Lock House on the Grantham Canal, Stenwith

The Lock House at Stenwith is associated with the Grantham Canal and thought to have been built for occupation by the canal lock keeper. It is likely to date from the late-C18 or early-C19, the canal, engineered by William Jessop, having opened in 1797.

Materials Red brick with gable chimneys and a red clay pantile roof covering. The building's brick exterior appears to have had a light external render of wash coating which has now largely decayed.

Plan Aligned roughly north-west to south-east, the building is linear in form, and of single room depth, with an off-centre doorway, facing away from the canal, enclosed within a single-storey gabled porch.

Exterior The house is of two storeys and three bays, as originally built, with a single-storey lean-to addition to the left-hand gable. The central gabled porch is flanked by stacked window openings with two-over-two pane sash frames. The openings to the ground floor have shallow arched heads, whilst the heads of the upper floor windows are at eaves level. There is a small, off-centre upper floor sash window to the right of the porch gable apex. The lean-to has a separate entrance below a shallow canopy, and a small square chimney to the rear outer corner. The rear elevation has a small, canted bay window to the ground-floor room at the north-west end from which traffic on the canal approaching the adjacent lock from both directions could be observed.

Interior The interior layout of the building appears to be original and has suffered little alteration. The entrance porch gives access to a narrow central hall passage and a dog-leg stair, below which is a small basement. Either side of the hall passage is a ground-floor room, each of which has longtitudinal beams supporting exposed joists and a hearth in the end wall. Beyond the north-west room is the added lean-to with its hearth. The central winder stair has a small semi basement below, accessed by means of a small doorway leading from the hall passage. The stair gives access to three upper floor rooms, one to the rear of the building accessed directly off of the staircase, the two rooms at either end of the upper floor accessed from a short landing passage located above the hall passage. The small central sash window lights the landing passage.

The building retains much of what appears to be its original joinery, with four-panel doors, moulded architraves, and hearthside cupboards with raised and fielded door panels. The winder stair has a plain plank door at its base, stick balusters, and a simply moulded handrail. The lean-to and north-west ground-floor room retain cast-iron ranges, whilst the south-east ground and first-floor rooms have domestic-scale hearths with substantial contemporary surrounds, the ground-floor example with a later hearth insert.