The River Wey Navigation and Godalming Navigation together provide a 20-mile (32 km) continuous navigable route from the River Thames near Weybridge via Guildford to Godalming (commonly called the Wey Navigation). Both waterways are in Surrey and are owned by the National Trust. The River Wey Navigation connects to the Basingstoke Canal at West Byfleet, and the Godalming Navigation to the Wey and Arun Canal near Shalford. The navigations consist of both man-made canal cuts and adapted (dredged and straightened) parts of the River Wey. The Wey was one of the first rivers in England to be made navigable; the River Wey Navigation opened in 1653, with 12 locks between Weybridge and Guildford, and the Godalming Navigation, with a further four locks, was completed in 1764. Commercial traffic ceased as late as 1983 and the Wey Navigation and the Godalming Navigation were donated to the National Trust in 1964 and 1968 respectively.
History The River Wey has two main sources, which form the North Branch and the South Branch, which join at Tilford. The combined flow continues to Godalming, cuts through the chalk of the North Downs at Guildford, and passes through the Surrey Hills National Landscape to join the River Thames at Weybridge. It had been used by small boats since medieval times, and some improvements were made to the channel from 1618.
Sir Richard Weston was an owner of land beside the river, and had been responsible for a 3-mile (4.8 km) cut through his land in 1618–1619, running from Stoke Mills to Sutton Green. It included a towing path and several bridges, together with a number of sluices which enabled him to flood 150 acres (61 ha) of his land in a controlled manner, thus creating water-meadows. As a Catholic and a royalist, his property was sequestrated during the English Civil War and he fled to the Low Countries, where he studied inland navigations and the working of pound locks. He returned to England in the late 1640s, and proposed a scheme for making the Wey navigable to Guildford by the use of such locks. Guildford Corporation had petitioned Parliament in 1621 and 1624 for a scheme using flash locks, but there is no evidence that the proposals had been properly surveyed or costed, and nothing came of them. In order to progress the scheme, Weston needed his sequestration to be discharged, and someone to take an interest in the Wey. He found an ally in James Pitson, who had been a major in Cromwell's army, and who was now Commissioner for Surrey. He was able to get Weston acquitted, and presented a bill to the Commonwealth parliament in December 1650, which became an act of Parliament on 26 June 1651, entitled "An Act for making Navigable the River of Wye".
The act allowed the undertakers to raise £6,000 by issuing 24 shares, and the shares were bought by Weston, who took 12, and by Pitson, Richard Scotcher, and another man, who took four each. The act also specified a maximum toll for carriage of goods over the length of the navigation. This was set at four shillings (20p), which was less per mile than the rate for goods on the River Avon at Bristol, which had been set 60 years earlier. A charge for passengers was also specified, and a charge for freight, if the undertakers chose to run their own barges. Work began in August 1651, with Weston acting as engineer, and a work force of some 200 men were employed. Weston died on 17 May 1652, but by that time, he had already completed 10 miles (16 km) of the 15-mile (24 km) route. In addition to his initial shareholding, he had contributed a further £1,000 and supplied timber from his estate valued at £2,000. Weston's role was taken on by his son, George. Scotcher managed the accounts and the workforce, while Pitson found others who were willing to contribute to the cost of the scheme.
The work was completed in November 1653, at a cost of £15,000. There were around 9 miles (14 km) of new cuts, four new weirs, twelve bridges, and a wharf at Guildford. The level dropped by 72 feet (22 m) between Guildford and Weybridge. Skempton says that 10 new locks dropped the level by 60 feet (18 m), while Hadfield says that the new work included 12 locks. Hadfield's total presumably includes the two flood gates at Walsham and Worsfold, which protect long cuts. All of the new locks were turf sided with timber framework. Although the navigation was a success, with tolls soon raising £1,500 per year, disputes and litigation over financial matters occurred for some years, involving Weston's older son and heir John, Scotcher, Pitson, and a number of other contributors. The original act having become void at the Restoration, letters patent were issued by Charles II in 1664. A replacement act of Parliament, the River Wey Navigation Act 1670 (22 & 23 Cha. 2. c. 25), was obtained in April 1671, in an attempt to resolve matters, which placed the river under the control of six trustees, with a board to pronounce on disputes. It took another six years to work out, by which time maintenance arrears caused by neglect and wilful damage required several thousand pounds to be spent to put things right.
A further bill was presented to Parliament in 1759, to authorise an extension of the navigation for a further 4.5 miles (7.2 km) up to Godalming. It was not successful, but an act of Parliament, the River Wey Navigation Act 1759 (33 Geo. 2. c. 45), was obtained in the following year. John Smeaton and then Richard Steadman acted as engineers. The work involved the construction of another four locks, and the project cost £6,450. The Godalming Navigation opened for trade in 1763, and was managed by commissioners, who formed a separate legal entity to those responsible for the navigation below Guildford.
Operation
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