Bridge On Former Rother Navigation (At Su88942135)

Heritage listing

Details WEST LAVINGTON 1899/0/10052 THE WHARF 13-NOV-07 Bridge on former Rother Navigation (at SU88942135) II DESCRIPTION: A single rounded-headed arched bridge dating to 1794 of red, light and dark grey coloured ashlar. The arch is formed of blocks with an offset course of blocks above. On the west side of the bridge, above the offset course is a date block inscribed 'I D T C / 1794', and in the corresponding position on the east side of the bridge is a stone bust, too weather-worn to determine (the subject may well be the project's patron, the third Earl of Egremont). The parapet has a coping of tooled ashlar, and there are piers at the end of each parapet each surmounted by a chamfered coping stone. HISTORY It was recognised in the C18 that an alternative means of transport was needed in Sussex as the roads were notoriously bad; timber from the Weald could take up to three years to reach the shipyards. The rivers of Sussex have long been used for transport. The River Arun's lower reaches have been used for navigation since the C11, and during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I the Arun was made navigable from Littlehampton to its junction with the River Rother. Also the traditional sinuous routes of some of the county's rivers were straightened in the C16 to make them navigable. Further improvements were made in the late C18 and early C19 by building artificial cuts with locks and canals. The canals and canalised waterways of Sussex were not comparable in size and importance with those of the Midlands and the North of England, but they were a significant part of the county's transport system for 300 years. The waterways were at their zenith in the 1830s, but the advent of the railways across West Sussex in the mid-C19 brought competition which was ultimately to sound the

From the Historic England List Entry under OGL v3.