1672 – Brewhurst Bridge
Brewhurst Bridge is dated 1672, making it almost a century and a half older than the Wey & Arun Junction Canal. It was listed at Grade II on 22 May 1985 under the name ‘Brewhurst Bridge to the north west of the farmhouse’. The listing describes a small stone bridge with two elliptical arches, a square pier between them and a cutwater on the upstream side.
On the downstream side the date 1672 and the initials J.M. are cut into the sloping curb. Historic England identifies the initials as probably those of John Mills. The Brewhurst House deeds record the Myll or Mille family as owners of Brewhurst through the seventeenth century. Later brickwork was added at road level, but the stone arches and central pier remain the principal parts of the old bridge.
By 1672 the bridge carried Brewhurst Lane across the stream north of Brewhurst House. The watermill had been specifically recorded with the Brewhurst holding in 1554, so the bridge belonged to an established farm and milling landscape long before the canal was constructed.
The canal crosses Brewhurst Lane, 1813-16
The Wey & Arun Junction Canal was authorised by Parliament in 1813 and opened through this part of Loxwood in 1816. At Brewhurst the new channel cut across land north of Brewhurst House and Mill and directly across Brewhurst Lane.
The lane could not simply be severed, so the canal company carried it over the new navigation by a road bridge. This was the original Brewhurst Lane Bridge. It was separate from the stone Brewhurst Bridge of 1672, which continued to carry the same lane over the older stream farther south.
Brewhurst Lock was built a short distance west of the lane crossing, towards Loxwood. It was lock number 5 in the sequence north from Newbridge. Boats travelling north were climbing towards the summit level near Alfold. The original chamber was about 68 feet long and 12 feet wide, with a fall of about 8 feet.
Stone was widely used for structures on the southern section of the canal, while bricks were supplied from local brickworks. The canal opened on 28 September 1816, and from that date Brewhurst Lane Bridge and Brewhurst Lock formed part of the working navigation.
Brewhurst Lock during the working and abandoned canal
During the canal’s working years every through boat on this part of the route passed Brewhurst Lock, while Brewhurst Lane continued over the nearby canal bridge to the house, farm and mill.
The canal formally closed in July 1871. Water remained in parts of the channel and some structures continued to stand after regular navigation ended.
A letter published in The Referee on 20 October 1901 records an unusual journey over the abandoned canal. Charles Corner described a canoe trip made with two friends a few summers earlier. After being told that the old canal was dry for several miles, they had their Canadian canoe carried by cart to Loxwood, put it back into the water there and continued south through stretches choked with rushes. Corner also described finding one of the old locks and meeting a lock-keeper beside the abandoned navigation.
The lock and bridge after abandonment
The original Brewhurst Lane canal bridge was eventually demolished and the crossing was filled to form a causeway. The seventeenth-century Brewhurst Bridge nearby was not part of this change and remained in place over the stream.
Brewhurst Lock decayed more slowly. On 25 August 1955 the West Sussex Gazette published a drawing of the old lock. The caption recorded that it had formerly been covered by ivy and brambles but had recently been cleared, allowing its construction to be seen again. Harold Roberts, whose drawing of the working Brewhurst Mill had appeared in the same newspaper two years earlier, recorded the lock as a roofless stone chamber surrounded by trees.
A photograph from 1958 shows Scouts exploring the lock chamber with at least one gate still standing. By 1979 the gates had collapsed into the chamber. Clearance had begun by 1993, when the old walls could again be examined before full restoration started.
1993 – Brewhurst Lane Bridge reinstated
In 1993 the Wey & Arun Canal Trust applied to Chichester District Council for permission to replace the causeway carrying Brewhurst Lane across the canal with a new arched road bridge. Planning permission was granted on 5 October 1993.
The bridge was designed by architect Alan Johnson. The planning drawings show a single arched opening over the canal and specify a concrete and steel structure faced externally with Wealden stock brick. The replacement was built on the site of the canal company’s earlier road bridge, reopening the navigation beneath Brewhurst Lane.
1994-97 – Brewhurst Lock restored
Work on Brewhurst Lock began in August 1994. The aim was to rebuild the chamber to its original dimensions of about 68 feet by 12 feet and restore the 8-foot fall. Much of the old stonework had disappeared or was too badly damaged to reuse.
Obtaining sufficient replacement stone from the original quarries was difficult and expensive, so more than 600 replacement blocks were cast in concrete. Sandstone particles from the original quarry source were included in the mix so that the new blocks were closer in appearance to the surviving masonry.
New lock gates were fitted and an electric back-pumping system was installed. The pump returned water to the higher pound after lock use so that repeated boat movements did not steadily reduce the available supply. By March 1997 Brewhurst Lock was operational again.
2005-09 – the lock is altered
The restored lock did not remain in its 1997 form for long. Reinstating the canal beneath Loxwood High Street without substantially raising the B2133 required the canal level east of the road to be lowered.
The Wey & Arun Canal Trust lowered the Onslow Pound between the High Street and Brewhurst Lock by about 4.6 feet, or 1.4 metres. Brewhurst Lock was reconstructed in 2006 to suit the new level. Its fall was reduced from about 8 feet to 2 feet, the chamber was lengthened from 68 feet to the 72-foot national standard, and the walls at the head of the lock were lowered by about 1.4 metres.
A new Loxwood Lock on the other side of the High Street took the remaining difference in level. The altered Brewhurst Lock became operational in November 2006, and the High Street canal crossing was completed as part of the wider project in 2009.
These changes explain the present appearance of Brewhurst Lock: the lower gates are much taller than the upper gates because the upper end of the lock was lowered when the Onslow Pound was reconstructed.
Brewhurst Bridge, Lane Bridge and Lock today
Brewhurst Lock now forms part of the restored navigable section of the Wey & Arun Canal at Loxwood. Its chamber contains work from both major restorations: the reconstructed masonry and gates of the 1994-97 project and the lowered, lengthened arrangement completed in 2006.
Brewhurst Lane Bridge carries the road across the restored navigation nearby. Continuing south along the lane reaches the separate stone Brewhurst Bridge dated 1672 before Brewhurst House and Mill. The three structures therefore remain close together but belong to different dates and different parts of the local transport and water-management history.
