Restoration
Interest in the canal was sparked by the publication in 1965 of P.A.L. Vine's book London's Lost Route to the Sea. As a result, the Daily Telegraph weekend magazine carried a 5-page article about the canal. In 1968, a local group of enthusiasts became interested in the canal, and having carried out some research into its history, formed the Wey & Arun Canal Society in 1970, with a view to reopening it. The Society evolved into The Wey & Arun Canal Trust in 1973, a private company limited by guarantee with no share capital, the present custodians of the canal restoration, in 1973. In 1990, the restoration was identified by the Inland Waterways Association's Restoration Committee as one of those where significant progress was being made, and which would benefit from the backing of the Association. The Waterway Recovery Group, which gave active support to restoration schemes, developed a strategy of "a guaranteed labour force for guaranteed work" in 1992, which ensured that local societies would have the funding and relevant planning permission in place before a group of volunteers arrived to carry out the work. The Wey and Arun Canal was one of three schemes where working parties were run in this way. The practical outworking of this approach was demonstrated in the following year, when a section of the canal at Billingshurst was cleared, and three accommodation bridges were rebuilt by a working party of 250 people, as part of a Waterway Recovery Group initiative called "Dig Deep".
The Trust has reached agreements with several landowners to allow restoration work to be undertaken over half the length of the 23-mile (37 km) canal. By 2005, twelve bridges had been reconstructed, eight locks restored, an aqueduct re-instated, and several miles of canal bed cleared and dredged.
The Lordings Lock waterwheel was reconstructed by Winston Harwood during the first decade of the 21st century. In 2010 the main spindle of the wheel broke and the wheel was rebuilt to a more effective design.
Having completed the multi-million pound B2133 road bridge project (see below), restoration is continuing to move northwards. Devil's Hole Lock had been partially destroyed by the Canadian army as part of a training exercise in 1942, but has been rebuilt and extended to take 72 feet (22 m) narrow boats. The lock was reopened on 17 April 2010, and the opening ceremony was carried out by Colonel Paul Rutherford, the Senior Army Adviser to the Canadian High Commissioner. Working parties have since concentrated on Southland Lock.
A photo-history of the canal's restoration to date and the latest progress reports may be found on the Trust's website.
Read more about this topic: Wey And Arun Canal
Famous quotes containing the word restoration:
“The King [Charles II] after the Restoration accused the poet, Edmund Waller, of having made finer verses in praise of Oliver Cromwell than of himself; to which he agreed, saying, that Fiction was the soul of Poetry.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“I claim that in losing the spinning wheel we lost our left lung. We are, therefore, suffering from galloping consumption. The restoration of the wheel arrests the progress of the fell disease.”
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948)
“Men who are occupied in the restoration of health to other men, by the joint exertion of skill and humanity, are above all the great of the earth. They even partake of divinity, since to preserve and renew is almost as noble as to create.”
—Voltaire [François Marie Arouet] (1694–1778)