Before 1811 – joining the Wey and the Arun
The idea of joining the Thames with the Sussex coast by inland water was much older than the Junction Canal. The River Wey was made navigable from Weybridge to Guildford in 1653 and extended to Godalming about ninety years later. On the Sussex side, the Arun had been used as a tidal navigation as far as Pallingham since the sixteenth century. The Arun Navigation opened from Pallingham to Newbridge in 1787.
A proposal to connect the Wey and Arun systems had reached Parliament as early as 1641. A bill for a navigable route from the haven of Arundel through Sussex and Surrey to the Thames received two readings in the House of Lords and was referred to a committee, but no canal followed. Other schemes were proposed during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
The principal commercial aim was through traffic between London and the Channel ports, especially Portsmouth. During the wars with France, an inland route also avoided part of the exposed sea journey around the Kent coast. Sussex itself was thinly industrialised, and much of the local freight was agricultural or intended for agriculture. Through traffic across Sussex was therefore essential to the commercial purpose of the canal.
1811 – the White Hart meetings
The project that was finally built began in 1811. In the same year Edward Napper acquired Ifold, where he replaced the earlier farmhouse with the larger residence later known as Ifold House. Edward had married Anne Seward in 1803, bringing the Brewhurst holding into the Napper family.
A notice published on 17 May 1811 called a meeting at the White Hart Inn in Guildford for 1 June. Landowners and merchants met to consider a canal between the River Wey near Shalford and the Arun Navigation at Newbridge. A committee of nine was formed. Local promoters included John Laker Napper of Rudgwick and John King of Loxwood, while George O’Brien Wyndham, third Earl of Egremont of Petworth House, became the principal landed supporter of the scheme. The Duke of Norfolk and other Surrey and Sussex landowners also took part in the meetings.
Josias Jessop, son of the canal engineer William Jessop, was appointed to survey the route. He spent several weeks examining the ground between the two navigations. At a further White Hart meeting on 17 August, chaired by the Earl of Egremont, Jessop’s report and plan were read and the proposed line was approved. The promoters agreed to seek Parliamentary powers.
The proposed capital was £90,000 in £100 shares. Subscription grew during the autumn: by 21 September about £39,000 had been subscribed and by early November the figure had reached about £59,000. Jessop’s construction estimate was £71,127, leaving part of the proposed capital for land purchase and other costs. A competing proposal through Three Bridges, Crawley and Horsham did not proceed.
The Napper and King families had held land around Loxwood for centuries and both names recur in the records of Loxwood Chapel Trustees. Edward Napper and John King were appointed chapel trustees in 1812; John Laker Napper is recorded among the surviving trustees in 1845. Edward Napper served as High Sheriff of Sussex in 1813, and John King served as High Sheriff in 1818. Their landholdings placed members of both families beside the route when the canal crossed the Loxwood district.
1813-16 – building the Junction Canal
The Wey and Arun Junction Canal Act received Royal Assent on 19 April 1813. Construction began that summer, with the first turf cut at Shalford in July. Josias Jessop directed the engineering, May Upton acted as resident engineer and Zachariah Keppel of Alfold undertook much of the contracting work. Keppel later became bankrupt, after which the works continued under the engineers and the company financed completion through further borrowing against the undertaking.
The canal was dug largely by hand. Labourers cut the channel and moved clay and soil in barrows; the bed was puddled with clay to hold water; masons built locks, culverts, bridges and retaining structures. Brickworks at Sidney Wood and Alfold supplied material, while Pulborough stone was used extensively for locks and bridges on the southern section around Loxwood and Brewhurst.
The completed Junction Canal had twenty-three locks, thirty-five bridges, eight wharves, five lock-keepers’ houses and two aqueducts. The channel was planned at about thirty feet wide and three feet six inches deep. The locks were approximately seventy-five feet long and thirteen feet wide, allowing barges carrying up to about fifty tons to pass.
From the Wey the canal climbed through Bramley towards its summit across the Cranleigh and Alfold district, about 163 feet above sea level. Vachery Pond supplied the summit level. South of the summit the waterway descended rapidly towards Loxwood, falling nearly ninety feet over about two miles through a succession of locks before continuing to Newbridge and the Arun Navigation. Brewhurst Lock formed part of that descent.
The first tolls were collected in December 1815 when boats could travel as far as Bramley. Work continued southwards through 1816. By August the junction between the Wey and Arun systems was complete and the summit level was being filled. The final construction cost was about £105,000.
28 September 1816 – opening day
The Wey & Arun Junction Canal officially opened on Saturday 28 September 1816. The opening procession began on the summit level at Alfold. Boats carried members of the management committee, canal proprietors, landowners and visitors from Portsmouth, Chichester, Arundel and Guildford. Eight loaded barges carrying coal and timber followed the ceremonial party, putting commercial cargo into the procession from the first day.
Crowds gathered along the route. At Stonebridge the procession entered the Wey Navigation and was met by the commissioners of the Godalming Navigation and local residents. At Guildford Bridge the party was received by Lord Grantley, the High Steward, the mayor and aldermen and other town officials. The boats reached Guildford at about 4 p.m.
The company then went to the White Hart, where 124 guests sat down to dinner under the chairmanship of the Earl of Egremont. The Band of the Second Surrey Regiment of Militia played during and after the meal. The labourers who had built the canal were also included in the celebrations: at Alfold a dinner of beef and ale was provided for 220 men.
1816-45 – the canal and Loxwood trade
The new route allowed barges to carry coal, timber, stone, lime, agricultural produce and other goods between the Thames system and the Arun. It also carried through traffic intended for the south coast and Portsmouth. Barges could move loads that would otherwise have required many horses and carts, although the canal still depended on roads for the final movement of goods from each wharf.
The established Alfold Bars-Newbridge turnpike had already concentrated road traffic through Loxwood before the canal arrived. The canal crossed it immediately uphill from the Onslow Arms, where Loxwood Wharf became the principal local transfer point between barge and road. Goods arriving by barge could be unloaded directly onto carts for surrounding farms and villages, while local produce could be brought by road and loaded for the journey towards Guildford, London or the Arun. The wharf, inn, tollgate and River Lox bridge occupied the same short stretch of the north-south road.
The turnpike records give a specific example of the traffic. From 6 April 1843 the trustees charged no toll for a horse going to or returning from Loxwood Wharf with chalk or lime. Gravel and flints used for road maintenance also came through Loxwood and Newbridge wharves, including gravel brought by barge from Littlehampton.
The commercial traffic increased during the first half of the nineteenth century and reached about 23,000 tons in 1839. During the same period shops opened on the road between the older village centre and the canal crossing, new houses were built and farms had access to bulk supplies by water. The Onslow Arms served travellers and local gatherings, while large agricultural shows and fairs were held on the open land between the inn and the Brewhurst property and drew people from beyond Loxwood.
The Nappers of Ifold beside the canal
Edward Napper’s Ifold Estate grew while the canal was operating. Foxbridge Farm was added in 1846, and when Edward died at Ifold House on 30 April 1847, aged sixty-nine, the estate passed to his son John Napper. John continued to acquire land, including Headsfoldwood and adjoining property. The enlarged estate eventually exceeded 900 acres and adjoined about three miles of the canal.
The estate extended from Ifold House towards Plaistow and Upper Ifold, northwards towards Alfold Bars and Gennets Furze, eastwards towards Flitchfold and Vicarage Hill, and down towards the Brewhurst boundary, the Onslow Arms and the canal.
1845 – a railway company tries to buy the canal
The railway challenge appeared well before the line through Loxwood’s district was built. In November 1845 John Napper chaired a special general meeting of Wey & Arun Junction Canal proprietors at Guildhall in Guildford to consider an offer from the Brighton Junction Railway Company. The railway company proposed to buy the Junction Canal between Stonebridge Wharf and Newbridge, together with related company property, at a price stated as £35 for each canal share.
The proposal divided the shareholders. Some wanted an adjournment because they considered the offer too low, while others admitted that the new railway business made the decision difficult. John Napper warned that the offer had to be dealt with promptly. The meeting adjourned for seven days, and when the proprietors met again the railway proposal was rejected by a narrow vote. The canal remained an independent navigation.
1855-65 – John Napper and the railway competition
By 1855 John Napper was chairman of the Wey & Arun Junction Canal Company and one of its principal shareholders. His interests now combined the company with an estate that adjoined about three miles of its route. The canal still had twenty-three locks, bridges, banks, culverts, reservoirs, wharves and staff to maintain, whether trade was strong or weak.
Construction of the Guildford-Horsham railway at first brought useful traffic because building materials were carried along part of the canal. The position changed when the railway opened in 1865. It crossed the same district and could move goods and passengers more quickly and conveniently. Canal receipts fell sharply; by 1868 traffic had virtually ceased compared with the levels of the 1830s.
1866-71 – winding up and closure
The company’s accounts made the problem clear in 1866. Running expenses had averaged about £700 a year over the previous five years, roughly half in salaries and wages and the remainder in repairs and rents. One annual account produced a deficit of more than £400 after allowing £270 for a dividend.
John Napper could not attend the annual meeting in May 1866 and wrote to the company clerk, John Smallpiece, describing himself as being ‘mixed up as a landowner and a shareholder’. In August the management committee recommended winding up the company. The proposal drew opposition from people whose businesses still depended on the through route. Barge masters from Arundel and Littlehampton bought fifteen shares formerly held by Samuel Sharpe, a gunpowder manufacturer, so that they could vote on the canal’s future.
At a special meeting in October 1866, ten of the seventeen shareholders present opposed immediate closure. The voting strength finished level at eighty-one votes on each side. William Newland, acting as chairman in John Napper’s absence, used his casting vote against winding up, keeping the company operating for the time being.
The Arun Navigation then offered an annual contribution of £120 towards keeping the route open, but the Junction Canal company considered at least £200 necessary. A winding-up petition was presented on 16 February 1867 and a High Court winding-up order followed in March. John Smallpiece became official liquidator, but the canal could not simply be closed because its public right of navigation had been created by Parliament.
In September 1867 the company relinquished Loxwood Wharf while still spending money on a leaking section nearby. Vice-Chancellor Sir Richard Malins ruled that Parliamentary authority was required before the navigation could be abandoned and sold, and John Smallpiece was directed to promote an abandonment bill.
The House of Lords examined the proposal in February 1868. The Arun Navigation opposed the loss of the through route, railway companies had interests at their crossings and landowners raised questions about bridges, banks, drainage and water. The canal was not yet empty of trade: evidence referred to about 6,000 tons a year and to a contract for 1,000 tons of timber from Arundel to Godalming.
The Wey and Arun Junction Canal (Abandonment) Act received Royal Assent on 31 July 1868. It authorised abandonment but did not close the canal immediately. Financial guarantees kept navigation available for a further period, and boats still used parts of the route while the liquidator tried to dispose of the property.
On 30 August 1870 the whole Junction Canal was offered at auction in London as a going concern. The sale included the channel from Stonebridge to Newbridge, reservoirs, wharves, buildings and about 200 acres of freehold land. Average toll income was advertised at more than £620 a year. No purchaser came forward.
Traffic continued into 1871. In the twelve months to April the toll income had fallen to £277, representing barely 5,000 tons of cargo. Sir Richard Malins made the final closure order on 5 July, and it took effect on 22 July 1871. Printed notices were posted along the route. The Wey & Arun Junction Canal had operated through Loxwood for almost fifty-five years.
Ifold and Loxwood after the canal closed
Closure ended regular navigation beside the Ifold Estate and removed the waterborne trade that had used Loxwood Wharf. The estate also lost income and commercial advantages tied to John Napper’s large shareholding and the navigation adjoining his land. John and his wife Anne continued to live at Ifold House and tried to generate income from farming the estate. John died there on 3 August 1879. Anne died on 21 May 1880. The Napper estate records give liabilities of £11,321 1s, with a further £2,000 interest continuing to accrue, and the property remained in Chancery for years.
Lionel Constable and his wife Emily came to Ifold in the later 1880s and occupied the house before they owned it. Lionel bought the Ifold Estate from Anne Napper’s trustees on 10 June 1898 for £25,000. The conveyance covered about 934 acres. Land from the estate was later given for the Church of St John the Baptist and its churchyard on Vicarage Hill.
The canal-side trade had ended, but the buildings and businesses that had developed around the Loxwood road remained. Maurice Botting of Brewhurst, Corrall Farmer of Linden House, John Hammond of Hall House, John Elliott of Hill Top Stores and Lionel and Emily Constable all took part in village affairs during the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Ifold House itself was demolished in the 1930s as the estate land was broken up and the modern Ifold settlement developed.
The abandoned waterway
After closure the canal land was sold in separate pieces, often to adjoining owners. Road crossings were filled, bridges were removed, lock gates decayed and parts of the channel became wooded or silted. Banks, ponds, bridge abutments and lock chambers nevertheless remained along the route, and water continued to occupy many sections. At Brewhurst the old lock chamber survived beside Brewhurst Lane and was restored during the 1990s before being altered again for the Loxwood Crossing project.
By the twentieth century the blocked canal at Loxwood was no longer a through navigation. The High Street crossing had disappeared, Brewhurst Lane had been carried across the old channel on a filled causeway, and several locks were ruins. These remains later provided the structures from which restoration could begin.
1970-2009 – restoration returns boats to Loxwood
A new campaign began in 1970 when enthusiasts formed the Wey & Arun Canal Society with the aim of reopening the lost route. The centenary of closure in 1971 brought the canal back into public attention at Loxwood, where local events recalled the last working barges and supporters discussed restoration. At that date the task included fragmented ownership, blocked road crossings, collapsed locks, heavy vegetation and long sections that had not carried regular boats for a century. The Wey & Arun Canal Trust was formed in 1973 to continue the work.
By 1976 national newspaper coverage was already showing volunteers clearing and rebuilding sections of the canal. The restoration developed through many separate projects rather than one continuous construction programme. Locks and bridges were cleared and rebuilt, land was purchased or leased, and water-control structures were restored. Drungewick Lock and Bridge were restored in 1989-91, Brewhurst Lock in 1994-97 and the Drungewick Aqueduct over the River Lox was rebuilt in 2002.
The most complicated Loxwood project was the return of the canal beneath the High Street. The old road crossing had been blocked since the beginning of the twentieth century. Between 2005 and 2009 the Trust built a new Loxwood Lock west of the road, lowered the canal level beside the Onslow Arms, reconstructed Brewhurst Lock to suit the new level and built a new bridge beneath the B2133 without raising the road. The first boat passed beneath the new crossing in April 2009 and the bridge was officially opened in May.
The Loxwood Crossing project cost about £1.85 million. Funding came from members, individual donations and charitable grants, while volunteers supplied a large part of the labour and engineering work across the wider restoration. The new crossing returned boats to the same road-and-canal intersection that had made Loxwood Wharf important after 1816.
The canal at Loxwood today
Restoration continues along the twenty-three-mile route. The Wey & Arun Canal Trust now owns or leases about eight miles of canal land and maintains accessible towpath over a longer distance. At Loxwood about three and a half miles have been fully restored for navigation. Across the route the Trust records ten restored locks, one new lock, seventeen restored bridges, two new bridges and two reconstructed aqueducts.
The restored Loxwood section includes the High Street crossing, Loxwood Lock, Devil’s Hole Lock, Brewhurst Lock and the route towards Drungewick. The Canal Centre beside the Onslow Arms operates three trip boats, and small craft also use parts of the restored waterway.
