Editing Wilts & Berks Canal (section)

==Expansion==
Before the canal was completed, the proprietors were already thinking about how the canal could become part of a larger network. In 1809, they proposed a Western Junction canal, which would have crossed the Thames on an aqueduct and continued for a further {{convert|36.5|mi|km}} by way of [[Thame]] and [[Aylesbury]] to join the [[Grand Junction Canal]] at [[Marsworth]]. Both canal companies agreed to contribute £100,000 to fund the project, but opposition from the Thames Commissioners, the Kennet and Avon Canal, the [[Oxford Canal]] and the [[Warwick and Napton Canal]] resulted in the bill being defeated in Parliament on 25 February 1811. A branch from the Grand Junction to Aylesbury was completed in 1815, and the two canals looked again at completing the link between Aylesbury and Abingdon in 1813 and 1817. They made a joint survey for the route in 1819, and the plan was reconsidered in 1828, but no further action occurred.{{sfn |Hadfield |1969 |p=281}}

Their next plan was for a Bristol Junction Canal in 1810, running from Wootton Bassett via the Gloucestershire coalfield to Bristol. An initial survey was made by William Whitworth, and a bill presented to Parliament in 1811, but it was withdrawn amidst opposition from the Thames Commissioners, landowners and the Oxford Canal. A Central Junction Canal was the next proposal, running over {{convert|59|mi|km|0}} from Abingdon to the [[Stratford-upon-Avon Canal]]. John Rennie oversaw a survey of its route, and the cost was estimated at £470,000, but no further action ensued when there was opposition from the Grand Junction Canal, the Oxford Canal and the Warwick and Napton Canal.{{sfn |Hadfield |1969 |p=282}}

Throughout construction of their own canal, the Wilts & Berks company had considered a link to the [[Thames and Severn Canal]], and in 1810 they wrote to the Thames and Severn to say that William Whitworth had surveyed a route from Wootton Bassett to Yeoing (now known as [[Ewen, Gloucestershire|Ewen]]), near Kemble in Gloucestershire. The project, named the Severn Junction Canal, was altered to run from Swindon to [[Latton, Wiltshire|Latton]] junction on the Thames and Severn, and was presented to Parliament in early 1811, but was withdrawn because it would probably have been defeated. By 1812, it had become the North Wilts Canal, and authority to build it was obtained in 1813. Of the many plans, this was the only one to reach completion when it opened on 2 April 1819.{{sfn |Hadfield |1969 |pp=282–284}}

The North Wilts Canal was originally formed as a separate company. The branch was {{convert|9|mi|km}} long and included 11 locks, an aqueduct over the River Thames and a small tunnel near Crichlade. Having borrowed £!5,000 from the [[Exchequer Bill Loan Commission]]ers to help finance its construction, the company could not meet Government demands for repayment of that loan, and after only two years of independence, proposed that it should merge with the Wilts & Berks, whose shareholders had also contributed £15,000 to its construction costs.{{sfn |Hadfield |1969 |pp=284–285}} The merger was authorised by the passing of the '''{{visible anchor|Wilts. and Berks. Canal Navigation Act 1821}}''' ([[2 Geo. 4]]. c. xcvii).{{sfn |Priestley |1831 |p=678}} The Wilts & Berks took over the debt with the Exchequer Bill Loan Commission, North Wilts shareholders received £100 shares in the parent company for their existing shares, and the act also consolidated all of the previous legislation for both companies, with earlier acts being repealed.{{sfn |Hadfield |1969 |p=285}}