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Birtley Album
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.
 Birtley Bridge Summer Camp week 3: considerable progress has been made after three weeks of concentrated effort.
Credits: Julian Morgan - 20 August 2019 |
 Trust volunteers began the groundwork ready for the visiting Summer Canal Camps.
Credits: Gill Davies - 20 August 2019 |
 Concrete needed to be poured into the base before any bridge construction could begin.
Credits: Gill Davies - 20 August 2019 |
 The team gets to grips with Rob Nicholson's drawings.
Credits: Gill Davies - 20 August 2019 |
 Birtley Bridge Summer Camp week 1: Volunteers started to put together the five and half tonnes of reinforced steel needed.
Credits: Julian Morgan - 20 August 2019 |
 Birtley Bridge Summer Camp week 1: Camp members comprised students and experienced hands.
Credits: Gill Davies - 20 August 2019 |
 Birtley Bridge Summer Camp week 1: The first week's camp made good headway with creating the steelwork frame.
Credits: Julian Morgan - 20 August 2019 |
 Birtley Bridge Summer Camp week 2: The second wave of volunteers continued the steelwork and added shuttering.
Credits: Gill Davies - 20 August 2019 |
 Birtley Bridge Summer Camp week 2: the shape of the bridge can begin to be seen.
Credits: Julian Morgan - 20 August 2019 |
 Birtley Bridge Summer Camp week 3: painting the blockwork was a messy task.
Credits: Julian Morgan - 20 August 2019 |
 Birtley Bridge Summer Camp week 3: It was all hands on deck to push through in the final week.
Credits: Gill Davies - 20 August 2019 |
 Fencing has had to be erected along both sides of the canal.
Credits: Gill Davies - 30 May 2019 |
 Visiting working parties have been making regular visits.
Credits: Gill Davies - 30 May 2019 |
 Heavy machinery was used to level and surface the track.
Credits: Julian Morgan - 30 May 2019 |
 A temporary spill weir was created at the end of May.
Credits: Gill Davies - 30 May 2019 |
 The access road surfaced ahead of the bridge building later this summer.
Credits: Gill Davies - 30 May 2019 |
 A temporary scaffold bridge was built to make transporting tools needed for the new lift bridge much easier.
Credits: Gill Davies - 30 May 2019 |
 Birtley Path Construction
Credits: Julian Nowell - 9 February 2019 |
 Birtley path construction work
Credits: Julian Nowell - 20 January 2019 |