these developments gave the town excellent communications and stimulated its industrial growth during the 19th and 20th centuries. the grand union canal, allowed coal to be brought into the district and paved the way for industrial development. the watford gas and coke company was formed in 1834 and gas works built. the canal allowed paper-making mills to be sited at croxley. the john dickinson and co. mill beside the canal manufactured the croxley brand of fine quality paper. there had been brewing in watford from the 17th century and, by the 19th century, two industrial scale brewers benskins and sedgwicks were located in the town. the parish church of st mary's was extensively restored in 1871. the town expanded slightly during this time. in 1851 a new street off the high street was opened, king street, followed by queens road and clarendon road in the early 1860s. during this time, watford had a population of around 6,500 the railways also continued to expand from watford during this period; the watford and rickmansworth railway opened in 1862 as a short branch line via to , and another branch was added to in 1912. the original plan was to extend the rickmansworth line south connecting watford to uxbridge; this scheme failed and both the rickmansworth and croxley branches closed.