Despite all the grand ideas of a few, these plans and others were rejected, and when the railways reached Fleet Pond Station in 1830, the canal remained, in principle, much as it is to be found today.

The building of Aldershot Military Town, commencing in 1854, staved off the canal's early demise to a degree as initially most bulk construction materials, and later munitions, were transported by barge. 

A widening and deepening project in 1894 for the transportation of bricks, did little to secure the commercial future of the canal. The Basingstoke Canal never really became an economical success.
Ironically, it was the construction of the London - Southampton railway which created the most canal traffic, transporting most of the required railway construction materials by barge, which produced one of the few profitable periods for the canal owners.

The Railways appeared to have sounded the canal's death knell before it had a chance of establishing itself and generating the necessary, regular business.  Crookham Wharf, next to the Chequers Bridge, Crookham became the main loading / off loading point for the area. What is now the car-park used to be a large timber yard. The bricks and timber being used in the building of homes within the local area.

Entrance to the
Greywell Tunnel