Wendy Walker, County Archivist, writes: West Sussex Record Office is extremely grateful to the Friends of the Nations' Libraries for their help in enabling the purchase of this significant collection relating to the Baybridge Canal Company. The Baybridge Canal was the name given to a stretch of the River Adur between Bines Bridge and Baybridge in the parish of West Grinstead that was made navigable in 1825. The River Adur had been navigable as far as Bines Bridge since 1812, and it was hoped that if the waterway was extended to Baybridge, on the Horsham-Worthing road, a further distance of 3.75 miles, it would be more useful to trade. However, the canal was operational and profitable for just 50 years; following the opening of the railway from Shoreham to West Grinstead in 1861 the canal was little used. By 1865 the canal had ceased to pay interest on its loan debt, and in 1875 it was closed by Act of Parliament.
The collection provides an important insight into the establishment and operation of the Baybridge Canal Company from its inception in 1825; accounts from that year record expenses incurred in preparing the Baybridge Navigation Act and producing handbills and advertisements inviting tenders for digging the canal and building locks. The collection also contains one of the handbills referred to in the accounts. A page of accounts from 1826 records expenditure on the construction of an iron bridge and later accounts refer to the ongoing expenses involved in maintaining the canal, such as labour for ‘throwing mud out of the river’ in May 1831 and the purchase of oil for the locks on 24th June 1831.
The accounts provide a record of goods being transported on the canal, predominately chalk, offering an important insight into local industry and trade. The accounts record names of local farmers, labourers and of course those using the canal whilst the book of reference provides the names of the owners and occupiers of land through which the proposed canal was to run making the collection an important source of information about local landowners, residents and businessmen.
The collection covers the final stages of the Baybridge Canal with accounts drawn up by J C Reed for the Baybridge Canal (Abandonment) Act 1875 and a printed handbill announcing the closure of the canal to traffic effective 1st September 1875.
This archive offers an important insight into West Sussex industrial history, the impact of the coming of the railways in West Sussex and is a valuable resource for family and local history. The generous grant from FNL enabling the purchase of this collection means that it can be viewed alongside other material held by West Sussex Record Office relating to the Baybridge Canal Company (Add Mss 44776-44814) offering an enhanced resource for researchers.
