The venture was not a commercial success, and it was sold to various millers, who owned watermills along its length. The section above Swafield locks was abandoned in 1893, and from 1922 it was owned by the North Walsham Canal Company, set up by Edward Cubitt and George Walker, who were mill owners. The last commercial use of the canal was in 1934, and it avoided nationalisation in 1948. With the dawning of the leisure age, the canal was seen as an easy one to restore, but work to do so did not start until 2000, when the East Anglian Waterways Association (EAWA) started to run working parties for volunteers. In 2008 the North Walsham and Dilham Canal Trust was formed, and jointly run working parties with the EAWA. In 2009, part of the canal was sold to the Old Canal Company, who have worked to restore two locks and the pounds in between, in order to run Bacton Wood Mill as a watermill. Rewatering was interrupted by the Environment Agency issuing a stop notice in April 2012, but negotiations continue.