you join us today on the part abandoned,
part restored and seemingly pointless wey and arun canal of course it was set to join
london to the south coast of england so why was it pointless and if it was
why are they restoring it my name is paul and i'm rebecca join us on today's canal adventure
the notion of building a navigable waterway connecting the river arun and the river way
have been thought of as far back as 1641. the idea didn't get far then but was raised again
in 1663. the idea being that the tributaries for the weigh and the arun
at one particular point just south of godalming were only two miles apart
so the first part of this journey sees us on abandoned railway the Cranliegh branch so i
haven't just left guildford in the north there um and it looks like rebecca's found something
just down here which could be the first spot of the day what have you got rebecca
it could be the aqueduct you were saying about there's an aqueduct isn't there oh
well so there's the old viaduct there for the railway or i'll bridge for the railway
over the river um and yeah there's the aqueduct just to the um just to the left
so as i say we just left guildford there and we're heading south
on this canal this junction canal it was called and one thing we've noticed from the plan
is it's quite a rural journey it's through very very open bits of land no real sort
of conabations or towns but that didn't matter because even the actual promoters of the canal
realized that this wasn't going to be like its northern and midland industrial counterparts
so our journey continues south and we're now in a place called run common and we're heading
through this beautiful wooded area and i'm going to surmise completely uneducated guests
the big old heap here the spoil heap if you will is from the cut because the cut is just
in front of me so i guess the earth from the cup had to go somewhere and there it is
in 1810 the third earl of egremont decided that once again plans for this canal should continue
and he began to promote it and he did so
on the basis largely if it was going to be a shortcut inland from the south coast up into
london
we wildly misunderstood this bridge we were looking for sort of um
i don't know maybe a couple of iron short iron spans but actually the iron span
is this huge great iron span here and the canal would have just molded its way on underneath
through what is behind us right there now which is just infill um so we're going to carry on head and
south now see what else we can find furthest out for cranliegh. England was at war with france and
whilst fully aware that cargo was the main source of income for a successful canal this would be the
perfect remedy for cargo having to take the treacherous route around the english channel
it took another three years for an act to receive royal ascent in 1813. josias jessup son of william
took on the the role of designing the bridges the aqueducts even the route he looked after
everything things were ready to go the blue bell woods here is lovely right next to the
canal just there we're looking for a feeder for the canal it was one of about three
that came down the hill from vachery pond the pond uh served a lot of this canal
but i think we found just one of them just down here so if i get underneath here
now just down here is a about a six foot drop and it's completely brick lined and it goes underneath
us so we're going to assume it comes out on the canal just over there so let's go take a look
things were looking good and construction of the canal began it was going to have 23 locks
and it could take up to 30 ton barges now we're in sidney woods and we're looking for the site
of at least three of the locks there and ahead of us now is the cut of the canal
no road or track in this area is a public right of way unless so designated so just over there
is the cut now that would head north eventually and i'm wondering i think we've got to head that
way a little bit before we get to the site of one of the locks unless this is it here
so we're stood now on what is obviously a filled in bit but that bit there
you can see it's probably about two or three feet lower than us that's the bottom of the
canal bed there and if i spin the camera around this way you'll see down there
we've got about 10 or 15 feet so i'm pretty sure this must have been the size of one of the locks
so we're going to walk up onto the towpath just up there because it does drop even further if
you can peer through there it drops even further so let's carry on walking down the
top off a little bit and see if we can find any evidence that there were locks there
in october 1816 just three years later the evening mail was reporting that earl egremont
and the other shareholders were celebrating the opening of the canal
they embarked upon four barges with plenty of ale at hand
so whilst we as we look for the next lock in the sidney woods it's worth asking the question what
could possibly have gone wrong with this canal well for a start the war with france was over
so a significant part of the reason for building this stretch of canal had literally disappeared
just overnight now whatever you feel about that and however you feel of the business plan
based around a war taken part no one could have foreseen the next nail in the coffin of this canal
yes you guessed it the coming of the railway just 50 years after its construction and seemingly
small usage of the canal the cranny branch line linking horsham and guildford and beyond
was constructed the line was in direct competition with the canal so we think we
found one of the locks either 12 13 or 14 which are the three in this part of sidney woods um so
just here you've got looking back towards the north or the southern in the north west
um fairly shallow there and you uh face in the other direction and you've got a beautiful
downward slope at the moment obviously it wasn't a downward slope 200 years ago
but a big drop into what would have been at least one of the um the the the lock housing gates
we're just south now of the weight in arun and we're now on the
arrow navigation itself and for the first time today this is part of the canal
but it doesn't really look like a canal anymore it's been filled in probably by a farmer
but of course this will have to be done at some point soon should they wish to reopen this
so after a mile and a half's walk we finally got to the site of lordings
lock danger please keep off a lot of it's
fenced off here um lots of information boards lots of stuff to see actually wow
so ad hoc research complete this is lording's water wheel so lordings water wheel situated
right next to the river would be able to lift the sluice gate right in front of us there
lift water into the wheel itself the wheel would turn and because of the angle of the
actual wheel and the the shape it was constructed in it pulled water out onto the top of the uh
the the leak itself and the leak went into the aqueduct so presumably this here was like another
inlet for the canals another way of feeding water to the canal via lording's lock so they
obviously realized that the level of the canal itself was too high for the natural watercourse
to go in so somehow they needed to get water up and they did that by lording's water will
so there's one bit that remains a little bit of a confusion to us which is
that way there is the aqueduct then the lock so the aqueduct went over the river
into the lock here and the log boy down to river level now beyond us there you'd have come through
here through the other side of the camera facing that way and carried on there the question is why
build an aqueduct over the river if you're then going to lower yourself to river level so i think
this bit for me personally needs a little bit more explaining i need to see some some sort of plan to
see how they navigated this bit of the the slope downwards uh self but maybe that's for another day
unfortunately the coming of the railways marked the final nail in the coffin for the wey and arun
canal despite its grand vision at the time of its conception when moving heavy goods by any
other means was close to impossible the wey and arun canal were set to become another casualty
of the lack of traffic in the south of england within two years of the
railway opening an act of parliament was put in place to close the canal
so we're here at the end of our journey today and we're in between a whole junction
of canals which gives us scope for more videos in the future now of course 1865 marks the end
of the canal the closure of the canal itself but of course that didn't mark the end of the
way in aaron because a hundred years later the way in aaron society set themselves up
with a view of restoring the canal and maybe one day using it again as a navigable waterway
now to date they have restored 23 bridges 11 locks a significant undertaking when you
consider it it's all been done by volunteers donations from the public you name it here we
are again at the southern point of our journey i think that way you've got the stopham cut
which leads to the rover navigation you've got the south you've got the hardman tunnel that'll be
another video soon the hardman tunnel and the arun river and in another direction you've got another
river which i don't even know the name of so it's quite a junction of navigations and canals here
so hopefully you've enjoyed our little trip today if you have obviously give us a subscribe and
don't forget to leave a little comment below to say you've enjoyed it and we'll see you next week
you