equivalent to one hundredweight (), until the system was in equilibrium, then the weight was recorded. The weigh house at Midford was one of only four known to have been built in England and Wales. Operation The canal opened in 1805 and was used for passenger traffic as well as coal. In 1814 the Benedictine monks who came to Downside Abbey are said to have used the canal for the last stage of their journey. Another cargo carried by the canal was limestone from Combe Down. The peak level of cargo carried was in 1838 at 138,403 tons resulting in over £17,000 of tolls being paid. Cargoes of over 100,000 tons were common until the 1870s when the decline in output of coal from the various Somerset coalpits, along with competition from the railways, dramatically reduced the canal's profitability. When the main pump at Dunkerton failed it was not replaced and there was not sufficient water for continual operation of the locks. The canal went into liquidation in 1894; it closed in 1898 and was finally abandoned in 1904 when it was sold to the Great Western Railway for £2,000, and used as a branch of the Bristol and North Somerset Railway. The closure caused problems across the Somerset coalfield especially to the pits along the Paulton branch, which had relied on the canal for transportation. The Radstock branch When the Radstock branch was constructed, it was intended to link it to the main line of the Paulton branch at Midford, which was at a lower level at this point. The Lock Fund created in 1802 was to have paid for the construction of the locks, but because there was little regular traffic on the branch, the company built one lock, an aqueduct over the Midford Brook, and a short tramway to bridge the gap. This contributed to the economic failure of the branch, and its replacement by a tramway in 1815. The tramway was laid along the former canal's towpath. It was single-line with passing places every , and was originally laid using cast iron plates on stone block sleepers, but was relaid using wrought iron plates. Engineers and surveyors William Bennet (d. 1826) John Hodgkinson Benjamin Outram (1764–1805) John Rennie (1761–1821) William Smith (1769–1839) John Sutcliffe Robert Weldon (?1754–1810) Robert Whitworth (d. 1799) Data from Jim Shead's Waterways Information. Combe Hay and the caisson lock The fall over