River Arun

The River Arun is a river in the English county of West Sussex. At long, it is the longest river entirely in Sussex and one of the longest starting in Sussex after the River Medway, River Wey and River Mole. From the series of small streams that form its source in the area of St Leonard's Forest in the Weald, the Arun flows westwards through Horsham to Nowhurst where it is joined by the North River. Turning to the south, it is joined by its main tributary, the western River Rother, and continues through a gap in the South Downs to Arundel to join the English Channel at Littlehampton. It is one of the faster flowing rivers in England, and is tidal as far inland as Pallingham Quay, upstream from the sea at Littlehampton. The Arun gives its name to the Arun local government district of West Sussex.
The first major improvements to the river were made between the 1540s and the 1570s, when Arundel became a port, and navigation up to Pallingham was improved, but barges had difficulty negotiating the flash locks that were installed. The work was carried out by Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel, who made the upper section toll-free. Harbour commissioners managed the lower river from Arundel to the sea from 1732, and major improvements to keep the estuary free from silt were sanctioned by an act of Parliament obtained in 1793. With the coming of the railways and changes in coastal shipping, Littlehampton superseded Arundel as the port of the Arun, and the Littlehampton harbour commissioners are still responsible for the river up to Arundel, collecting tolls for its use.
The river above Arundel was improved after 1785. As the main channel was toll-free, the proprietors of the scheme built two major cuts. One, which included three locks and passed through Hardham Tunnel, was built to avoid a large bend near Pulborough. The other was near the upper terminus, where a cut with three locks and a flood lock crossed the original channel by an aqueduct to reach wharves at Newbridge. Further improvements were made when the Wey and Arun Canal opened in 1816, joining the Arun Navigation at Newbridge, and after the completion of the Portsmouth and Arundel Canal, which opened soon afterwards. These two canals were an attempt to provide an inland route between London and Portsmouth, but were not as successful as the proprietors hoped. Traffic declined rapidly when the railways offered competition, and the navigation ceased to be maintained from 1888, though some traffic continued on the lower sections. The Wey and Arun Canal is currently being restored, and restoration will eventually include the cut and locks below Newbridge.

History

When Ptolemy wrote his Geography around 150 AD, the Arun was called the Trisantonis, with later accounts using the same name. Trisantonis is thought to be a Brythonic word for 'the trespasser', indicating the river's tendency to flood land near to the river. Trisanto translates directly as 'one who goes across'. There is also a theory that the Arun may have been known as the Trisantonis in its lower reaches close to the sea, but known as the Arnus in its upper reaches. It is possible that the town of Arundel may mean Arno-dell, or dell of the flowing river. By the Middle Ages the river was known as the river of Arundel, the Arundel river, or the high stream of Arundel. An alternative name, the Tarrant, is, however, attested in 725 and 1270, and is reflected in the road name Tarrant Street, one of the main roads running through the town roughly parallel to the river. The first use of the modern name was recorded in 1577, but the alternative names of Arundel river or great river continued to be used for many years.
A further possible etymology derived from the Domesday spelling Harundel for Arundel comes from the Anglo Saxon hærn dell meaning "tidal valley", which this would mean that the name of the river probably also derives from "tidal". Other local rivers such as the Rother deriving from the Anglo Saxon róðer, which means "rower", are also descriptive of the river and its surrounds.
The mouth of the river has not always been at Littlehampton. Until the later fifteenth century it joined the River Adur at Lancing some ten miles to the east before entering the sea. This estuary became blocked with shingle by the eastward drift of the tides, pushing the Adur towards Shoreham-by-Sea, while the Arun broke out at Worthing, Goring and Ferring at various times, until it formed its present estuary at Littlehampton between 1500 and 1530.

Improvements

The lower portion of the river, from the sea to Ford, was navigable in the eleventh century at the time of the Norman Conquest. In the sixteenth century, Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel built wharves at Ford, and improved the river channel below there, so that the town became a port. Over the 30 years from 1544, he also improved the river as far upstream as Pallingham Quay. Although the work involved a number of flash locks, which were not very successful, no tolls were charged for its use, and vessels of around 15 tons were used to carry timber. Attempts to make the river navigable up to Newbridge in the early sixteenth century were not successful.
An act of Parliament, the Littlehampton Harbour Act 1732, was obtained, the main emphasis of which was the improvement of "the harbour of Littlehampton, called Arundel Port", but improvements to the first of the river, from the sea to Arundel, were also authorised. Commissioners were appointed, with powers to erect piers and to cut a new channel to the sea through a sand bar. The act allowed them to charge tolls for use of the facilities, and once the initial costs had been repaid, one half of the tolls were to be used to maintain the harbour and the river channel up to Arundel. Although most ships were of 30 or 40 tons, ships of up to 100 tons could reach Arundel as a result of the work, and trade improved.
The next act, the to affect the river was obtained by a group of local men in 1785. Under the act, the proprietors were empowered to make the river navigable for 30-ton barges up to Newbridge. They had no jurisdiction over the river from Arundel to Houghton bridge, and could not charge tolls for use of the river up to Pallingham. There were 31 members of the proprietors, who could raise £10,000 by issuing 100 shares worth £100 each. Day-to-day oversight of the affairs of the navigation were managed by three proprietors, with a half-yearly meeting of the larger group. The purpose of the navigation was to carry coal, chalk and lime upstream, and agricultural produce in the other direction. Rather than improve the river channel, the navigation upstream of Pallingham consisted of a separate channel, containing three locks, and an aqueduct which carried the navigation over the river at Orfold. The journey below Pallingham was made shorter by cutting a new channel between Coldwaltham and Hardham. This involved the construction of three more locks and a tunnel. The Pallingham to Newbridge section opened on 1 August 1787, while the Hardham cut was completed in mid-1790. The cost of the work was around £16,000.
There were two proposals to extend the navigation at this time. The first was for a canal to North Chapel, to the north of Petworth, in 1791, and the second was for a canal to Horsham in the following year. The route was surveyed by John Rennie, who estimated that it would cost £18,133 to build, but negotiations with the existing proprietors failed, and the scheme was dropped in 1794. Meanwhile, a second act of Parliament, the Littlehampton Harbour Act 1793, was obtained by the harbour commissioners, as there was serious silting of the estuary. Groynes were constructed and the existing piers were made longer. In addition, a towpath was built from the mouth of the river up to Arundel. The act stated that the capital borrowed to finance the harbour under the previous act had been repaid, and that tolls would all be used for maintenance of the harbour and river up to Arundel, once further borrowings had been repaid. Because the inhabitants of Arundel had spent £28,300 on the harbour, boats which belonged to the port of Arundel did not have to pay any tolls. As a result of the works, the port of Arundel enjoyed its most prosperous period for the next thirty years, with ships of 200 and 300 tons able to reach the town on spring tides. Facilities improved, and there were four docks by 1840.

Operation

Payment of dividends to shareholders began in 1792, and over the next five years, tolls raised an average of £893 per year and the dividend was 3.1 per cent. At this time, George Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont was buying shares and having obtained one third of them, he became chairman of the company. He then stopped the payment of dividends so that the borrowed capital could be paid off more quickly. Apart from an interim payment in 1821, dividends were not reinstated until 1830. In the 1790s Wyndham was responsible for the canalisation of the River Rother which joins the Arun at Stopham, and he also promoted the Wey and Arun Canal, which was seen as part of a larger scheme to link London to Portsmouth, an idea which had been contemplated several times since 1641. He chaired a meeting held at Guildford on 1 June 1811, at which it was decided to press ahead with the canal, and put up £20,000 of the initial £90,500 estimated cost. The canal opened in September 1816, but the estimated 100,000 tons of traffic passing between London and the dockyards at Portsmouth, and the 30,000 tons of local traffic, were far too optimistic, with actual traffic averaging around 15,000 tons per year throughout its life.
The London to Portsmouth route was to be completed by the Portsmouth and Arundel Canal, in which Wyndham and the Cutfields, who also held many shares in the Arun Navigation, were both significant subscribers. This was authorised by the Portsmouth and Arundel Navigation Act 1817, and an agreement was reached that the Arun would be improved to aid through traffic. Nevertheless, no work commenced on the Arun until the proprietors were sure that the Ford section of the new canal would actually be built. Once they were convinced, they obtained the River Arun Navigation and Portsmouth and Arundel Navigation Act 1821 in May 1821, and the engineer James Hollingworth oversaw the improvements, which were completed in mid-1823. The work involved improving the depth and width of the channel, and some alterations to bridges and locks to make their size more uniform. The company borrowed £3000 to finance the work, which cost around £5000 in total. The loans had been repaid by 1831, and the work allowed barge sizes to be increased from 30 tons to 40 tons, with the result that business improved.
Traffic increased, as shown by the number of boats belonging to residents of Arundel. There were 13 in 1801, which had increased to 15 by 1803, with a total tonnage of 266. A timber merchant called John Boxold owned barges in 1815 and 1832, while in 1820, a company began running regular freight services to London, using three barges based near the town quay. By 1823 they had ten barges, which had reduced to seven by 1830, and barges ran twice-weekly to Chichester, London, Midhurst, and Petworth. The company was variously called Seward and Co., The Arundel Barge Co., and several other names.