The canal comes to Alfold
The story of the Wey and Arun Canal begins with the landscape around Alfold. The western Weald was crossed by clay lanes, drove roads and turnpikes that became deeply rutted in wet weather. Coal, lime, timber, grain and building materials travelled by cart, often with several horses and repeated stops. The Guildford and Arundel turnpike already ran through Dunsfold, Alfold and Loxwood, linking the district with wharves and markets. Heavy goods remained costly to move overland.
Waterways approached the district from both directions. The River Wey Navigation connected Guildford with the Thames and London. The Arun Navigation reached inland from Arundel to Newbridge. An eighteen-mile gap separated them. Closing that gap promised an inland route from the Thames to the English Channel and a new transport artery through the farms, woods and estates of the western Weald.
A canal planned by landowners
The scheme gathered momentum during the Napoleonic Wars, when an inland route offered a protected alternative to coastal shipping. Its strongest appeal in Alfold and the surrounding country was economic. Barges could bring coal, agricultural lime, fertiliser and building materials into the district and carry timber, grain and estate produce towards London and the coast.
George O’Brien Wyndham, third Earl of Egremont and owner of Petworth House and extensive Sussex estates, became the principal promoter. He was joined by the Duke of Norfolk, whose great estate centred upon Arundel, and by the Onslow, King and Napper families, all of whom held land close to the proposed route. John Napper represented a family established at Ifold and Malham. Their properties stood to benefit from cheaper transport, improved farms and new access to distant markets.
On 10 August 1811 the promoters met at the White Hart Inn in Guildford. Josias Jessop, a civil engineer from a leading canal-building family, presented his survey and estimate for a navigation between Stonebridge on the Wey and Newbridge on the Arun. The meeting approved the route, proposed a capital of £90,000 and began the parliamentary process. Parliament authorised the Wey and Arun Junction Canal in April 1813.
Three years of construction
Work began near Shalford in July 1813. The eighteen-mile canal was completed in about three years, a rapid achievement across difficult clay country. Labourers dug the channel, raised embankments and formed towpaths. Brickmakers, masons, carpenters and blacksmiths supplied locks, bridges, culverts and gates. Bricks came from works around Alfold, Sidney Wood and Harwoods Green, with stone brought from districts farther south.
The completed navigation contained twenty-three locks and about thirty-five bridges. Its locks could take barges carrying roughly fifty tons. A five-mile summit level crossed the high ground around Alfold, supplied through the Vachery water system. South of the summit, the canal descended through Sidney Wood in a close flight of locks towards Loxwood. Lock houses, wharves and road bridges turned the channel into a continuous working system.
The Compasses and the summit
Alfold became the most memorable point on the route. The canal crossed the turnpike beside the Compasses Inn, later known as the Three Compasses. The inn was already a recognised roadside landmark when construction began in 1813. Its yard, food, drink and stabling served travellers, contractors, labourers and horses.
Compasses Bridge carried the turnpike above the canal. Barges and towing horses passed below, with carts, coaches and livestock moving across the bridge. The crossing gathered road and water transport into one compact landscape. Nearby farms supplied labour, fodder and cartage. The summit level stretched away on either side, and the wooded descent through Sidney Wood began a short distance to the south.
Opening day, 28 September 1816
The canal opened with a procession that began at Alfold on 28 September 1816. Company barges assembled on the summit with invited guests, followed by working boats carrying coal, timber and other goods. Their movement towards Guildford demonstrated that the inland route was ready for trade.
Alfold also hosted the celebration for the workforce. Two hundred and twenty labourers received beef and ale near the summit. The meal placed the people who had dug the cut, raised the banks and built the structures at the centre of the opening day. At Guildford the procession was received by civic leaders, and 124 guests dined at the White Hart Inn. The canal had moved from a proposal shaped by a small circle of landowners to a completed public navigation.
Boats, roads and village inns
The working canal carried coal, timber, stone, lime, grain, agricultural materials and general merchandise. Wharves received bulk cargoes, and local carts completed the journey to farms, workshops and villages. Long-distance heavy freight shifted from the turnpikes onto water. Road traffic then concentrated around wharves and canal crossings, where carriers collected and delivered goods.
The Compasses remained closely tied to the summit crossing. At Loxwood, the Onslow Arms stood near the road bridge and wharf, serving boat crews, carriers and travellers. The Crown in Alfold village formed another point in the parish’s transport network. Inns supplied meals, drink, stabling, information and meeting rooms, making them practical parts of the canal economy.
The canal also depended upon its bridges. Floodwater swept away Compasses Bridge in November 1821, interrupting the turnpike until a replacement restored the crossing. The episode showed how closely the canal, road and surrounding drainage worked together.
The people behind the traffic
Alfold’s census returns reveal the landward trades that supported the navigation. In 1841 Jesse Holden was recorded at the Compasses as a victualler. In 1861 Richard Farley worked as a carter, Charles Covey kept the Crown as a licensed victualler and grocer, and John Sparkes collected turnpike tolls at Crossways.
The 1871 census recorded carpenters, a blacksmith, a bricklayer, a builder and a hoop shaver at Alfold Bars. These occupations maintained horses, carts, buildings, barrels, fences and farm equipment. They also supplied skills required along a rural canal corridor. The census therefore places the waterway within a wider economy of farms, woodland trades, inns, roads and workshops.
Trade, railway competition and closure
Traffic grew during the 1830s and reached a recorded peak of about 23,000 tons in 1839. Coal travelled inland, timber left the wooded Weald, and lime and fertiliser supported agricultural improvement. The canal gave local estates access to London, Guildford, Arundel and the coast.
Its commercial future depended upon water, cargo and operating costs. The summit required a dependable supply, locks consumed water with every passage, and the rural route generated a limited volume of local trade. A proposal in 1845 considered converting the canal corridor into a railway, showing how quickly transport expectations were changing.
The Horsham and Guildford railway opened through the district in 1865, with stations at Cranleigh, Baynards and Rudgwick. Coal, timber, farm produce and general merchandise could then move on a faster, regularly scheduled service. Canal traffic contracted, and commercial movement had almost ceased by 1868. A formal order closed the navigation from 22 July 1871, fifty-five years after the opening procession left Alfold.
A lost waterway in the landscape
After closure, sections of the canal were sold, drained or absorbed into farms and woods. Locks became ponds, hollows and changes of level. Bridges were altered as roads developed. At Sidney Wood the deep cutting and the remains of the lock flight preserved one of the clearest surviving sections. Later records identify Lock 15 as Lock House, recalling the dwelling that once stood beside the chamber.
At Alfold, the summit remained visible beside the Compasses. The old waterway continued to shape boundaries, drainage and paths as vegetation covered its engineering. Photographs and local memories kept the route within the history of the village.
Restoring the canal
Interest in recovery grew during the 1960s, and a restoration society was formed in 1970. The first working party met at Rowner Lock in March 1971, beginning a long programme of clearance, masonry repair, dredging, bridge building and water management.
Loxwood became a major restored centre. A new lock and bridge returned the canal beneath the High Street in 2009, and Onslow Wharf beside the Onslow Arms again became a place of arrival and activity. At Alfold, Compasses Bridge was rebuilt and formally opened during the canal’s bicentenary celebrations in October 2016. Water returned beneath the road and along part of the summit level.
The restored bridge, the channel beside the Compasses and the lock remains in Sidney Wood now allow the canal’s full chronology to be read in the landscape. The route began as an ambitious link between London and the sea, served the farms and settlements of the western Weald, yielded its freight to the railway and entered a new life through restoration.
