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Godalming Navigation When the Godalming Navigation was built one hundred years after the Wey Navigation it effectively extended the extent of the navigable waterway by four miles to reach the prosperous town of Godalming, then a considerable industrial centre especially for the clothing industry. |
Wey WEY LIFE
WEY REWARD WEY MISTY WEY ROVER WEY LEISURE WEY THUNDERY WEY LION WEY UNCALM He cites that the speed cushions in Green Lane, Binscombe encourage motorists to swerve in order to position their vehicle so that it straddles the cushion. Another scheme in Summers Road, Farncombe provides a cycle gap between the cushions and the pavement that is so narrow that his handlebars collide with pedestrians. The same problem exists in Brighton Road, Busbridge and the cyclist claims that the cycle path on the A3100 in Farncombe does not meet national recommended standards on minimum widths. Source: Surrey Advertiser 18th January 2008 WEY POLL "Farncombe is my choice. Lived here for 3 years and love it! It's got lots of amenities, takes only 40 mins to get to London by train, has Godalming and Guildford within a 5 minute journey, yet the cost of houses and flats here haven't become as expensive as G or G (yet!!) Farncombe definitely gets my vote! " "Godalming and its surrounding villages of Milford and Farncombe are lovely: plenty to see and do yet within easy reach of London, which probably accounts for the cost of properties being so expensive. Beautiful area to live." "The Waverley area is a great place to live, although property prices in Guildford (just outside the Waverley boundary) and Godalming are extortionate, which makes Farncombe - a very up and coming town situated between the two - a great place to buy and live. It's a cosmopolitan town to live in with a village lifestyle, easy train commute to London, using all the amenities of neighbouring Guildford and Godalming, so this, to me, makes Farncombe THE place to live." Source: channel4bestandworst.com 4th May 2008 WEY HADAR "As we arrived back at the boat, horse drawn boat Iona was being prepared for a trip out with passengers onboard. Iona is a small Woolwich built in December 1935 fleet number was 232 and used to go by the name of Bellerophon, which was paired with Boots. We sat and watched as the horse went about its job, taking paying customers on a peaceful trip along the navigation. I went into Sainsbury’s which is right by the mooring to buy a few bits to top up supplies, it always pays to keep extras onboard. It had been a lovely day." Blogger: Hadar 1st June 2008 |
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Godalming Wharf
Prior to the National Trust taking over Godalming Wharf (GR: SU974441) the site, after the Navigation closed for commercial business, went through considerable morphing of uses, which at various stages included a gas works (located where the police station now stands on stilts) and a bus station. The original 18th century wharf was built on a 10 acre plot of land acquired by the Navigation Commissioners when the waterway was completed here in 1764, and riverside it stretched up to Town Bridge. The difficulty of having the towpath running on the opposite side to the wharf was initially overcome by the building of a swing horse bridge, although this quickly fell into disrepair and the towpath was extended up to the road bridge very much as you see it today.
By 1849 the dock had been filled in. In the 1980s the National Trust and Waverley Borough Council agreed a plan for the site which involved much of it being sold off to raise £2m in funds for the Trust, but also provided the council with an opportunity to impose some strict controls on the waterfront development. Today all that remains of the original Godalming Terminus is the wharf moorings and an original brick and weather-boarded building now used as a stable by the Godalming Packet Boat Company for a rest facility for its tow horses. The moorings are used for their boat, the Iona, and other privately owned vessels. Given the historic importance of this location as the upstream limit of the Wey Navigations it is a pity that more couldn’t have been made of the site, perhaps even with a small education facility. In its heyday in the early 19th century traffic to and from the busy wharf here carried timber planks, hoops for barrels, bark, flour and manufactured iron. The main site of the wharf was converted for retail use in the 1990s and today a large supermarket and several smaller stores occupy the site. The Lammas Lands Across the shallow valley beyond the Lammas Lands lies the sprawling settlement of Farncombe, a broadly modern development interspersed with small pockets of more historic buildings. Farncombe Station (GR: SU976451) was opened on the very same day in 1897 that the Godalming Navigation closed its terminus, very poignant timing given that it was effectively the railways that drove the waterway out of business. The Lammas Lands (GR: SU978445) are so called because this large acreage of open water meadow was part of the communal farming system which opened up the fields to common grazing once the hay had been harvested after the religious festival of Lammas on the 1st August. The name originates from ‘Loaf Mass’ when a loaf baked for the occasion was consecrated at a special mass to celebrate the harvest. The water meadows are designated as a Site of Nature Conservation Interest in recognition of the need to preserve an important habitat for rare and protected species including birds such as reed bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus) and plants including meadow saxifrage (Saxifrage granulata). Many species of insects are also attracted to the meadows. Waverley Borough Council took back direct control of the Lammas Lands in 2007 with the intention of providing close management to improve their biodiversity and public access, The council owns the meadows and had for some years leased them back to the family of the original owners, who in turn had rented the land to local livestock owners for grazing. Over this time horses and ponies have been a common sight on the water meadows. The council say that they were forced to take action after complaints concerning escaped ponies damaging adjoining allotments and other property including Broadwater Park, and intend to return to traditional grazing by cattle which they say will be tightly managed to prevent overgrazing. The Navigation now part-follows the original course of the river, and part a man-made cut dug to cut through a lazy long meander that circles up through Catteshall.
A local residents' association is expressing concern (August 2006) that Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) is proposing to make cuts to the budgets assigned for flood defence. The Lammas Resident's Association, representing people who live under constant threat of flooding from the Lammas water meadows, has long been campaigning for improved flood defences and are worried over the fact that the National Flood Forum have made formal representations to the Environment Minister challenging Defra's position.
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Catteshall Lock & Farncombe The water management system around Catteshall Lock (GR: SU981445) - rise of 5ft 6in (1.68m) - is quite complex in that it consists of three channels. Before the canal was cut, the river undertook several small meanders to Catteshall and the waterway sliced through these to straighten the route, with the lock built at the end of the cut. The course of the river proper passes through what is now an upmarket housing estate and rejoins the river at the end of an island, with an additional by-pass stream tumbling over a weir before reaching Catteshall Mill.
The original lock of 1764 was rebuilt in the late 1990s using brick and Portland Stone in place of the original locally quarried Bargate Stone, which sadly couldn’t be sourced by the National Trust in the right sizes. Three of the four Godalming Navigation locks were originally built of bricks, the exception being St Catherine’s further downstream which was constructed of timber. The Lock is 19 miles (31 km) from the Thames.
The nearest pub to Catteshall Lock is the Leathern Bottle a short walk away and located in Meadrow on the main A3100 running between Guildford and Godalming. On weekends The Three Lions (known locally as 'Scratchers'), a few hundred yards further down Meadrow towards Godalming, hosts live music with special focus on blues.
Immediately downstream from the lock is a modern bridge and Farncombe Boat House (GR: SU982445) appropriately surrounded by water on the spur of land that separates the Navigation from a cut that once serviced the mill. It is the bridge here, not the one right by the lock, that is Catteshall Bridge, built on the piers of a medieval bridge over the original millstream of the mill. The existing boat house was built in 1908 and is on land now leased from the National Trust, and the business today provides pleasure boats for hire to the public.
It is comforting to see that the tradition of pleasure boating continues to be successfully promoted by the boat house here, as it was on this site that one of the Leroy brothers, from a boathouse downstream in Guildford, set up business in 1895 taking advantage of the pastime the Victorians had taken to heart with a real gusto. The first record of pleasure boating was at Pyrford near Woking with an account in 1750 of a skiff being hired out for 2s 6d. There were originally nine boathouses hiring out pleasure craft but today on the Wey there are now sadly only those at Byfleet, Guildford and Godalming.
The village of Farncombe which was first documented as a manor in the Domesday Survey was physically linked to Godalming by the urbanisation that rapidly occured after the coming of the railways. The dawn of scouting under Lord Baden-Powell, who was educated at nearby Charterhouse School, saw the first scout troop formed in Farncombe in 1912 where meetings were originally held in Farncombe Street Hall run by Farncombe Church before a drill hall was built in Station Road. The village is to finally lose its social club after 95 years. The Progressive Club in St John's Street had become a social problem in the eyes of many and had its licence revoked after the police raided the venue and discovered evidence of drug dealing on the premises. 23 people were subsequently convicted for the supply of Class A drugs. In the last few years of its existence the private-members club had turned from a friendly and safe community hub into what locals described as the 'aggressive club' with a long list of recorded incidents since June 2005 of assaults, public disorder, noise and drugs offences. Planning permission has been secured (April 2008) for demolition of the building and for a three-storey block with six flats and a 'community unit' to be built facing the road with a second block of three houses behind. In 1918 Surrey Police records show that the Force employed its first policewoman who was posted to Farncombe to deal with prostitutes who had moved into the area attracted by the wartime army camp at nearby Witley.
Catteshall Mill A hundred yards or so further along Catteshall Lane from the boathouse is Catteshall Mill (GR: SU982445), once an extremely prosperous mill and one that has provided a lot of excitement for industrial archaeologists. A water turbine installed at the mill towards the end of its working life was found to be an 1869 Fourneyron. This French designed Belfast-built machine was the largest Fourneyron ever made and the oldest to survive. Having been rescued from irreversible decay the turbine was moved in 1981 to a temporary home at Westbrook Mill from whence it was hoped that it might be returned fully restored to its original home. Sadly this was not to be and the turbine is now on show at the Ironbridge Museum in Shropshire. The site was listed in the Domesday Book as one of three in the Godalming area and over many centuries mills here have been involved in the fulling of woollen cloth, the grinding of corn, and the manufacture of both paper and leather. At the time of installing the Fourneyron the mill was producing paper.
The site lay semi-derelict for decades but has now been renovated with all of the outlying industrial buildings that had spread around the mill having been given a new lease of life. These remain in light-industrial use but the imposing mill building which had housed the huge water turbine has been converted (2006) into upmarket apartments. The largest apartment, which has the commanding position at the top of the three storey brick building and includes a roof garden, is on the market for a hefty £550,000 (July 2006). The mill development, now renamed Penstock Mews to reflect the penstock to its front, is described thus by a local estate agent.
Move on to the next stretch of the Godalming Navigation: WEY VALLEY MADNESS: © Wey River 2005 - 2008 |
