accounted for some 7,500 tons per year, and another 2,500 tons were made up of lime, manure, bricks and other cargos. Tolls were very high, and were still being maintained at 9 pence (4p) for the length of the canal when tolls on the neighbouring Grand Junction were less than 1 penny (0.4p) per mile. This allowed dividends to be paid throughout the life of the canal, which averaged 2.7 per cent, but reached 6 per cent in 1845, the year in which the canal carried its greatest volume of 14,887 tons. Expansion While the canal was being promoted, the committee had in mind that it might be possible to extend the canal to Olney, and to connect to the River Great Ouse by building a link to Bedford. Once the canal was opened, a survey was commissioned by Lord St. John. This proposed a canal for 20-ton boats, from Newport Pagnell via Tyringham, Sharnbrook and St Neots, where it would join the Ouse. The proposal also included a branch to Kimbolton, but no further action was taken. The idea of a link between the canal and the upper Ouse was revived in 1838, but again, no action was taken. Decline In 1845 an approach was made to buy the canal by the London and North Western Railway. The offer was turned down but in 1862 the canal was sold to the Newport Pagnell Railway for £9,000, despite opposition from the Grand Junction, the Oxford Canal, and the collieries at Moira and Shipley. An Act of Parliament authorising the takeover was obtained in 1863, the canal closed in August 1864, and it was partially built upon by the railway. At Newport Pagnell, the railway re-used several of the warehouses and most of Shipley Wharf. Route The canal left the Grand Junction Canal just to the east of Linford Wharf Bridge, and ran along a relatively straight course eastwards to Newport Pagnell. The locks appear to have been the main engineering features, as there were no significant roads which crossed the course. Although the 1881 Ordnance Survey map shows the railway, rather than the canal, there were no crossings, and this remained the case in 1925. Even today, there are only two routes which cross the path of the canal. The first is the M1 motorway, which was built while the railway was still open, while Brickhill Street was not built