The Basingstoke Canal was authorised in 1778 and in that year
a writer to the Gentleman's Magazine observed that "The inhabitants
of a little market town in Hants, where no considerable manufacture is
carried on, have unaccountably conceived the idea that if a navigable
canal was made 'some way or other' from there to London, they should emerge
from their present obscurity....". He then went on to consider the
future distressed condition of those who subscribed to the scheme.
The Basingstoke Canal was indeed a failure. It was an unusual canal,
for it was planned as an agricultural waterway, to carry produce from
Hampshire to London and to bring coal in return.
18th century Hampshire produced corn and timber, and had flourishing
woollen textile and paper making industries. Coal was brought from Winchester,
but better quality coal was available in London. Some of this was brought
via the Thames and then overland from the wharves of Staines, Chertsey
and Reading. On the acid soils north and east of Odiham chalk was neded
as fertilizer. It was carried from chalk pits in the Odiham area.
Since the middle ages, trade had been carried on by coast, river and
pack-horse. After 1750, roads began to be improved, and Hampshire fared
better than most parts of the country. Waggons were able to operate between
Portsmouth and Southampton and London, and between Hampshire and the West
Country. They were expensive however, and water transport had great advantages
for carrying heavy and bulky goods.
Many improvements to rivers had been made, particularly since the 17th
century. The Itchen had been made navigable in 1710, and the Kennet
in 1723. The Wey had been canalised to Guildford by 1653 and to
Godalming by 1764, and had proved of great benefit for carrying timber
and agricultural produce to London, and for moving stores and munitions
bound for Portsmouth during the American War of Independence.
The traders of Basingstoke realised that a waterway link with the Thames
would be a great advantage, and in 1769, the first plan was made. It was
for a 19-mile cut from Basingstoke to join a proposed canal from Reading
to Maidenhead.
Navigation of the Thames was difficult because of bends and shallows,
and when Brindley surveyed the river between Mortlake and Maidenhead
in 1770, with a view to making improvements, he recommended that it should
be by-passed. Abingdon, Reading and the City of London supported a petition
for a Bill to build a canal from Reading to Maidenhead and Isleworth,
but it was defeated by opposition from landowners and the inhabitants
of towns on the river. They argued that it would lead to neglect of the
Thames, to the detriment of its towns and mills, and that there would
be flooding.
With this, the plan for the link with Basingstoke also collapsed.
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by Glenys Crocker