[64505] Sleaford : Navigation House

Navigation House, Carre Street, Sleaford, Lincolnshire, 1838-39.

Grade II Listed.

 

The Sleaford Navigation Company’s decision to install a weighbridge and build an associated 'hut' coincided with a rise in its prosperity. Consequently, the company resolved to erect a building that befitted its status. Thus Navigation House was built in 1839, consisting of an office for the clerk with the weighing machine in it, a Committee Room for meetings and two upstairs living rooms for the clerk. After the company was wound up in 1878 the house continued as a dwelling until the 1950s when it gradually fell into disrepair. There was an attempt in the early 1970s to demolish it and this led to the formation of the Sleaford Navigation Society whose aim was to preserve the house. It was saved from demolition although no funds were available for the necessary restoration work. Shortly after 1999, when the building was in an even worse state of repair, money was finally secured to renovate it and in 2005 it was reopened to the public as a Visitor Centre with particular emphasis on the Sleaford Navigation.

 

The building is probably unique in being the only example of specially built Company Offices to exist on a rural waterway.

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