Working parties on the canal began shortly after the Wey & Arun Canal Society was formed in 1970, and have continued ever since, achieving most of the restoration so far accomplished.

The first Working Party Report appeared in April 1976, edited by Keith Ellis. 81 editions were published until August 1982, when it became the Working Party Supplement, edited by Bill Thomson. Steve Jones, who had been producing it since 1992 handed over to Tim Jolly in June 2005. Wendy Andrews took over from the October 2006 edition.

In the autumn of 1992, interest in working parties seemed to be on the increase, matching an increase in the work that needed doing. The problem was that co-ordinating these work parties proved very difficult especially as one had to contact John Ward to find out where and when - and you know how difficult that is even now! So Steve Jones suggested that we should have some sort of newsletter that went out to all those interested in working parties which most importantly would contain a list of 'Diary Dates' and contact names as by then we had a couple of people lined up who were willing to act as site managers on a regular basis. John thought this was an excellent idea and said that something like it had been tried two or three times before with varying degrees of success.

Working Party News was distributed on a monthly basis since 1992 to all those who had attended a working party at least once in the last six months. Others could receive it either by sending SAEs or a subscription to the editor, or possibly by reading the latest edition on the WACT internet page. It is now available free of charge to anyone who would like to receive a copy, either by e-mail or by post. Contributions towards the cost of receiving hard copy are still gratefully received by way of SAE's or a supply of postage stamps to the editor. The number of regular working groups is now 7 and the majority contribute a regular report. The rest is made up of an editorial and occasional contributors such as the Dig Deep team.

Previous issues of Working Party News are available as listed on the left.

What about coming on a working party? Here is a 'typical' day with the Mid-Week Working Party Or Clearance at the summit.