London’s Lost Route to Basingstoke - P A L Vine

The Basingstoke Canal was built in the expectation that it would become a national artery of commerce, linking the Thames with both the English and Bristol Channels. In the event, in spite of an astonishing number of attempts to extend it, it never went beyond the market town of Basingstoke in Hampshire. Beleaguered by debt, variable management and natural disasters, the waterway did well to survive the coming of the London and Southampton Railway. This was in part the result of the building of the army camp at Aldershot during the Crimean War, in part due to the enterprise of a succession of speculators, some of whom, like Horatio Bottomley, did nothing to improve its commercial viability. The upper reaches became derelict soon after the turn of the century and by 1949 all barge traffic had ceased.

This historical account of the life of the canal, first published in 1968, has been extensively revised and brings the story right up to date. In particular, it describes the restoration of the canal by the Surrey and Hampshire Canal Society, formed in 1966, culminating in its reopening by the Duke of Kent in 1991. Today there is the possibility of reopening Greywell Tunnel and the building of a new terminus near Little Tunnel.

This new edition, published on the occasion of the canal’s bicentenary, is illustrated with over seventy photographs, line drawings and maps. It will appeal to residents of London, Surrey and Hampshire, as well as those with an interest in our industrial heritage, and visitors to the region.