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The Foss Dyke, or Fossdyke Navigation, dates back to Roman times, giving it a strong claim to be Britain’s oldest canal.

The Romans built the Foss Dyke (or Fossdyke) ca120 AD, to connect the River Witham to the River Trent. The canal decayed after the departure of the Roman army until the channel was re-established in 1121, during the reign of King Henry I. During the next few centuries the channel regularly silted up making it almost unusable and it was not until 1744 that a reliable channel was created and maintained. Improvements made in 1671 included a navigable sluice or lock at Torksey, and warehousing and wharves were built at Brayford Pool in the centre of Lincoln.

Unlike many canals, the Foss Dyke never closed. Despite the demise of general commercial traffic caused by competition from the railways in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the canal continued to carry grain traffic until 1972.