River Wey & Navigations : Where to start exploring - we start you off here

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RIVER WEY
NORTH BRANCH
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RIVER WEY
SOUTH BRANCH
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RIVER UNITED
TILFORD TO
GODALMING
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THE WEY
NAVIGATIONS
• Introduction
• History
• The Godalming
Navigation
• The Wey
Navigation
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RIVER
TRANSPORT
• Introduction
• Lock
• Barges
• Life on the
Barges
• The Horse-
drawn IONA
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WEY INDUSTRY
• Introduction
• Watermills
• Flour & Bread
• Fulling & Cloth
• Chilworth
Gunpowder
Mills
• Charcoal
Making
• Brewing
• Papermaking
• Ice Houses
. . . . . . . .
WEY WILDLIFE
• Introduction
• Habitats
• Trees & Plants
• Insects
• Birds
• Fish
• Countryside
Designations
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WEY PLACES
• Introduction
• More About
ALTON
• More About
FARNHAM
• More About
GODALMING
• More About
WEYBRIDGE
• More About
BROOKLANDS
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WEY PEOPLE
• Introduction
• Legends
• The Big Names
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WEY ART
• Introduction
• Boat Art
• Inn Art
• River Graffiti
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ADJOINING
WATERWAYS
• Basingstoke
Canal
• Wey & Arun
Canal
• The Thames
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Where to Start Exploring?

On the page below we give you a taster of what to expect and some navigation suggestions to start you off.

ELSEWHERE LINKS
click for a smile!

Wey
Snippets

WEY WARNING
The extreme weather conditions affecting England in July 2007 largely bypassed the Wey Valley although flooding was evident in certain areas. Flood warnings were issued at 15:11 on 22nd July for: The River Wey North and South Branches, the Cranleigh Waters, the Tilling Bourne and the Hoe Stream.

WEY LIFE
“They used to grow a tremendous amount of alders on the River Wey, and every so often they used to cut them and take them up to Shalford to the gunpowder works. They used to make powder – explosives – from the alder trees.”
Captain White's River Life Nancy Larcomber

WEY FACTUAL
Farnham led the way in the early days of British brewing. Farnham Hops grown along the valley were highly sought after by brewers in the 17th and 18th centuries throughout the land for their superior quality.

WEY GHOSTLY
The Lammas Lands in Godalming are haunted, not only by the last two murderers to be hanged in the town in the 19th century, but also the crowd who went along to watch. Go there on a summer's evening and it is said that you'll hear the sound of the hangman's cart with the sound of a murmuring crowd, followed by a brief silence and then the sound of a rope on wood as two heavy bodies swing in the breeze. Not for the faint hearted!

click image to enlarge

WEY VALLEY FOOD
OVER THE CENTURIES
“To make Oatmeal Pudding”
Farnham 19th century Recipe
“Take a porringer full of oatmeal beaten to flower a pint of cream one nutmeg 4 Eggs beaten, a pound of sugar a pound of beef Suit Shrid small, mingle all together & yu may bake itt in an hour.”
Old Surrey Receipts & Food for Thought
Daphne Grimm

THE WEY VALLEY HAS THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF ANGSt - IT'S OFFICIAL

Along the Wey you will have the opportunity to discover for yourself:

• How a watermill works.
• How a witch and a cauldron are inexplicably linked to an ancient church.
• How wild flowers and plants were used to fill the medicine chests of people in the days before pharmacies and free health care.
• How paper was made from cloth rags.
• Why men were often used instead of horses to haul heavy barges along the river.
• Who had the coldest job in Britain.
• How gunpowder was made.
• How soldiers and sailors drove large numbers of inns along the valley into bankruptcy.
• Why Hackering Jack was popular with his workers, but so despised by a local lord of the manor that he strove to put an end to him.
• How leather was made.
• Where over the river an early aviator achieved the world’s first aerial loop-the-loop.
• Who the ‘towpath fairies’ were, and where the outlawed bare-knuckle fights were held.
• Why the now hallowed Automobile Association was founded to try and outwit the Valley’s new chief police constable.
• Where you can sit alongside a ghostly congregation dressed in all of their finery.
• Why inn keepers would rather keep Czar Peter the Great of Russia locked out than take the risk of letting him stay.

And much, much more . . . .

Follow an insignificant Hampshire stream as it matures to a fully fledged river that was vital to the introduction of Cisterian Monasteries in Britain in the 12th century.
The River Wey – North Branch

Follow the bubbling Sussex brook as it meanders its way into Hampshire and on to Surrey to meet up with its twin by an Ancient Oak, in a quintessentially English village complete with village pub and cricket green.
The River Wey – South Branch

Follow the river Wey proper, as it gathers pace and influence to meet with the first of the Wey Navigations at the important industrial town that pioneered public electric street lighting in Britain.
The River Wey - from Tilford to Godalming

Follow the younger of the two man-made Navigations, this dug in search of prosperity but bringing instead financial ruin, until it reaches the ancient County town of Surrey.
The Godalming Navigation – from Godalming to Guildford

Follow the main Wey Navigation that sprung from an agricultural experiment in the 17th century resulting in considerable prosperity, and influenced the course of English history.
The Wey Navigation – from Guildford to Weybridge

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