IN THIS ISSUE 120 Part 1 - Editorial Chairman's Report Restoration Roundup LLEP Manager's Report Membership Report Part 2 - Secretary's Column Restoration Strategy Funding the Aqueduct Working Party News Future Water Supply Notice Board New Video Film News from The Granary Previous issues

Wey-South issue 120  September - November 2002

PART 2 Secretary's Column - Geoff Perks Returning after two months away from the canal it was really encouraging to find the Drungewick Aqueduct actually under construction. This is such an important link for the W&A, the first aqueduct to be built in West Sussex since the brick one on the same site was constructed in 1813/16. To be followed almost immediately by the transit beneath the new Drungewick Lane Canal Bridge which was opened last September. These structures are proof of the Trust’s ability to restore the whole canal and to reopen "London’s Lost Route to the Sea". As with the two earlier phases of the Loxwood Link Extension Project, Eric Walker is in charge of the work on behalf of the Trust and is putting in many hours on the site in all weathers - to put it mildly, this English Summer hasn’t been entirely sunny so far! Official Business During my absence the Annual General Meeting took place and Bill Redpath very kindly stood in for me on that occasion, as he did for the whole of my absence - grateful thanks, Bill. Having seen his draft Minutes of the meeting, which will be submitted for approval to the Extraordinary General Meeting on Friday 25 October, I gather that everything passed off smoothly and understand that the after-refreshments talks went well. While on the subject, may I draw to your attention the Extraordinary General Meeting (Friday 25th October). On this occasion we hope to have two speakers after the refreshment break; Bruce Hall, Chairman of the Cotswold Canals, the restoration of which is understood to be encountering many of the problems which are also faced by WACT; and Eric Walker, to take us through the experience of building the Drungewick Aqueduct - which, hopefully, will have been completed by then. As usual, at the Council of Management’s first meeting after the AGM the appointment of the Trust’s various Officers for the coming year was confirmed. There are very few changes to report on this occasion although Jim Phillips has taken over the Fundraising responsibility and we now have a new Editor of Wey-South in the recently retired Tim Jolly - to whom a very warm welcome back. One of the other regular post-AGM jobs is to go over the Trust’s Restoration Strategy. This is quite a lengthy document but very important as it outlines the overall policy being followed for the canal’s restoration. I make no apology for asking the Editor to include it in this edition. London Canal Museum Did you know that there is a Canal Museum in London? Did you know that this has recently been refurbished? Next time you are in the capital why not pop along and visit The London Canal Museum at 12-13 New Wharf Road, King’s Cross, London N1 9RT, tel. 020 7713 0836. The Museum is open every day, except Mondays, from 10.00am until 4.30pm, with the latest time of admission being 3.45pm, and is sited beside the Regent’s Canal at Battlebridge Basin. which is close to King’s Cross railway station and therefore very easily accessible by bus or tube. Housed in a warehouse built in the 1850s for Carlo Gatti, the famous ice cream manufacturer, the Museum tells the story of the development of London's canals as well as explaining how Mr. Gatti used the premises. Admission is £2.50 for adults and £1.25 for children and senior citizens etc. Membership Drive WACT’s recruitment drive for new members has been very successful, as you will have gathered from the number of new names listed in this edition of Wey-South and also the previous issue. As a result we have raised our membership to over 1,500 which is a considerable achievement. In Wey-South 118 I invited existing members to sign up their friends and promised that all who did so would be entered in a draw for two tickets on the first transit of the new Aqueduct by Zachariah Keppel. Plus, a meal for two at the Onslow Arms up to £30.00 donated by John Wood. This competition closed at the end of May and the resulting draw took place at the Council of Management’s meeting on 13 June when Jim Phillips, acting as Chairman on that occasion - even Peter Foulger does get some time off - drew Membership Number 3674. This referred to Michael Butler of Crawley who had been signed up by Tim Turner of Billingshurst. So congratulations to Tim, and his tickets for the maiden crossing will be sent as soon as we know when this is to be. Incidentally, the second opportunity to win a similar prize as described in Wey-South 119 is open until the end of August. so I shall have a similar prizewinner to announce next time. Map References A couple of years ago in Wey-South 112 Vicki Messam wrote about the absence of the canal from several pages in the Philip’s Street Atlases for Surrey and West Sussex. I followed this up in the next issue commenting on various minor errors regarding the Wey-South Path in the Ordnance Survey’s Explorer (1:25,000) maps. Both Vicki and I had been assured that these omissions and errors would be corrected in future editions. I am happy to report that things have started to move in the right direction as the new edition of the 0/S Landranger (1:50,000) maps (“Revised for selected changes 2001“) marks both Brewhurst and Baldwin’s Knob Locks and corrects the routing of the Wey-South Path in those places which were pointed out to the 0/S. The word “Aqueduct” even appears at Drungewick Lane! I hope that this means that similar corrections can be expected in the next issues of both the Philip’s Street Atlases and the Explorer series of maps.

Restoration Strategy - Peter Foulger 1. The aim of the Trust, set out in the Memorandum of Association and hence endorsed by the Charity Commission, is “the preservation, maintenance in good order and improvement of canals, rivers and inland waterways (hereinafter called “navigations”) for the use of the public”. This is further defined as “in particular the Wey & Arun Junction Canal .... and the Arun Navigation .... (.... herein called the “Wey & Arun” or the “Wey & Arun Canal”)”. Additionally the Trust seeks to promote the conservation of wildlife both in the canal and in those areas of land adjacent to it. 2. The achievement of this aim is recognised as principally dependent on raising the necessary money, securing the essential water supply and obtaining the cooperation of the landowners along the line of the canal. 3. In order to progress the achievement of this aim, the work projects endorsed by the Council of Management in descending order of priority may be summarised as - 3.A. Maintaining the Loxwood Link (from below Devil’s Hole Lock. excluding the B2133 Crossing, up to but not including the Drungewick Crossing), with particular emphasis on securing and maintaining the water supply; 3.B. Building and commissioning the Loxwood Link Extension, including the Drungewick Crossing, to reach the winding hole below Drungewick Lock; 3.C. Carrying out work elsewhere on the canal, especially on the leased stretches at Dunsfold Aerodrome and Bonfire Hanger, as and when the Trust’s resources allow; 3.D. Any projects supported by specific funding, such as the restoration of Devil’s Hole Lock and the rebuilding of the bridge at Orfold Flood Lock, should proceed as donations allow; 3.E. Opening for navigation the whole stretch of almost 6 miles from the Onslow Arms to Newbridge. 4. All Future Work Projects are to be considered by the Council of Management, who should take account of the following criteria: - 4.A. Money - the costs of any proposed project must be considered, both in respect of the initial cost and the likely ongoing cost of maintenance. The intended source(s) of this money, especially for the initial cost, must be identified; 4.B. Water - the source(s) from which an ongoing water supply for the stretch under consideration is to be secured should be specified, as well as plans to waterproof that part of the canal; 4.C. Landowner(s)’ Agreement to the Intended Work - this must always be obtained, in writing, before any work is started at the site. If necessary, the landowner(s)’ approval should be obtained for ongoing access to both banks of the canal, as well as public access by water; 4.D. Conservation - all the necessary surveys must be undertaken before work starts, and any recommendations made by the Surveyors must be respected. Conservation Management plans for each restored section must be developed and records of their implementation maintained; 4.E. Overall Requirement - consideration of any proposed project shall take account of its relationship to the overall pattern of restoration of the canal, for example whether the section in question is isolated or would join a previously restored length; 4.F. Maintenance - any proposal put forward should identify the maintenance work expected to be necessary, whether regularly or occasionally, on the section in question - especially if this is isolated. Steps should be taken to prevent the deterioration of earlier work and to avoid presenting a poor image to the public, especially near public highways and where public rights of way run along the towpath, and to ensure that conservation management objectives are met. This Strategy should be reviewed, and varied as necessary, by the Council of Management in May of each year, i.e. after the Trust's Annual General Meeting. 9 May 2002 (Signed) P Foulger, Chairman, Wey & Arun Canal Trust.

Funding the Aqueduct - Jim Phillips The Treasurer and Fundraising Manager writes about how the aqueduct has been funded. How The Aqueduct Was Won How we were to pay for the Drungewlck Crossing has loomed large at meetings of the Council of Management for many years. The sums always seemed huge and the trustees were not alone in wondering how they were ever going to be raised. The same thoughts occurred to some doubters along the canal line. It is with much gratitude to all our supporters that I can report that the Drungewick Crossing is paid for. The road bridge, the heavy vehicle crossing and the aqueduct itself are all funded. By the time you read this most of the bills will have been paid. This has been done without loans from banks so we have not had to pay interest charges to anyone. Indeed it was from the membership that we had loans during the summer and autumn to help with the cash-flow; these loans were all interest-free. We have been given two major shoves towards the finishing line. Firstly by a substantial amount of Landfill Tax Credit. This is the tax which landfill operators have to pay the Government for filling up landfill sites; the Government, in turn, allows this tax to go to environmental bodies (such as WACT). This sounds a simple process, but it is public money which, quite rightly, has to be strictly controlled. There is more to getting it than firing off a postcard to say we’d like a few thousand and then another postcard of thanks afterwards. The second shove came from Customs & Excise accepting that most of the VAT paid can be recovered. The recovery of VAT has been recommended over the years by many bar-room sages but these sources of wisdom usually go quiet when asked how such action is to be achieved. "I give you the ideas; you work out the details" is their usual reply. This time around with more details in the next Wey-South - it looks as if substantial amounts of VAT will be recoverable for the past 2½ years. As a cautious Treasurer I will not throw my hat in the air until I have the tax refund in my hand but it looks far more promising than before. We already had the finish line in sight before these two recent boosts. Money has come in from a wide range of our supporters - from Corporate Partners, Charitable Trusts, memorial funds (i.e. donations instead of flowers at funerals), the last two PODDLEs, the Restoration Fund, the 25K Club and from many individual members. The effort and pain involved in such giving has been prodigious. I do not even try to list them in order of importance; who am I to say whether £10 given by a non tax-paying member has been a bigger effort than many times that sum from a wealthier person or organisation? On behalf of the Trust I am grateful to all of you who made it possible. It is my pleasant task to say that the object has been achieved, that we are solvent, and that we have no creditors waiting to be paid off. It is a considerable achievement. Onwards then, to Newbridge. (The 2002 Poddle had 208 walkers and raised £9, 200 - thanks to John Ward and Jo Beagles, the organisers. Thanks also to the National Trust, Royal & Sun Alliance and sponsors the Countryside Trust - Ed)

Working Party News - Steve Jones [For the latest site and working party reports see the monthly Working Party News]. SIDNEY WOOD You have probably read elsewhere in this publication that we now hold a lease of over a mile of the canal within Sidney Wood near Dunsfold, to add to a growing portfolio of leases. However, it is quite often not obvious how much behind the scenes work goes into reaching such an agreement. This has been a particularly difficult lease to obtain and I would like to tell you about it, as a tribute to the hard work of all those who have been involved. The WACT has since the early 70’s been trying to get permission to restore the canal through Sidney Wood which includes a section of the summit, with locks 16-13 dropping the canal southwards over a length of about 1.5 miles. However, it was not until 1991 when after the then Nature Conservancy notified much of Chiddingfold Forest as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), that more urgency was given to our efforts and permission was given for a detailed survey of the plant life in the canal and it’s immediate surroundings. Sidney Wood is part of the Chiddingfold Forest and is managed for the Crown by Forest Enterprise (FE), previously known as the Forestry Commission. The survey identified several rare species with translocation suggested before the canal could be restored. Costs were involved here and as is the way of the Trust other projects were considered of greater priority; Sidney Wood was put on the ‘back burner’. Then in 1995 Eric Walker and the Restoration Group renewed interest. The complexities of enabling restoration captured my imagination and I requested that the Council of Management, upon which I served at the time, appoint me as project manager for Sidney Wood. It was still seen as low priority and the appointment was made with some scepticism as to what could be achieved. Patient discussions, site meetings and letter writing to FE and English Nature (the old Nature Conservancy), culminated in a management plan for the summit section to Lock 16. EN was less than enthusiastic but agreed to work commencing once a lichen and bryophyte specialist had been appointed at the Trust’s expense, to oversee the proposed restoration work and translocation of rare species; whilst a new directive from central government meant that FE was allowed to be more helpful. Over the next 5 years Trust volunteers led by Ernie Pull carried out major engineering works on two important culverts carrying streams under the canal, Colin Gibbs’ team completed a programme of intensive clearance of the canal bed, towpath improvements were managed by the national Waterways Recovery Group with dredging and re-profiling by contractors. So professional was all this work that EN was won over by our transformation and care of the canal’s environment, we having created a more diverse habitat whilst retaining the important aspects of the original. The icing on the cake was the granting of a new Right of Way along part of the towpath bordering a section of canal now in water. It is worth mentioning here that the Trust always carries out environmental surveys before restoring a derelict section of canal. Sidney Wood however is special, one of only two SSSI’s along the canal. With the scope of the management plan complete and part of the canal always in water, FE satisfied with our competence, now felt we should take responsibility for the canal. The only way this could be achieved was to obtain ownership of the canal in some form. The details of the subsequent lease took nearly 7 months to finalise. This is a major achievement for the Trust upon which we intend to build with many ideas and proposals in the ‘pipeline’. In the meantime why not make the effort to visit Sidney Wood? Take a ‘Wey South Path’ guidebook with you and follow the forestry access roads if you wish to make a circular walk back to the car park.

Future Water Supply - Tony Pratt I was fortunate enough to be invited to represent the Inland Waterways Association on the Arun & Western Streams Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy (CAMS) Stakeholders meetings and I thought Trust members might be interested in the outcome. The purpose of the sessions was to consider the responses to the original briefing letter and to develop a shared strategy for sustainable management of water resources within the catchment area. I hope I still have some readers left after all that! Basically it was all about what water is available and how it should be used. I saw my role as emphasising the varied uses of the navigable waterways in our area, and highlighting just how many people already enjoy them afloat (11,000 ± annually) walking (circa 100,000) or visiting (unknown - but a lot!). It was clear that the Environment Agency, who led the meetings and will administer water abstraction in the future, has devoted much time and energy to measuring and analysing the existing situation. From this data it is apparent that the availability of water in the catchment generally is minimal at low flows (summertime), our own abstractions from the Lox and Arun being well placed in the few rivers that do have surplus capacity, at least until the driest months. However, the Lox is rated as being an environment whose plants and animals are very sensitive to low flows, which is why our abstraction is occasionally withdrawn, and which precludes any obvious hope of altering this situation. The Arun is more robust and does have a "Water available" status due to the additional flows from the Horsham outfall upstream. The minimum flow levels, referred to as "Hands-off Flows" or HOFs, may be increased to ensure protection of the Environment when new data on the prevalence and survival of organisms is gathered so we should not assume that the status quo will be maintained. Various strategies were considered by the group, including increasing winter storage, and conservation of existing supplies was seen as a crucial need, better education of the public being an element of this. We all need to see water as a shared and limited resource that must be husbanded. Any action that reduces our consumption of household supplies will help, especially collecting systems such as water butts for rainwater for garden and other uses. Metering does not appear to greatly reduce usage, except that it gives us all a chance to be rewarded for economy and to measure our achievement in that direction. The less mains water we use at home the better the chance of filling the canal. Future allocation of abstractions will he judged on 3 criteria - water efficiency, demonstrable need and no damaging environmental impact. The Trust should ensure that our future water management on the restored canal is as effective as possible with minimal leakage and maximum usage and access by the public so that our case for water abstraction is sustainable. I am happy to provide more details of the discussions at these meetings. Notice Board - John Wood WANTED. CAN YOU HELP, PLEASE! Yes and sorry we are always in need of something. This time we are looking for: 1. A small but DRY storage facility to relieve pressure on the limited space in our Granary Office in Loxwood. This would be to store sealed boxes of office stationery and publicity leaflets etc. If there is a member or friend living say within a 2 mile radius of Loxwood who might be able to help, then please contact John Wood on 01903 753099 or email: johnr.wood@lineone.net 2. Our mail order department is always in need of used or new ‘Jiffy’ bags in sizes to take a single book and at the other end of the scale, large enough to accept a sweatshirt. They may be left at Granary Office, or John Wood’s home at 24 Griffiths Avenue, Lancing. 3. 2.5Kw Generators. Must be quiet - for use when working near residential properties, for lighting and small power tool purposes. 4. Sack Barrows. The two-wheeled trolley similar to the type used by porters on Railway stations. 5. Power Drills, both ordinary and hammer type - mainly for domestic use, but some heavier work. Please contact Colin Gibbs on 020 8241 7736 if you can help with items 3, 4 and 5. BACK-NUMBERS OF WATERWAY MAGAZINES Over the years members have very kindly brought their old waterway magazines - (such as ‘Waterways World') to the Granary Office in order that we might re-sell them as a fundraising exercise on our sales stand. Unfortunately, there is now no market at all for such things. Even the Waterway Recovery Group no longer wants them. Of course they could still help to make money for us by putting them into one of our old newspaper/magazine re-cycling skips at Loxwood and Crawley Down. (On the other hand I am missing some 2001 editions! — Ed.) With regard to unwanted back-numbers of the Wey-South Bulletin, yes - certain issues are in short supply and we do retain a quantity of back-numbers of the bulletin because there is a small demand for them from time to time from members wishing to build up a complete set. So, before throwing any away, please let John Wood know what you have to dispose of. (Any binders going? — Ed again!) Finally, we do occasionally get given books about canals and inland waterways. These we find do have a market, so we would be pleased to have anything which is in reasonable condition. If you are interested in knowing what we currently have available, please contact John Wood who will send you a list of titles. New Video Film - John Wood THE LOST WEY TO THE SEA During June and July the team making this film visited many potential filming locations along the route from Weybridge to Portsmouth and were introduced to landowners etc. Filming proper began on Monday 5th August and continued on many days for the next six weeks. The film is due to be published in early November with a running time of just over one hour. Further details can be obtained from John Wood.

News from The Granary - Jackie Blizard We keep thinking that life in the office will quieten down a little but there is still a steady flow of enquiries and bookings for trips on the canal. The total number of confirmed private charter bookings for this year now stands at 82, with 9 provisional ones in the diary as well. Last year's total of 51 has been left well behind! We have already received 2 definite bookings for 2003. It was unfortunate that several of the charters in May, June and early July coincided with some of the heaviest rainfall but the very wet early summer has certainly prevented - or at least postponed - any problems with water levels in the canal. All the charters have gone ahead as planned which is a great achievement on the part the skippers and crew. So far, the trip boat volunteers have filled a total of 263 ‘slots’ doing public trips and private charters, with many more yet to come. The monthly crew co-ordinators do an amazing job! Appreciation of the work of the volunteers is often mentioned in ‘thank you’ letters received in the office. The widespread distribution of boat leaflets, advertising in local publications and personal recommendations have contributed to many people booking tickets in advance for the ‘Enthusiast Trips’ which run every Saturday at 3.00pm. There has obviously been a considerable amount of interest in seeing the construction of the aqueduct. Exciting times lie ahead as plans develop to extend the boat trips as soon as the aqueduct and next section of the canal are in use. Bookings for the Clock House event at the beginning of July kept us busy with a record number of bookings (over 140) being taken in advance. Rain threatened to spoil the occasion but miraculously it stopped just in time and the event was, as always, a great success. We still have a number of old books in the office that are waiting to find a home. They include hardbacks, paperbacks, maps and booklets of general and specific interest on inland waterways. If you would like to receive a detailed list of what is available, please give us a call. (01403 752403: 9am - 1pm, Monday - Friday).

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Last updated October 2002