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Lording's Flood Lock Bridge.
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Work at Devil's Hole Lock and dams in Sidney Wood.
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Leases at Dunsfold and Sidney Wood.
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| DRUNGEWICK AQUEDUCT
The aqueduct being built over the River Lox at Drungewick Lane, Loxwood is virtually complete. Finishing touches are still being applied by the Trust’s volunteers under the direction of Eric Walker, who has superintended all three stages of the Drungewick Crossing project (i.e. the Drungewick Lane Canal Bridge, the heavy plant crossing to serve the Environment Agency’s gauging station on the River Lox and now the first aqueduct to be built in Sussex for some 190 years).
The aqueduct is to be opened formally at noon on Saturday 31 May 2003 by Dr Dave Fletcher, the retiring Chief Executive of British Waterways. In order to include a report on this event the next edition of this Newsletter will be delayed for a month until June 2003.
Funding
People often wonder how the Trust raises funding for its work. In this case, for the most costly project yet undertaken in the restoration of the Wey & Arun Canal, the total cost of the three stages of the Drungewick Crossing has been about £600,000. Major contributions to the aqueduct have included £82,000 from the many very generous Charitable Trusts which support the canal’s restoration, £62,000 from the Trust’s 1,500 members, £16,000 from our sponsored walks, £49,000 from Biffaward (formerly UK Waste) under the Government’s Landfill Tax Credit scheme, while legacies and Memorial Funds contributed £6,000, the Inland Waterways Association another £15,000 and Chichester District Council £17,000.
We now hope for a fine day on 31 May 2003. Any reader who would like to witness the opening ceremony is invited to contact the Office once all the timings etc. have been settled, where the necessary details should be available from April onwards.
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| DOWN SOUTH
A new bridge has been completed at Orfold Flood Lock by a small team led by Winston Harwood. This site is more than a mile distant from any road (the A272 at Newbridge or Wisborough Green or the B2133 at Adversane) but on investigation proves to be one of the most interesting on the whole canal. The Flood Lock was built by the Arun Navigation Company in 1822, with a rise of only 1 foot, as part of a programme to bring that waterway up to a standard which would permit through traffic from the new Portsmouth & Arundel Canal to move fully laden towards London.
Only some 400 yards to the north lie the remains of Lording’s Lock and its associated aqueduct. Being much involved with aqueducts at the moment, it is worth noting that the latter is of brick construction with three arches - indeed, very similar to the aqueducts built for the Wey & Arun Junction Canal at Drungewick (although the new aqueduct is a single span concrete trough as required for flood prevention reasons, and virtually nothing of the former structure can be seen) and at Gosden, just north of Bramley, where the remains of the brick aqueduct can be readily inspected from the footpath.
Meanwhile, 500 yards or so south of the Flood Lock, repair work was carried out before winter set in in order to stabilise the bank between the canal and the fast-flowing River Arun which tends to scour this bank. At the request of the landowner the intention is to clear the canal southwards from this point as far as Lee Farm Bridge, a distance of almost a mile.
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| AROUND THE BORDER
Less than a mile below the county border a dedicated team led by Eric Walker - in his spare time from overseeing the building of Drungewick Aqueduct - has completed the restoration of Devil’s Hole Lock. This task, bedevilled by bad weather in previous winters which led to the collapse of the bank behind the lock wall, has been continuing for several years, and everybody in the Trust is delighted to see this lock fully restored, albeit without any gates as yet.
At Bonfire Hanger, immediately north of the border, with generous support from SITA, the dams being built above Locks 9, 10 and 11 have been completed, thus controlling the flow of water along a stretch where the canal drops 24 feet in less than a third of a mile. Two new footbridges have also been completed at this point.
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