What is the history of the canal?
A. The canal was built in two stages. The Arun Navigation being completed in 1787 with the five miles between Pallingham in the south and Newbridge to the north. The Wey & Arun Junction Canal (18 miles) was built between 1813 and 1816 connecting Newbridge to Shalford, the capital for the project being put up by key landowners in order to gain transport access to London’s markets for local produce. The canal’s heyday was in the late 1830s, but within 35 years the influence of the railways had become so strong that the canal was formally abandoned in 1871, to be followed by the Arun Navigation in 1896.
