The importance of canal building in JA’ era has already been mentioned by Linden. Two canals were fairly close to Chawton, the Basingstoke Canal (completed 1794) and a little further away the Kennet and Avon Canal (completed in 1810)

The Lee and Stort navigations are not technically canals but improved rivers, however the Lee navigation in particular is indistinguishable from a canal in practice. Improvements had been made to the river Lee since at least the fourteenth century, but the in 1766 the River Lee Act authorised much more substantial improvements including locks. This made transporting of grain from Hertford, Ware and other sites along the waterways to London much easier. According to the linked site, (from the London Canal Museum) pound locks with two sets of gates (the sort that we are familiar with today) were introduced in 1771. However, this is contradicted by Enfield Council’s page on the Lee and Stort navigations www.enfield.gov.uk/hlee.htm according to which there was a pound lock at Waltham Abbey by 1577, making it one of the first in the country.

Unlike completely new canals, therefore, the story of the Lee navigation is one of piecemeal improvements over centuries (The Hertford Union Canal, joining it with the Regents and Grand Union Canal was not completed until 1830) however the most dramatic period of improvement seems to have been immediately prior to JA’s day.

The Stort Navigation making the waterway navigable to Bishops Stortford, was opened in 1769. It joins the Lee at Rye House.