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River Wey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the river in Surrey, for the river in Dorset see River Wey, Dorset.
The River Wey in Surrey is one of the Waterways in the United Kingdom and a tributary of the River Thames. The source of the north branch is at Alton, Hampshire and of the south branch at Liphook. The branches join at Tilford. The river is navigable for around 32 km from Godalming to the Thames at Weybridge to the south-west of London as part of the Wey and Godalming Navigations.
The improvements in the navigation of the river were undertaken by Sir Richard Weston, beginning in 1635. The 25 km to Guildford were made navigable by an Act of 1651 , with work completed in 1653, to allow barges to transport goods to London. Further improvements were made under another Act of 1671.
In 1760, another Act authorised the Godalming Navigation, taking navigation a further 7 km upstream to Godalming.
The Basingstoke Canal and Wey and Arun Junction Canal were later dug to connect with the Wey navigation.
From 1900 to 1963, the Wey was owned by the Stevens family, who were commercial carriers on the canal. It was then donated to the National Trust in 1964 which operates a visitor centre at Dapdune Wharf, a former boatyard in Guildford. The Godalming Navigation was donated to the Trust in 1968. Commercial traffic ceased in 1983.