Animals & Nature0 min ago
MM Links July 2012 Week 2
44 Answers
Last week I alluded to the Wey & Arun Canal so I thought it appropriate to give a little more background to this, I hope, worthy cause. The Canal was thought about and planned in the very early 1800s with the specific purpose of helping the British troops fighting the French in the Napoleonic Wars. It was designed to carry war materiel and bullion from Woolwich Arsenal up the Thames to Weybridge, down the Wey Navigation to just south of Guildford, then down the Wey & Arun to join the River Arun, west at Ford to the Chichester canal and harbour and thence straight across to France. This all was intended to avoid the hazardous circum-navigation of the Kent foreland and the Goodwin sands and escape any French privateers in that area.
The sad thing was that it opened in 1816 just a few months after Waterloo thus its raison d'etre disappeared before it opened! It had a sketchy early life but it was used for one very important event - carrying 20 tons of Rothschild gold from Paris up the canal to the Thames and down to London to save, in the nick of time, The Bank of England.
It had taken three hundred Irish Navigators three years to build using just spades and wheelbarrows. The Trust today has been going for about 30 years and so far we have about 4 miles of navigable waterway! Our biggest needs are water and money. The former is certainly no problem this year - the latter we keep working away at - thus my work as crewman on the charter boats we run to raise money.
Next week I want to go back to my first sporting interest - archery. This weeks link words will lead the way.
The sad thing was that it opened in 1816 just a few months after Waterloo thus its raison d'etre disappeared before it opened! It had a sketchy early life but it was used for one very important event - carrying 20 tons of Rothschild gold from Paris up the canal to the Thames and down to London to save, in the nick of time, The Bank of England.
It had taken three hundred Irish Navigators three years to build using just spades and wheelbarrows. The Trust today has been going for about 30 years and so far we have about 4 miles of navigable waterway! Our biggest needs are water and money. The former is certainly no problem this year - the latter we keep working away at - thus my work as crewman on the charter boats we run to raise money.
Next week I want to go back to my first sporting interest - archery. This weeks link words will lead the way.
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