Spare a thought for surveyor Hodgkinson when he reported to the canal company that a deep cutting was required at Harlaxton – he was fired! Deep cuttings were bad news in the 18 th century, when all had to be dug by pick, shovel and brawn. At twenty feet deep, this was a huge and expensive task. Initially only built one boat wide; two passing places were cut in 1801 to alleviate this bottleneck, with the total length widened later. No need for humpback bridges here! Two bridges span the cutting; Grade 2 listed Vincent's Bridge (67), see if you can spot the 18 th century graffiti! The other being Bridge 66 on The Drift, between the villages of Barrowby and Harlaxton. This was rebuilt on its original buttresses in the early 1980s. Work was carried out by EMDA & GCS in January 2007 to clear the canal in the cutting and the photos below show both before and after the work.
HARLAXTON CUTTING
Looking upstream from Vincent’s Bridge
Looking upstream from Vincent’s Bridge
GCP Chairman (2007) Tony Wilkinson, views the work
Looking upstream towards Harlaxton Drift
Land & Water removing tree trunks from the canal
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