The Wey and Arun Canal ran 23 miles from Shalford ( River
Wey) to Pallingham ( River Arun) and formed
part of a route that ran from the Thames to Littlehampton using the rivers
Wey and Arun. This avoided the need of the coastal route, which at times was
less than safe.
The usual niggles with France meant that merchant vessels
had at times to risk Piracy, state sponsored or otherwise.
In the event of peace one of the last regular uses may
have been the transportation of Gold Bullion from Portsmouth to London ( via
the Portsmouth canal) in heavily protected barges. With the English channel
safe the coastal route became quicker and cheaper, resulting in the demise
of the canal. This is now an on-going but very ambitious restoration project
that will take a few years yet to complete.
The Arun has been used for boats of various descriptions
for centuries, though the first major improvement was probably the
improvements between the port at Arudel
and Pallingham Quay ( Nr Pullborough ) in the 16th Century. This
was later followed by improvements to the Navigation from Houghton (tidal
limit in Sussex ) to Pallenham Wharf
and then from Pallenham Wharf
to Newbridge near Billinghurst as
described in an Act of 1785. The work being completed by 1785.
The last barge using the route was recorded in 1888, with
Hardham tunnel closed the year after, with the
canal sections abandoned in 1896, though traffic still continued in
the original river sections, though impeded and blocked in the 20thCentury
by a fixed Railway bridge at Ford on the Havant to Brighton railway.
The idea of a canal to provide a link between the Wey and
the Arun was put forward by the 3rd Earl of Ergemont in 1810, with
justification for the route being given by French attacks on shipping in the
English Channel. Josias Jessop gave an estimate of £72,217 for the work
later upgrading it to £86,132 with modifications to the proposed route made.
An act of Parliament permitting the scheme was passed in
1813. With May Upton appointed
Engineer work commenced in July
the same year and was completed in 1816 by which time the war with France
was over and the coastal route was again safe,
viable and probably both quicker and cheaper as well.
Further to
this the Railway arrived in 1865 in the form of the Guildford and Horsham
Railway, which provided direct competition to a canal already struggling for
trade, whose problems were compounded by water shortages not helped by the
porous ground the canal had been dug through.
The canal was
officially abandoned in 1871 after closure in 1868 and the land sold off
piecemeal to local land owners.
Restoration
started with the founding of the Weyand Arun
Canal Society in 1970, which became the Wey and Arun Canal Trust in 1973.
It is an
ambitious project, but progress is being made.