Along The Wey & Arun Canal – October 2016

Published on: 22 Oct, 2016
Updated on: 22 Oct, 2016

A regular update from the Wey & Arun Canal Trust, a charity restoring the waterway which once ran 23 miles from Shalford to Pallingham in West Sussex. The Trust has established the Hunt Nature Park, where the canal route meets the River Wey, as part of its aim to create a green corridor for wildlife and recreation.

The highlight of the year for the Wey & Arun Canal Trust was its weekend of celebrations to mark the 200th anniversary of the waterway being opened.

The occasion was commemorated in grand style over October 1 and 2 with activities attended by hundreds of people.

Dame Penelope Keith with some of the Trust members dressed in period costume.

The main event, on the Sunday, was the official opening of the new Compasses Bridge on the canal’s summit level at Alfold by actor Dame Penelope Keith.

Around 250 people gathered at the bridge, built by the Trust at the Alfold entrance to the Dunsfold Park aerodrome and business complex. They watched Dame Penelope cut a red ribbon across the roadway before posing for photographs with members in period dress and signing copies of the Trust’s souvenir programme.

The weekend began on the Saturday at Pallingham Bridge in West Sussex, near where the canal once linked with the River Arun. A ‘bicentennial baton’ – a scrolled copy of an original canal company share certificate – was handed over for the first stage of a 27-mile journey to Guildford by foot, trip boat, small craft, bicycle and narrowboat.

Also on the Saturday, there were boat excursions on the fully restored canal section at Loxwood – with the crews, canal centre volunteers and trust officers turned out in outfits typical of the early 1800s. Horse-drawn trips on narrowboat Zachariah Keppel were popular, courtesy of heavy horse Buddy being loaned for the day by the Godalming Packetboat Company.

The relay stopped off at various points before being received by the Mayor of Guildford, Gordon Jackson, at its final destination, Dapdune Wharf, in Guildford, on the Sunday. It went from Shalford to the tea party venue in by narrowboat Trincomalee, owned by Trust members Euan and Joanne Houstoun.

The bells of St Mary’s Church, Shalford, and St Nicolas Church, Guildford, rang out as Trincomalee, accompanied by a flotilla of small boats and a pair of visiting historic narrowboats cruised up the Wey.

A cream tea for members and guests at the Guildford Sea Cadets HQ on Dapdune Wharf was the finale event, emulating the sumptuous meal staged for canal company directors and shareholders on the day the canal was officially opened in 1816.

The May of Guildford, Gordon Jackson, christens the new narrow boat Wey-Away.

Trust life member Paul Barfield had moored his brand new narrowboat at the wharf for it to be named Wey-Away by Mr Jackson, who christened the vessel by pouring champagne over the bow. Mr Jackson also received a £1,000 donation cheque for WACT, presented by Mike Lewis of Guildford and Reading branch of the Inland Waterways Association.

“We were absolutely delighted with the way our weekend went, after months of planning,” said WACT chairman Sally Schupke. “There was an awful lot of detail to go into, with several people each taking on aspects of the celebrations, but everything went smoothly from start to finish.

“There was a good turnout of members and guests at Compasses Bridge, which is important to the trust, as it’s our first major restoration project in Surrey.

“With Dame Penelope generously agreeing to open the bridge, we hope we have significantly raised out profile in the county.”

As the bicentennial events were planned, the team which looks after the Trust’s Hunt Nature Park at Shalford carried on with its working parties. It has started to plant the boundary fence along the northern edge of the park with vitalba – old man’s beard clematis, also called traveller’s joy.

This plant was once associated with the Devil because it does his work for him by trailing into other plants to choke them. A member of the buttercup family, it is also connected with the Virgin Mary and God because of its white feathery look.

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