£7 includes a cup of tea or coffee
Join us for our March tea and talk at the museum, Roger Cansdale from the Basingstoke Canal Society is our speaker.
The Basingstoke Canal was never really commercially successful, but it enjoyed a brief period of prosperity in the middle of the 19th century when it was used to transport materials to build the Aldershot Military Camp. The Army had a close relationship with the canal for most of the following century, using it to transport equipment to and from places like Woolwich Arsenal and to provide a training facility for tasks like bridge building and fording waterways. It also provided popular recreation for off-duty soldiers thanks to the various places on the canal where rowing boats could be hired. After the then derelict canal was taken into public ownership in the 1970s, the Army provided assistance to the restoration teams on many occasions by way of 'training exercises'. Support for the restoration also came from RAF Odiham and a number of Royal Navy personnel who got involved."
