This is very informative and looks like hard going. Thank You

I am James Graham Gregory-Marshall, the son of Joan Marshall (General Manager of the Basingstoke Canal from 1949 - 64) and David Gregory who was Foreman of the canal during the same period. I really enjoyed this video. A few years ago I tried to trace the original line of the canal from Basingstoke to Little Tunnel Bridge and got hopelessly lost on a couple of occasions. I wish that I had seen this video then but using its information, I will try again this summer to trace the route. I hope the plans to mark the last five miles goes ahead and I look forward to the next part of this video. Thank you very much.

This is great. I’ve lived in Basingstoke all my life and didn’t know much of the information you have given in this video. Nice work!

Brilliant. The canal hedgerow and tree line certainly survives in Eastrop Park.

Thank you for this. I love Basingstoke Canal and have always wondered where it’s original location was in Basingstoke.

Thank you so much. Just beautiful and such wonderful photography

Another excellent documentary. I have lived in the area since the 80s. You uncover things I have not seen before. Well done.

Excellent stuff Bob.

Fantastic video with great historical facts, nice use of past /present overlays. Shame that it wasn’t able to be extended again when Festering Place was created. Glad you made it out of The Fen. Looking forward to Part 2.

Thank you for this excellent guide. I have done this walk some years ago and it fires the imagination to what could of been if the shortages of water had been resolved how busy the canal might have been.

Great video, very interesting. Can't wait for part two.

I really enjoyed the video. I always wondered where the canal basin was located in Basingstoke and how much of the canal bed actually remains between the terminus and Old Basing - now I know. Looking forward to seeing Part 2!

Thankyou. We enjoyed imagining the canal being there as you walked. Sad in a way. We love our concrete it seems.

Absolutely brilliant, can’t wait for Part 2.My Great Grandfather on my Mother’s side of the family worked on the Wharf in Basingstoke, family Surname Evans. One of his son’s lived in a house along Redbridge Lane & was responsible for filling in a large section of the Canal which ran right down to Basing House.

Fascinating! What a lovely and informative video. Like David 5 hours ago, I look forward the learning about more of the 'last 5 miles'.

Wonderful. You filled in a lot of holes in our knowledge. My son and I walked this from Weybridge and could only trance as far as the branch to the brickworks....the rest was a mystery

This is excellent. I loved every minute. Thanks.

Another fantastic video! If I remember correctly, around 10 years ago… I guess, police found the remains of a body on Basingstoke Fen mentioned at 9:50. The remains were skeletal, and no foul play was suspected. Sadly, I think it was believed to have been the remains of a homeless person who’d passed away and gone unnoticed unfortunately.

Excellent video and commentary. Thank you

Nice work Bob, I've walked the exact same route all the way to Greywell. There are some very interesting bits to come, I'm already looking forward to part two.

Excellent video! I never realised that a stretch of the canal had been built on!

Really interesting, thank you. I was born just outside Basingstoke and remember as a kid travelling in on the bus (fare around 8d as I recall) to what many of the older folk from our village still referred to as The Barge. Basingstoke had all changed by the time we moved away in the late 1960s, but your views of the bus station area are quite unrecognisable! But the bridge at Basing House is still as I remember it. Look forward to the next instalment.

Great video!

Really enjoyed that video. I have walked the route of the canal from the Greywell tunnel to Eastrop Park and I think I found most of the remaining bits, but I never noticed those metal plaques in the wall and I was never too sure of the path the canal took through (or next too) Easthope Park. Fascinating video, thank you.

Really top quality film. Amazing how easy it is to get totally lost on Basing Fen.

Love this!! Fascinating stuff!

Excellent video. I traced the canal from Greywell to the scout hut on old Basing but got stuck from there

Fascinating - a great watch

This was so interesting! Great video!

A good guide, perhaps a little long but some nice images there and with some of the archive photos added would make it more polished. Good job though The loss of the Canal for those last five miles is very disappointing, but the opportunity to restore it was not overlooked by our local council who invested money in trying to find a way to restore it and find an aquifer to ensure a good water supply.

I lived on the then quite new Riverdene estate at Eastrop around 1970, and the canal was stll somewhat visible from around Eastrop Bridge most of the way to the bypass, as there were no roads or buildings near the line. And if I remember right, the bed still held some water in the Basing house area in about 1970. Incidentally, a couple of very elderly Greywell residents told me that the village name is pronouced as 'Grool' (more or less monosyllabic).

That’s sad I wish they would have persevered the canal love these videos

fantastic film it's incredible what we lost the canal wharf photo l was blown away when l first saw this recently l have a canal book which says there is an old ww2 jeep buried under redbridge would be interesting if this was true ! l often walk along eastrop way and try and imagine canal boats coming along there l got very lost one day on the basing fen didn't think it was possible but believe me it is.

Whereabouts is the old pump house on Basing fen. I walked it many times with my dog and can never find it, also it's very easy to get lost in this area

Well I enjoyed that x

If you use the lidar compassion, you can see the embankment quite well in places.

With more sensitive and creative planning, Basingstoke could have become a beautiful town instead of the ugly carbuncle it has become. God knows how many backhanders were paid to strip the town of all its charm from the train station to Winton Square.