Bridge, Lincoln in 1797 Operation The formal opening of the canal was on 17 September 1802, and the day was declared to be a public holiday in Horncastle, so that everyone could celebrate. Boats were decked with bunting and flags, a band played "rousing tunes", and the navvies were given free food and beer on boats in both the north and south basins. Water levels in the canal were controlled by a sluice or staunch near the point at which the River Bain joined the River Waring. A new cut, called the South Ings Drain, which ran from below the sluice to join the old course of the River Bain near Thornton, was made under the terms of the Horncastle Enclosure Award in 1805. A cottage was erected next to the sluice to house the Staunchkeeper, as adjustment of the sluice was vital in times of drought or flood. Tolls were collected, but for the first ten years were used to pay back the mortgage taken out in 1800, and it was not until 1813 that the first dividend was paid. Dividends were then paid every year as profits gradually increased. In the early 1850s, the canal carried around 9,710 tons of coal to Horncastle, and around 5,420 tons of goods, including corn and wool, in the other direction. Decline In 1848, the Great Northern Railway opened a line from Lincoln to Boston, and built a coal wharf at Dogdyke in 1851. This resulted in increased traffic on the canal, but a branch line from Kirkstead to Horncastle via Woodhall Spa was opened in 1854, in direct competition to the canal, after which decline was rapid, with the last dividend being paid in 1873. Against this trend a short cut known as the Tumby Cut was built in 1876. In 1888, the Board of Trade enquired about the status of the company, and Lindsey County Council suggested that it should be abandoned. The secretary sold Kirkby Watermill, which had been used as the company workshops, to raise some capital with which to clear debts, and notified the Board that the canal was effectively defunct. It was officially abandoned on 23 September 1889, but sand and gravel continued to be transported from Kirkby on Bain for another ten years, while the lower reaches of the canal remained in use until 1910 with boats taking coal from Goole to the Coningsby wharf