Canalside walk open to the public
A PICTURESQUE 1km canalside walk at Birtley, near Bramley, Surrey, is now open to the public thanks to the efforts of Wey & Arun Canal Trust volunteers and visiting working parties over several years.
The stretch of abandoned Wey & Arun Canal was purchased thanks to the generosity of an overseas member and restoration work began back in 2019, removing a causeway, fencing off the adjacent farmland and creating an access track, along with tackling fallen trees and overgrown vegetation.
Regular volunteers and visiting working parties joined forces to construct the first of two lift bridges planned for the area and put in phenomenal effort to complete the bridge abutments in just 12 months.
Volunteers have now constructed a temporary deck for the bridge to allow access to the walk, which is flanked by the Downs Link path above and Cranleigh Waters in the valley below. The temporary deck will be replaced in due course; the trust is working with the council to get a design approved in principle for lifting bridges, which will be used for the existing bridge and a second Birtley bridge for which planning permission has been granted.
An application has also been submitted to develop the canal south of the new bridge. Some 450m of new canal channel will be created here, along with reinstatement of 530m of existing canal channel. The project includes construction of a brick-faced bridleway overbridge and lock.
Elsewhere on the northern section, the canal trust is awaiting the decision on an application that would begin to re-establish the link between the canal and the national waterway system. The plans would create 1km of new canal from the Wey Navigation by the A281 bridge to a point adjacent to the historic aqueduct on Gosden Meadow by Tannery Lane, with the construction of a new lock and bridges.