Tuesday 12th October

The further we go down the Wey and Arun the more I like it :-) We did nine locks in total and they are nicely spread out and really easy to operate. I was determined to do them all – I’m going to let Richard do them all on the way back! It just shows how much better my knee is now. We passed Sutton Place which was originally the home of Sir Richard Weston, who in 1650 commenced construction of the Wey Navigation. The house is second only in importance to Hampton Court Palace in showing the earliest traces of Italianate renaissance design elements in English architecture. John Paul Getty lived there for the last 25 years of his life and it is now owned by a Russian. The navigation runs very close to the A3 in places though you can only hear the traffic – maybe in the winter you can see it. I’ve driven up the A3 hundreds of times and never realised just how close the river is. The first part of Guildford is pretty grotty but once you pass Dapdune Wharf it starts to get nicer and we went under a bridge (see photo left) that I have crossed many times. Millmead Lock is just past the Yvonne Arnaud theatre and the footbridge at the lock was very busy with onlookers as it was lunchtime. Just after Millmead Lock we pulled over for lunch. The last part of the navigation was known as the Godalming Navigation and was completed in 1764 – over a hundred years later than the Wey and Arun. Godalming Wharf is in a very nice position – right next door to Pets at Home (Mille was thrilled!) and Homebase and very close to Sainsbury’s AND Waitrose.