Eastgate Green slipway, Sleaford
This slipway on Eastgate Green launches onto the River Slea in Sleaford town centre, on the roughly 0.6-mile stretch of the historic Sleaford Navigation that the Sleaford Navigation Trust restored and reopened up to Cogglesford Mill Lock in 2010. Wider navigation on the Slea closed in 1878 and most of the river beyond this town section is not currently navigable.
The town pound is a narrow, still reach that can run shallow and carry a lot of weed, particularly in summer. It ends after about a kilometre at Cogglesford Mill, where an elaborate weir and the remains of the unrestored Cogglesford lock chamber maintain the head for the mill, still working today; the lock's upstream gate has been replaced by a sluice, so boats cannot pass beyond it.
A steel lift bridge crosses the pound just below the slipway. On Navigation Wharf beside the water stand Navigation House, a Grade II listed building of 1838 built as the Sleaford Navigation Company's office, and the former seed warehouse next to it, now the Hub arts centre. At the downstream end, Cogglesford Mill is a working watermill of mid-eighteenth-century origin, Grade II listed since 1973, and thought to be the only surviving Sheriff's mill in Britain still in operation.
Lollycocks Field Local Nature Reserve borders the south bank near the mill, a standing-water and wetland site supporting water voles. The Slea was described in the nineteenth century as a trout river.
Nearby
Café on Carre Street, a short walk from the slipway.
Coffee shop on the Riverside, close to the launch.
Touring caravan site near North Rauceby, about three miles from the slipway; does not take tents.
WebsiteConditions to check
Cogglesford Mill weir and the remains of the unrestored Cogglesford lock chamber form the downstream limit of the navigable town pound, about a kilometre below the slipway.
SourceThe navigation can carry a lot of weed, and water in the final section towards Cogglesford can run shallow during the summer months.
SourceThe town pound is a dead-end reach: the current head of navigation, with the unrestored Cogglesford lock and weir at its far end, so it does not connect through to the rest of the Slea by boat.
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