence of this battle. The dualling of the A46, reminds of another battle a little south of Margidunum – the Battle for Joshua Mann’s Bridge! Too recent to be mentioned in history books, this was our own battle to prevent HA from making life difficult – and a tad expensive for us. We didn’t emerge victorious; which means we lost. This 2010 Battle was mainly between British Waterways and the Highways Authority. The Grantham Canal Partnership and the Grantham Canal Society supported British Waterways in this fight. No blood was spilled; each allowed to present their case in an orderly fashion to the inspector at the public enquiry. HA built us a wonderful £2.2mn bridge(17a) taking the A46 over the canal – if that’s not an endorsement of our aim to full navigation! The issue was Joshua Mann’s Bridge(16). This bridge fell just 1mtr outside the parameters of the road improvement works, and because of the new design of the associated Stragglethorpe junction, it’s going to make it a lot more expensive to raise Joshua Mann’s Bridge in the future, being technically more challenging and disruptive. Ideally we would have liked HA to have replaced Joshua Mann’s Bridge as part of the works – being incorporated into the re-engineering of the Stragglethorpe Intersection. When this started to look unlikely, a compromise solution was put forward to raise Stragglethorpe Road by 1.75mts. This would still involve re-engineering the canal to include an additional lock when the time came to putting the canal through. Sadly, this too was looked upon unfavourably by the HA, insistent their work wouldn't prevent Mann’s Bridge from being raised in the future. The inspector of the public enquiry ruled in our favour. Ultimately, the decision lay with the secretary of state for transport, which went the other way – falling in the midst of the general election probably didn't help. The only concession, after being pressed, was to install a Toucan crossing for towpath users crossing the busy Stragglethorpe Road. What the Battle for Joshua Mann’s Bridge did do for us, was to increase awareness and support for the society.