Short Walk by the Pocklington Canal A

History

The Pocklington Canal runs 9.5 miles from the River Derwent at East Cottingwith to Canal Head at Pocklington. Its Act was passed in 1815, George Leather Jr was the engineer, and it opened in 1818 at a cost of £32,695, less than the original estimate. It carried coal, lime, fertiliser and other goods to Pocklington and agricultural produce out to the West Riding, but it was never a great financial success, partly because goods had to go on by horse-drawn cart from the terminus beside the Hull to York turnpike road. The York and North Midland Railway bought it in 1848 and it deteriorated for lack of dredging and maintenance; the last commercial boat to use it, the keel Ebenezer, did so in 1932.

A proposal in 1959 to fill the canal with sludge from a water treatment plant angered landowners, residents and the Inland Waterways Association, and the canal was saved. The Pocklington Canal Amenity Society was formed in 1969 and its volunteers began by clearing the towpath, which is now open throughout the canal's length. The society has since restored the section from the Derwent to the Melbourne Arm to navigation, about half the canal.

East Riding of Yorkshire Council's leaflet for Short Walk A, a circular stroll of about 2 miles along the towpath from East Cottingwith, says the walker can follow the lockside or take the riverside path to the point where the canal joins the Derwent, and can reach the towpath at Melbourne and at Canal Head. It adds that the British Waterways Board had opened the towpath for public access and that the Pocklington Canal Amenity Society was improving facilities.