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The
Basingstoke Canal
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| 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. |
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| 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 in what is now the car-park used
to be a large timber yard. The
off - loaded bricks and
timber being used in the building of homes
around the local area.
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