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BRIDGES are key to the restoration of the Grantham Canal. Some 70 bridges have crossed its 33 miles at one time or another and many of the original ones were flattened and/or culverted post-World War II, writes Peter Stone.
Since then, the canal has been cut by the A52 and A1 dual carriageways. But all is not lost—right now, no fewer than six bridges are in the news: from West to East, in numerical order, they are:
 Brand new bridge
In Nottinghamshire, within Cotgrave Country Park, a brand new bridge for pedestrians, riders and park maintenance vehicles is being constructed, across the footings of long-lost Brown's Bridge 14.
On completion of this, the massive, water-level, concrete Colliery Bridge 14a will be removed, together with some other obstructions in the canal bed. Locks 6 & 7 on this section were fully restored in 2000, so whilst there remain issues of water supply and the need for dredging, the developments at Bridge 14 will open up a mile of canal, between Bridges 12 and 15, to navigation.
Cleared of trees
A mile further east, past a section of canal bed being cleared of substantial trees by the 'Bit in the Middle' group of the Waterway Recovery Group, is the Highways Agency's £300 million 'A46 Improvements'—the brand new Fosse Way.
 First, there is Bridge 16—the site of the 'Battle of Mann's Bridge'—about which the Highways Agency and Transport Minister did nothing, despite a Planning Inspector advising in favour of the Grantham Canal Partnership. The Highways Agency's short-sightedness means that the restoration options for this site are now longer-term and restricted to a lifting bridge.
£2 millions spent
 Yet only half a mile further on, no less than £2 millions has been spent on a splendid new crossing of the canal by the dual-carriageway A46! Historic but graffiti-covered Fosse Bridge 18 will remain for local access, whilst alongside it, the new bridge crosses the canal, its towpath/multi-user trail and a diverted bridleway.
 11 miles due east (or 21 miles by Jessop's contour route) into Lincolnshire is the final 'bridge in the news'—hump-backed, 200 years old Longmoor Bridge 62, where the canal is crossed by long-distance footpath 'The Viking Way'.
Demolished by vandals
Restoration has been unintentionally forced on British Waterways by vandals who, in 2011, suddenly chose to demolish its brick parapets and tip them into the canal, at the same time preventing navigation by the Grantham Canal Society's trip boat 'The Three Shires'.
'It's an ill wind' though, because the current rebuilding of Longmoor Bridge will mean that all four historic bridges on the navigable section between Woolsthorpe and the A1 will have been fully restored in the last five years.
Only another four dozen bridges to go!
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