Locks and Docks and Meadows and Oxbows

'Moorings' is more accurate than 'docks' (but harder to rhyme), because the chief point of interest on this wonderful waterside walk is the Wey and Arun Canal, 'London's lost route to the sea'. Latterly a little less lost, because this notable navigation, lying alongside and linking the Rivers Wey and Arun, is being restored lock by lock and bridge by bridge. At Loxwood it is a working waterway; elsewhere it is just a bucolic backwater. Either way it is charming, just like the countryside through which it passes: partly meadows, partly small hills. Charming too are the villages on the walk: Loxwood (its pub by the canal) and Billingshurst (its feel that of a town).

The sights:

Wey and Arun Canal: The Canal's website writes: 'In 1816, The Wey & Arun Junction Canal opened to great fanfare, linking the Wey Navigation near Guildford to the south coast via the Arun Navigation...the Canal was intended to provide a safe, efficient route from London to Portsmouth to carry goods supplying the dockyards. In its heyday, the Canal did carry many tons of cargo but the end of the war with France, and the arrival of the railways, sounded the death knell for the Wey & Arun as a business, and by 1871 it was formally closed. 200 years after it opened, over 3,000 members and volunteers are working to reopen the Wey & Arun Canal for leisure.'

Loxwood: Leafy, pleasant tile-hung cottages and a row of urban-looking shops. We'll have lunch by the canal adjacent to, and a drink in, The Onslow Arms. Brewhurst Mill, Gibbons Mill and Bignor Farm are all Grade II-listed. Notable is Drungewick Aqueduct which carries the canal over the little River Lox. 

Billingshurst: Feeling like a small town rather than a village, with one long curving street, the old London-Bognor road, and still with a coaching air. Not many individual buildings of note, but The Six Bells is Grade II*-listed Tudor and timbered. St Mary's Church has a heavy broach spire and is 13th century.

The route (click the link to see it):

Leaving Billingshurst via footpaths and suburban streets and heading west, we'll cross the A29 and head out to the River Arun near Guildenhurst Farm. We'll then progress north along the Wey South Path including crossing the A272. We'll continue north along the Wey South Path as far as Loves Farm. We'll cross the B2133 and get to Malham Farm and eventually Drungewick Lane and the River Arun. We'll then head west along the canal to the pub and lunch stop at Loxwood.

After lunch we'll follow the meandering navigation closely as far as Drungewick Hill, whereupon we'll have to leave the canal and proceed north, then east, then south through farms and fields along footpaths before picking up quiet Okehurst Road. After a short stretch along Rowner Road we'll proceed east to Tedfold then south along bridleways and footpaths. We'll cross the A29 using a footbridge and enter the housing estates of Billingshurst. By now, the pub won't be far away, or if you want to head back earlier, the railway station.

Dogs:

I welcome dogs on all my walks and this walk is somewhat suitable for them. It has a few fields with livestock, but is of significant length. There are also a few stiles and roads to negotiate. A dog must be obedient if it is off the lead. 

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(Picture credits: Wiggonholt lining up to pass Penelope: Photo © Dave Spicer (cc-by-sa/2.0); Baldwin's Knob Lock No 4: Photo © Donald Simmons (cc-by-sa/2.0); River Arun at Guildenhurst Bridge: Photo © Robin Webster (cc-by-sa/2.0); Milestone beside the Wey and Arun Canal: Photo © Dave Spicer (cc-by-sa/2.0); Lightly iced canal: Photo © Robin Webster (cc-by-sa/2.0); Drungewick Aqueduct: Photo © Colin Smith (cc-by-sa/2.0); Baldwin's Knob Lock, 2007: Photo © Robin Webster (cc-by-sa/2.0); Onslow Arms: Photo © P L Chadwick (cc-by-sa/2.0); Field in Morgan's Green: Photo © David Howard (cc-by-sa/2.0); Gibbons Mill: Photo © Chris Thomas-Atkin (cc-by-sa/2.0); Faint trace of feeder stream for the River Arun: Photo © Dave Spicer (cc-by-sa/2.0). All pictures are copyrighted but are licensed for reuse under Creative Commons CC-BY-SA 2.0 and are here attributed to their copyright holders.)