Petworth Canal

Digging began early in 1795, employing about twenty navvies. In August lock gates were being hung and a bridge built at Haines Lock. Sandstone from the nearest quarries at Fittleworth and Upperton would have been used for the bridges and locks. Coping stones are recorded as being barged from Todham and Moorland locks near Midhurst by Edmund Sayer. The navigation was open by October 1795.

The wharf at Haslingbourne has entirely disappeared and an electricity sub-station and a former water treatment plant, which pumped water from springs at the foot of Gore Hill to Petworth, are on the site. The area is now used for storage of construction machinery. Below Haslingbourne Cottages the stream flows in the canal bed which is cut through sandstone beds, creating a shaded artificial gorge rich in mosses and lichens. Emerging from this cutting at the site of Upper Lock the canal follows a straight course across low lying boggy ground, fenced off as a nature reserve area. Reaching the site of Haines Lock the stream can be heard pouring through a broken down weir in the undergrowth as…