The Wey & Arun Canal Trust are excited to announce the start of work that will ultimately lead to the canal's reconnection with the national waterways system. About a mile from the Gunsmouth, where the canal meets the River Wey at Shalford, a team from the Trust has cleared undergrowth to survey a possible route for the restored canal. The work has the enthusiastic support of landowners Jim & Sheila Cook of Beevers Farm, Bramley.

During the winter, volunteers led by David Junkison of the Wey & Arun Canal Trust have cleared undergrowth across the width of Beevers Farm to establish a new line for further survey work. Jim Cook told a reporter from the Surrey Advertiser: 'I would love to see it. Once they get this canal done, which I hope will be in the not too distant future, I will make use of it.'

'We now have a real start on something in the Bramley area and the possibility of a new route' commented Chris Harrison, Bramley Link manager for the Wey & Arun Canal Trust. In October 2004, the Trust held an exhibition and consultation with local residents and presented some preliminary thoughts on alternative routes. The objective of the exhibition was to seek the views of Bramley residents on restoring the Wey & Arun Canal through Bramley and to obtain views on the various routes the canal might take. The original route can no longer be used because some of the line has been filled in or built over between Stonebridge on the A281 and Bramley.

Turlough Bamber, Restoration Manager for the Canal Trust, comments "This survey line will enable the Trust to see where we have got to go. The actual engineering involved in digging out a new route is not complicated. All three bridges in the area have sufficient headroom for navigation. Our next step will be further consultation with the Environment Agency and English Nature, and an ecological survey carried out to make sure that there are no rare or protected species."

The Canal Trust will now continue the process of consultation with local residents, landowners and local authorities to find the best possible route towards Gunsmouth, a short section of the canal which is used as a mooring site for a number of boats.

The Trust would like to record their appreciation to Jim & Sheila Cook for their support. It is early days in Bramley, but complete restoration of the Wey & Arun Canal, a vital link in the only inland water route between London and the south coast, is beginning to seem a more realistic objective.