To download our reports, please click on these links:

Annual Report 2022
Annual Accounts 2021-2022

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For our annual accounts, please click here.

Our AGM is on Thursday 13th May at 8pm.  Please see the events page for further details.

News of Sainsburys expansion plans have hit the news - not only in today's The Times but also featured on Jeremy Vine's Radio 2 lunchtime show.  The plans to destroy part of the copse will damage our wildlife community as well as increase noise levels for those living close by.

You can find out more by going to Guildford Borough Council's website.  The planning application number is 20/P/01537.

Click here to access- ​https://mailchi.mp/9ef9b0dfee55/bca-community-update-november-1831762

Click here to access https://mailchi.mp/2b709f2cfa91/bca-community-update-november-1801845

This time of year is always busy and, although the earlier dry (if not particularly warm at times) weather meant that the grass grew slightly more slowly than other years, there has still been plenty to do.  Luckily in recent months I have had a few new volunteers start helping out on the Stoke length, so I’ve taken this opportunity to make sure that everyone is sufficiently trained in using the small machinery we have here on the property such as mowers, strimmers and outboard motors.  Both new and existing volunteers have found this useful for jogging their memory of how tools should be used and, with everyone up to speed, it now means we can “blitz” a number of tasks in one area.

Another recent volunteer task has been chipping brash left over from when we were removing low hanging branches from the towpath earlier in the year.  The chip produced was then spread on an area of towpath that gets particularly wet and muddy, so hopefully this will make the surface a bit more user friendly.

You may have noticed the towpath diversion at Bowers Lock, which is in place to enable the Environment Agency weirs to be refurbished.  These weirs were originally put in as part of the River Wey Improvement Scheme in the 1930’s and the structure now requires major refurbishment.  The new weirs will look very similar to the old ones, using the existing (but refurbished) winding gear from the old structure so that the aesthetics of the area aren’t changed.  The capacity of the weir will also be the same so there will be no effect on how flood water is managed.  This work is all being carried out by contractors and our involvement is minimal, although we have had a number of site meetings to make sure that water levels are correctly maintained during the works and that I can gain access to the temporary weirs for flood alleviation if necessary.

Other than mowing and strimming, recent tasks have included removing old barbed wire fences, replacing water level markers, edging flower beds, sweeping steps, changing jockey wheels on gates, clearing out sheds, cleaning lock gates, fixing mowers, clearing fallen trees…the list just goes on and on.  However it’s this variety of work that really keeps my job interesting and I wouldn’t have it any other way.



Richard
07786 703 832
richard.cant@nationaltrust.org.uk
www.facebook.com/RiverWey

On Friday 30th May we were very saddened to hear about the death of Mike Piper.  He had been a dedicated local councillor for the Burpham Ward from 2015 to 2019: he worked hard and always did his best for our community.  We'd like to pass on our condolences to his partner Penny and to family and friends.

If you would like to download the annual report, please click here

Surrey Fire and Rescue Service is consulting on proposed changes to services. You can have your say by visiting www.surrey-fire.gov.uk/psp or you can call 03456 009009 or text 07860 053465 to request a printed copy of the questionnaire. The closing date is 26th May 2019

Ok, so some of you may say I was asking for it when I said how dry January had been, but less than an hour after I finished writing last months it started raining!  The heavy rain, accompanied by the fact that the river flow rates were down to start with, meant that the river levels became very volatile, rising quickly and dropping even faster.  This made for a very intense period of weir operations which saw more adjustments to the weirs in one day than the whole month of January.  Thankfully this pattern hasn’t continued or I really would have been cursing myself for tempting fate.

As the weather improved and the river stabilised I was able to get on and finish some winter jobs, which is really important as spring is definitely in the air and nesting season is round the corner which will see the end of tasks such as hedge cutting for the next few months.  With the help of my volunteers we’ve finished the offside cutback of low branches from the non-towpath side of the river between Stoke and Bowers Lock, and we’ve hedge trimmed the towpath through Guildford town centre so that it doesn’t encroach on this busy walking and cycling route.  We’ve also been raking leaves at Bowers Lock and cutting back the epicormic growth from around the bottom of the lime trees in preparation for mowing the grass (I can’t believe it’s that time again already!).

I’ve also spent a lot of time this month servicing and repairing the team’s machinery so that it’s all ready to go when everything starts growing.  This is a job that we started to do in house a number of years ago to keep costs down but also to ensure that all the equipment was safe and working effectively.  It means that I have got to know how everything works inside and out, which I find very interesting and adds another element of variety to my work programme.

Knowing from experience that the next few months are going to be very busy with vegetation cutting, lock painting etc. I have made time this month to get on top of the events planning for this summer.  This has involved meeting with the Steam Boat Association of Great Britain about our annual steam boat event Puffing-A-Wey in June, and also a number of meetings, walks and research sessions about my WWII guided walk in the middle of September.  Planned to happen on Heritage Open Days weekend, it will mark 80 years since the outbreak of WWII. The walk will follow the river and surrounding area looking at remnants of that period that can still be seen today whilst talking about role of the Navigations during the war.  A big thank you to local historian David Rose, and Malcolm Watson from our volunteer research group, for all their help - it’s looking like a really interesting event.


Richard
07786 703 832
richard.cant@nationaltrust.org.uk
www.facebook.com/RiverWey

Every month of the year seems to be busy with an ever-changing variety of work that moves with the seasons; however January to me brings a strange sense of urgency.  Back in December winter felt like it would be long and never ending, but with Christmas out of the way the rest of winter feels surprisingly short, which this year was particularly punctuated by the site of Daffodils in bloom on 1 January!  Spring drawing closer and the days getting slowly longer is of course a very welcome feeling, but the urgency comes in that I do feel like I’m running out of time. The dormancy of winter is the perfect time for cutting back vegetation and pruning trees whilst causing the least damage and disturbance to wildlife.  This work comes to quite an abrupt end with the first flourishes of spring, as it marks the start of the main bird nesting season when we have to be at our most careful not to disturb our native wildlife.  
 
With this in mind if you’ve seen me out on the towpath this month it’s probably been with either a strimmer, hedge trimmer or even a chainsaw, beavering away to get everything done.  I’m pleased to say that the cutback of bankside vegetation with the strimmer is now complete, including cutting back some very tough bramble along the perched embankment next to Stoke Lock to enable it to be checked for leaks.  I’ve also only got one day’s work with my volunteers left cutting back low branches encroaching from the non-towpath side bank.  Other tasks this month have involved spreading woodchip on muddy areas of towpath, moving mooring pins for boaters and servicing machinery for the other lengthsman; there really always is something to do.
 
Of course many of you who walk near Stoke Lock or boat along the navigation will have noticed I’m not the only one who has been working here this month.  Our maintenance team have been busy changing the upper lock gates at Stoke as part of the ongoing maintenance of the property.  This has meant damming up the lock and shutting it to boats for two weeks, but the result is that the new gates are now in and should be good for the next 20yrs+. 
 
Finally I just wanted to mention that January was notable by its lack of weir operations (just to point out I’m not complaining about this and I hope I haven’t jinxed myself by saying it).  With only around a dozen weir movements for the entire month this must be one of the most stable Januarys I’ve ever had.  Work wise this has been fantastic, but in terms of water resources we could really do with some more rain to avoid having problems with navigation this summer, so let’s see what February brings…
 
 
Richard
 
07786 703 832
richard.cant@nationaltrust.org.uk
www.facebook.com/RiverWey
 

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a very enjoyable Christmas break.  It was great to see so many people making the most of the dry weather between Christmas and New Year, taking the opportunity to burn off a few of those Mince Pies.  I must say a big thank you to my Relief Weir keeper Nick Georges at this point for covering my water levels for much of the Christmas period.  This meant that I got a chance to spend some quality time with my family, which isn’t always guaranteed as water levels seem to have no respect for the Christmas period.  You may remember this being demonstrated by the major flooding event of Christmas 2013, but thankfully things were much quieter this year.
 
Looking back to December now seems like an age ago, but for me it was very much like November with the main focus being to continue cutting back low branches from the offside of the river with my volunteers and to spend the days by myself strimming back the dead vegetation on the towpath.  The pattern of wet/dry/wet/dry weather kind of put paid to the strimming though as most of my days (and nights) were spent adjusting weirs.  With the river rising and falling, and boat traffic being frequently suspended, I also thought the offside cutback would have to stop.  However by some strange coincidence for each Tuesday when my volunteers were out helping the river was back to being calm and stable and we were able to continue working.  This isn’t to say that it wasn’t raining on those days - it just hadn’t affected the river yet.
 
With weirs running it’s very difficult to get stuck in to any major projects so the rest of December was really made up of bits and pieces.  Such as removing low branches on a tree over a telephone wire and tidying the workshop ready for machinery servicing in January.  I’ve also had my annual performance review (I’m still here so it must have gone ok) and a very interesting meeting with John White who skippered the last ever commercial Wey Barge back in the 1960’s.  This was in preparation for one of my 2019 guided walks and I must admit it was so easy to go off topic and just reminisce about what the Navigation must have been like back then, but also to realise how surprisingly little it’s changed in some ways.  I suppose that what gives the Wey Navigation that real sense of character and makes it such a special place.  

Richard
07786 703832
richard.cant@nationaltrust.org.uk
www.facebook.com/RiverWey

I took a week’s leave at the beginning of September to spend some time with my oldest daughter before her first day of school.  I can’t believe how quickly this has come around. Some of you, who have been following my diary for a long time, will remember me proudly announcing her birth!
 
“Then on the 13th of May my life changed for ever, as my wife gave birth to our beautiful little daughter Olivia Rose Cant born at 2:48 in the morning and weighing 6lbs 11oz.”  June 2014
 
Of course with Olivia at school it was back to work for me, and straight back in at the deep end leading one of the guided walks that make up our annual events programme.  This time it was our evening Owl & Bat walk down at Papercourt Meadow, where my colleague Chris  and I took a group of 24 people out in the twilight in hope of spotting the resident Barn Owl.  With a very bad weather forecast up until the day before we were very dubious whether anyone would turn up, let alone be lucky enough to see an owl.  Thankfully as the evening approached the skies cleared and we were treated to a magnificent sunset.  So after a quick session of dissecting owl pellets (the bits of indigestible food that an owl regurgitates) we set out through the mist in search of our Barn Owl, which kindly appeared and everyone got to see it which was fantastic.  After dark we turned on the bat detectors and found Pipistrelles and Daubenton bats flying around Papercourt Cottage.  We really couldn’t have been more fortunate and everyone had a great time, including us staff.
 
Events have continued to dominate my work load over the past few weeks as there was plenty to do for our biggest event of the year, the Wey River Festival.  For me and my volunteers this meant things like removing low branches so that boats didn’t get caught up in the dark during the illuminated pageant, cleaning off work boats so that they looked their best, and even stringing up fairy lights to help add to the atmosphere.  As with any event in September you do tend to take your chances with the weather and at 1045 on the day it started raining (the event opened at 1100) and it didn’t stop throughout the day.  However nobody was going to be beaten by a bit of water and we still had a good number of visitors, which created a lovely party atmosphere.  The spectacular procession of illuminated boats also went off without a hitch, lighting up the darkness on their way in to Guildford town centre and back to Dapdune.  I’d just like to finish with a quote I overheard form one of the boaters, “If we minded getting wet we wouldn’t own a boat!”. 
 
Richard 
Stoke Lengthsman
07786 703 832
richard.cant@nationaltrust.org.uk
www.facebook.com/RiverWey
​

Surrey County Council’s (SCC) introduction of parking charges at five registered commons (Newlands Corner, Chobham, Whitmoor, Rodborough and Wisley and Ockham) and at Norbury Park appears to be resulting in a significant reduction in the number of visitors to the sites. Some of the people who are staying away will undoubtedly be those who simply cannot afford the charges. Given that there is little in the way of public transport to the sites, the effect of this policy is to prevent people from exercising their rights of access to them.
The cost of the parking charge scheme, together with the reduction in cars using the car parks, also makes it increasingly unlikely that the scheme will ever produce a profit.
There was never any consultation about introducing charges at Newlands Corner, despite Councillor Goodman’s 2015 policy paper saying that there should be. There was a consultation exercise about introducing charges at the other sites. It is abundantly clear that very few members of the public knew about the consultation. Even so, over 1,200 people responded and nearly 1,000 said “No” to charges.
Within a matter days of the consultation closing, SCC’s Cabinet considered Cllr Goodman’s 2017 policy paper recommending the introduction of charging and setting out how this would be done. This was almost unseemly haste, was obviously pre-planned and totally ignored the outcome of the consultation.
From a position of “we have consulted”, Cllr Goodman has turned this around to say that, because less than a thousand people said “No” to charges, the consultation was not representative of the views of the people of Surrey. So, SCC has held a virtually-unpublicised consultation, received a result it didn’t want, ignored the result and is now belittling its own consultation.
A member of the public (unknown to us) is trying to put this right and show that the consultation was not unrepresentative of the Surrey public’s views on this matter. He has started a petition which you will find here: https://www.change.org/p/surrey-county-council-restore-public-access-to-surrey-commons

As the sun continues to beat down on the scorched grass I seem to be continually asked “so if the grass isn’t growing do you just get to put your feet up?” Well actually this summer
feels just as busy as any other, even without the mowing to keep on top of! Somehow the
plants that we’re less keen on still seem to be able to thrive in these desert-like temperatures, so I’ve still been out pulling Himalayan Balsam before it goes to seed and snipping off those pesky long brambles that threaten to jump out and scratch you as you navigate the towpath. The trees along the towpath have also been growing heavy with leaf and even fruit (I’m thinking of the Walnut Trees that give Walnut Tree Close its name) so these need some careful pruning to keep everywhere clear and open.

One of my biggest tasks recently has been to help organise our annual steam boating event Puffing-A-Wey, which sees the Steam Boat Association of Great Britain visiting Dapdune Wharf to show off their stunning array of craft. It was a great day, even if our visitor numbers were down slightly on previous years (presumably because people didn’t fancy climbing on board next to a hot boiler when it was already 30 o C outside). The day was finished off with a treat for our volunteers as we had arranged a boat ride and BBQ for them as a way of saying thank you for all their help throughout the year.

We did have a brief respite from the heatwave in the form of a weekend of wet and windy
weather. The rain did mean we had to tweak the weirs slightly to maintain correct levels,
although it doesn’t seem to have made much of a difference long term as the weirs are all
closed back in again. The wind however did seem to have more of an impact with a number of trees and branches being brought down by the strong gusts which get caught by the leaves at this time of year. Luckily I got a (mechanical) helping hand with some of the trees on my length in the form of our floating excavator “Hoe”. Operated by our maintenance team, they were due to come and give me a hand removing a very large rotten log from the river that had soaked up so much water that it was extremely heavy. However due to their good timing they not only removed the original log but also two fallen Alder trees and a pile of cuttings I’d left piled on the towpath. With very limited access on the property for vehicles or machinery I’m used to doing everything by hand, so this was a welcome treat that saved a lot of time and effort.

If you also take into account the litter picking, hedge cutting, and strimming fishing swims
and moorings it’s been a busy month, even without the mowing!

Richard
07786 703 832
richard.cant@nationaltrust.org.uk
www.facebook.com/RiverWey

The early May Bank holiday was the hottest since records began, which is the polar opposite of the month before when Easter weekend was a complete washout!  Of course the sunshine has drawn people to the river, whether it be boating, cycling or just walking, which is fantastic as it makes all the hard work my volunteers and I do seem worthwhile.  For instance the build up to a busy bank holiday means mowing locksides, strimming visitor moorings and finishing off the last of the lock painting to make sure the river looks its best.  Alas the finishing of the lock painting wasn’t to be this year, as one hour before we finished painting Bowers Lock the heavens opened without warning delivering ten minutes of torrential rain before the sunshine returned.  This meant that the white lines around the locks had run down the chamber walls, the gloss had rain drop craters all over and I actually mopped a layer of water and the white undercoat off the balance beams with a cloth! It just goes to show that no matter how well organised I am, working outdoors we have to work with the weather and the seasons, not against them.
 
It’s not just been me and my weekly volunteers who have been painting this month but also volunteers from Surrey Care Trust who base themselves on their work boat “Swingbridge2” and go up and down the navigation carrying out work for us and Guildford Borough Council.  For most of May they have been moored up at Stoke Lock, from there they motored down to Bowers Lock each day and kindly painted the two bridges at the lock.  They also did a fantastic job of filling in a very large area of erosion on the towpath just downstream of Stoke Lock.  This was accomplished by sustainably harvesting coppice material locally and then creating a series of steps to restore the banks original profile.
 
Other jobs this month have included filling in pot holes in the track at Stoke Lock and fitting new rubber matting in my work boat.  Of course not everything I do is physical; the other side of my role is to try and meet with you the public, in a bid to engage and enthuse about the work we do.  On the late May Bank holiday the other Lengthsmen and I spent the day at Thames Lock chatting with the public. The gorgeous sunshine meant that everyone was in a good mood and were more than willing to stop and hear about what it takes to run and maintain a unique National Trust property like this.  We also had our own lock model there which meant that passing children could learn how a lock works.  Watch out for our other pop up events along the navigations this summer, where we will have themed stalls setup at different places.
 
 
Richard                         
07786 703 832
richard.cant@nationaltrust.org.uk
www.facebook.com/RiverWey
​