", these £100 shares crashed to £30 in 1800 and £5 in 1834. The canal was originally conceived as a way to stimulate agricultural development in
Hampshire. It was authorised by the '''''' (
18 Geo. 3. c. 75), the company being allowed to raise () by issuing shares, and an additional () if required. The original proposed route was about long, running from Basingstoke to join the
Wey and Godalming Navigations near
Weybridge, with a large loop running to the north to pass around Greywell Hill. The loop cut through the grounds of Tylney Hall, owned by
Earl Tylney, and he objected to the route. Due to this objection, difficulties in raising capital funding, and the
American Revolutionary War being in progress, no construction took place for some time. Nearly ten years later, a favourable forecast of expected traffic was published in 1787, and the canal committee took action.
John Smeaton was appointed engineer, together with
Benjamin Henry Latrobe, and
William Jessop was appointed as assistant engineer and made a survey. To avoid Tylney Hall the route was changed, with the original long contour-following route which had been surveyed around Greywell Hill being replaced by a tunnel through it, shortening the canal by nearly . The contract for construction was awarded to John Pinkerton, part of a family of contractors who had often worked with Jessop, in August 1788. Construction started in October 1788. The canal was opened on 4 September 1794, but two sections of the bank collapsed shortly afterwards, and parts of it were closed until the summer of 1795. One of the main cargoes carried from Basingstoke was timber, along with agricultural products destined for London. A significant amount of traffic took place in the 1850s, carrying materials for the building of
Aldershot Garrison, but this ended within a few years. The Up Nately brickworks, to which a long arm of the canal was built for access, opened in 1898 and in the following year produced 2 million bricks which were mostly transported on the canal. However, there were problems with the quality of the bricks and the brickworks went into liquidation in 1901 and closed in 1908. Otherwise, trade on the canal was never as intensive as had been predicted, and several companies attempted to run it, but each ended up bankrupt. The canal started to fall into disuse after the construction of the
London and South Western Railway, which runs parallel to the canal along much of its length. In 1831, when plans for the railway were being developed, the canal company suggested instead that a link be built between the canal and the
Itchen Navigation. The suggestion was rejected and the canal company agreed not to oppose the construction of the railway. Commercial traffic on the canal mostly ended in 1910, although a low level of use would continue until the last cargo of timber to Woking in 1949. During
World War I the
Royal Engineers took over the running of the canal and used it to transport supplies from
Woolwich to the barracks at
Aldershot,
Crookham and
Deepcut. Harmsworth, the last trader working on the canal, purchased the canal in 1923, but only used the lower section (from the Wey as far as Woking) for limited commercial carrying and pleasure cruising. After part of the Greywell Tunnel collapsed in 1932, the canal to the west of that, including Basingstoke Wharf, was sold. The canal was not
nationalised when the
British Transport Commission was formed by the
Transport Act 1947. After Harmsworth's death in the same year the canal was offered for sale again, and some interested enthusiasts and
Inland Waterways Association members attempted to form a
Basingstoke Canal Committee. At the auction in 1949 they were under the impression that Joan Marshall of Fleet, who had offered to bid on their behalf, had secured the canal for them. However, it turned out that she had instead bought the canal for () on behalf of the
New Basingstoke Canal Company, with the purchase having been financed by Mr S. E. Cooke, inventor of the Duracast
fishing reel. This company (with Cooke as Managing Director and Joan Marshall as General Manager) attempted to continue maintaining the canal, including keeping the locks in working order. They tried to raise extra income from fishing and houseboat moorings ==Restoration==