in 1788 after failing to complete the Sapperton Tunnel project, not entirely at his own fault. Jones was again dismissed in 1789 after the quality of the tunnel work was criticised. The canal was opened on 4 September 1794, but two sections of the bank collapsed shortly afterwards, and parts of it were closed until the summer of 1795. One of the main cargoes carried from Basingstoke was timber, along with agricultural products destined for London. A significant amount of traffic took place in the 1850s, carrying materials for the building of Aldershot Garrison, but this ended within a few years. The Up Nately brickworks, to which a long arm of the canal was built for access, opened in 1898 and in the following year produced 2 million bricks which were mostly transported on the canal. However, there were problems with the quality of the bricks and the brickworks went into liquidation in 1901 and closed in 1908. Otherwise, trade on the canal was never as intensive as had been predicted, and several companies attempted to run it, but each ended up bankrupt. The canal had started to fall into disuse even before the construction of the London and South Western Railway, which runs parallel to the canal along much of its length. In 1831, when plans for the railway were being developed, the canal company suggested instead that a link be built between the canal and the Itchen Navigation. The suggestion was rejected and the canal company agreed not to oppose the construction of the railway. Commercial traffic on the canal mostly ended in 1910, although a low level of use would continue until the last cargo of timber to Woking in 1949. In the winter of 1913, Alec ("A J") Harmsworth attempted to navigate the canal in the narrowboat Basingstoke, carrying a cargo of sand. The intention of this trip was to prove, at the request of the then owner of the canal, that it was still navigable and so avoid the possibility of closure under the Railway and Canal Traffic Act 1854. Under that Act, if the canal were not used for five years then the land the canal was built on could be returned to the original owners. It turned out not to be possible to navigate the entire length of the canal, but the boat did successfully pass through the Greywell Tunnel and was left