A special meeting followed in October. Ten of the seventeen shareholders present opposed immediate closure. Lord Leconfield, who held 330 shares, had indicated that he would follow the majority. Voting finished level at eighty-one votes for each side. William Newland, acting as chairman while John Napper was absent, used his casting vote against winding up.
An attempt to save the navigation
Supporters of the canal then looked for a cheaper way to keep it open. Richard Holmes, chairman of the Arun Navigation, had a strong interest in maintaining the through route because closure would also remove traffic from the Arun. The management considered economies in staffing and repairs, while the Arun interests offered an annual contribution of £120.
At the January 1867 meeting John Napper was absent through illness. The proposed £120 contribution was rejected as insufficient; the meeting considered at least £200 a year necessary to keep the navigation open. The possibility of further support from the River Wey interests produced no rescue agreement.
The company is wound up
The dispute moved into the High Court of Chancery. A winding-up petition was presented in February 1867 and an order followed in March. The order ended the company as an ordinary trading concern, but it could not simply close the canal. The navigation had been created under Acts of Parliament and carried public rights which the Companies Act did not automatically extinguish.
John Smallpiece, the Guildford solicitor who had served the company as clerk, became official liquidator. He had to continue navigation while reducing expenditure. Staff were cut, repairs were restricted and toll collectors carried out basic maintenance. In September the company gave up Loxwood Wharf and spent money on the neighbouring section of canal, which was reported to be leaking badly.
By November 1867 Vice-Chancellor Sir Richard Malins concluded that the liquidator needed Parliamentary authority before the canal could be closed and sold. He directed Smallpiece to promote an abandonment bill.
Navigation continued during the liquidation. In January 1868 the barge Lark broke free on the flooded Wey after its tow ropes failed and drifted for about six miles, narrowly missing Broadford Bridge. The incident came while the canal was being kept open with a reduced workforce and limited repairs, illustrating the condition in which the official liquidator had to maintain a public navigation while its future was still before Parliament.
The abandonment bill of 1868
The bill went before the House of Lords in February 1868 and drew seven petitions. The Arun Navigation opposed the loss of the through waterway, railway interests sought changes to structures where their lines crossed it, and landowners raised questions about banks, bridges, drainage and the future of water passing through their property.
The condition and usefulness of the canal were argued in detail. The former superintendent, Mr Pullen, said he had inspected the line only four days before giving evidence and that the locks above Bramley had recently been repaired. He also described cracking and subsidence in the banks near Sidney Wood. Another witness said he had a contract to carry 1,000 tons of timber from Arundel to Godalming and that the railway could not offer adequate storage for the load. Remaining traffic was estimated at about 6,000 tons a year.
The amended bill passed the Commons in July and received Royal Assent on 31 July 1868. The legislation authorised abandonment but allowed the navigation to continue while sufficient financial support could be found.
The canal survives another year
Landowners and the Arun and Godalming navigation interests guaranteed enough money to keep the canal working until the end of September 1869. Barges therefore continued to pass Loxwood after Parliament had authorised eventual abandonment. The remaining trade could not finance a permanent recovery, and the search for somebody willing to take over the undertaking continued.
Offered for sale as a going concern
On 30 August 1870 the Wey and Arun Junction Canal was offered at auction in London. The sale notice advertised it as a going concern extending from Stonebridge near Guildford to Newbridge near Pulborough. The property included the canal, banks, reservoirs, wharves, buildings and about 200 acres of freehold land; about sixty acres consisted of reservoirs and feeding streams.
The particulars promoted the opportunity to barge owners, capitalists and speculators and referred to an average toll income of £620 a year. The auction produced no bid for the canal. Three associated properties at Guildford also failed to achieve the required prices.
Richard Holmes made one further attempt in December 1870. He proposed that the Arun Navigation should consider taking the canal on a nominal lease if landowners financed the necessary repairs. The proposal was defeated.
The final closure, 1871
Traffic continued into 1871 on a much reduced scale. In the twelve months to April the tolls amounted to only £277, representing barely 5,000 tons of cargo. John Smallpiece returned to the Court of Chancery because the remaining income could not support the navigation.
On 26 May Sir Richard Malins ordered notice to be given that closure was intended from 1 July. The Arun Navigation sought a short postponement so that arrangements could be made for the water supply at Newbridge and for structures affected by abandonment. The final order was made on 5 July 1871 and took effect on 22 July. Printed notices were posted along the banks announcing the closure of the Wey and Arun Junction Canal after fifty-five years of navigation.
For Ifold, closure ended regular navigation beside about three miles of John Napper’s estate. Loxwood Wharf had already passed out of the company’s control, and the traffic that had used the canal past Loxwood Bridge and Brewhurst for more than half a century ceased.
A gala day at Ifold House
Three years after the canal closed, Ifold House was the setting for a very different event. Friday 4 September 1874 was described locally as a gala day. John and Anne Napper gave a harvest festival for the workmen on the estate together with their wives and families. A large booth was erected in the park and the gathering began with dinner.
After dinner the company moved outside for field sports. The Plaistow band played on the lawn, where Anne Napper and the elderly parish clerk of Loxwood led the country dancing. Anne had also arranged practical gifts for the families attending; the report noted that every family received something. At five o’clock the guests returned to the booth for tea and supper.
The newspaper account described a happy gathering and recorded repeated expressions of attachment to John and Anne Napper.
