Birtley

The Wey & Arun Canal Trust has acquired a 900-metre stretch of abandoned canal at Birtley Reach, near Bramley in Surrey, at the Northern end of the canal.

The Trust is planning to create a new circular canalside walk in this particularly stunning part of the countryside, where the walk will be flanked by the Downs Link path above and Cranleigh Waters in the valley below.

Visiting working parties and volunteers have fenced off the adjacent farmland and created an access track, along with tackling fallen trees and overgrown vegetation.

Two lift bridges will need to be built and work on the first began in earnest in Summer 2019. Three weeks of Waterway Recovery Group Summer Canal Camps in July, along with the Trust's own working parties, have meant considerable progress has made. It is hoped the first bridge will be completed by the end of the year.