In 1907, the company replied to a request from the Board of Trade for a statistical return that the canal was derelict, apart from ""kept open for Stanton"". A request from the Midland Railway to convert bridges over the canal into embankments was denied by the proprietors, on the basis that they did not have to authority to grant it. The railway bridge at West Hallam was rebuilt in the 1950s, although that at Derby Road was partly filled in at the same time. The road bridge at New Stanton was lowered in 1913 by the Ironworks Company, who attempted to get Shardlow Rural District Council to contribute to the cost, but there is no known record of the outcome. The legal status of the abandoned canal was formalised in 1925, when two holding companies were created, Nutbrook No 1 Company, to hold the shares of the original company, and Nutbrook No 2 Company to hold the shares of Nutbrook No 1 Company, and to attempt to purchase the freehold of the canal bed, to remove the burden of rental payments.