Editing River Stour, Suffolk (section)

===Operation===
As trade improved, so did the river's profitability, with a dividend of 11 percent paid in 1817. There were proposals to build links to [[Hadleigh, Suffolk|Hadleigh]], [[Boxford, Suffolk|Boxford]] and [[Lavenham]], but the only work carried out was a short cut near Sudbury to serve brickworks and limekilns, which was known as the Ballingdon Cut. Despite advice from [[William Cubitt]] that railways would never offer serious competition in the carriage of heavy goods, the proprietors spent £12,000 on a modernisation programme, involving the construction of towing paths and a cut to bypass a long loop at Wormingford, which included two new locks. Tolls for using the river were restructured, and there was a proposal in 1842 to upgrade the river for a further {{convert|8|mi|km}} to Clare, but the scheme was not pursued due to the cost and the number of locks required.{{sfn|Boyes|Russell|1977|pp=84-85}}

The [[Eastern Counties Railway]] missed Sudbury by {{convert|11|mi|km}} when it opened in 1843, but the [[Stour Valley Railway|Colchester, Stour Valley, Sudbury & Halstead Railway]] was them promoted. The promoters tried to buy out the navigation, but rejected the asking price of £1,000 per share. Income on the navigation peaked at £3,400 in 1848, but had dropped to £1,400 by 1852, when the railway was operating.{{sfn|Boyes|Russell|1977|p=85}} The towing path was far from satisfactory, with horses having to jump over fences, of which there were 123 in 1850, and 20 locations where the horse was transferred to the opposite bank by jumping onto the moving barge and jumping off again at the other side.{{sfn|Boyes|Russell|1977|pp=85-86}} In 1862 the proprietors investigated steam barges, and ordered one which arrived in 1863. It was not a success, and despite various modifications, was out of use by 1867.{{sfn|Boyes|Russell|1977|p=87}}

[[File:Roger Brown's Lock (geograph 7477424).jpg|thumb|left|Stratford St Mary's lock was restored in 2017]]

There was a steady decline in traffic between 1864 and 1873, with many commodities dropping by 50 percent. Dividends were reduced from ten percent to two percent over the same period, and maintenance was less frequent, although a self-acting dredging crane was obtained in 1879, and worked successfully. Trade in bricks from the brickworks at Ballingdon Cut and in flour held up for some time, despite railway competition, but in 1892 the proprietors applied for an abandonment order. This was refused, as the river had not been disused for the required three years. Instead they formed a limited company, the River Stour Navigation Company Ltd. By 1906, tolls were no longer adequate to pay for maintenance, and on 8 October 1914, the company declared itself bankrupt.{{sfn|Boyes|Russell|1977|pp=88-89}}

The shareholders then formed a Trust, and although the last barge to reach Sudbury did so in 1916, there was limited traffic on the lower reaches of the river. The [[Essex and Suffolk Water|South Essex Waterworks Company]] rebuilt the locks at Brantham, Flatford, Stratford and Dedham in 1928 at a cost of £20,000,{{sfn|Boyes|Russell|1977|p=89}} replacing the wooden sides with concrete walls.<ref name=DedhamLock/> There was some traffic by millers until about 1930, but the Trust was finally dissolved on 19 March 1937.{{sfn|Boyes|Russell|1977|p=89}}