An update by Roger Thomson.
A few years ago I posted a blog here (in the June 2021 Newsletter) on the attempts being made to restore Burndell Bridge, a bridge across the old Portsmouth and Arundel Canal, in Yapton. There were hopes to incorporate a restored bridge in the middle of a new housing estate (Emerald Gardens). The Burndell Bridge Society was established as a way to achieve these aims.
Since then a number of changes have taken place, although no restoration work on the bridge has been done. Andrew Saunders, the retired chairman of the newly formed Ford to Hunston Canal Society, has provided the following update on progress in the past four years (Elaine Cordingley is the current chairman of the Society)
“At Burndell Bridge Society, the committee came to realise that no amount of persuasion or support from outside the ownership of Burndell Bridge was likely to shift their position on restoration. The money supplied by the previous land owner for restoration was used to clear the bridge area and build concrete foundations for a block wall to close it off.
The estate management gradually refused to communicate despite one of our trustees being a resident on Emerald Gardens. So we decided to offer a merger of objectives and aims with our colleagues at The Friends of the Old Ford to Hunston Canal. And so the Ford to Hunston Canal Society was formed. This meant that the remit of the Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) we had registered was extended to the full length of the canal.
I’d seen posts describing saving canals as playing chess with sixteen opponents at once! I’d also understood from sources at The Wey and Arun Canal that a number of projects on the go means that resources can be moved from one project to another when the almost inevitable obstacles arise.
Despite assurances, Burndell Bridge has been left to become overgrown again. It’s a crying shame. We await a change in the estate management such that negotiations could re-start.
We continue with work at Merston and Tack Lee Bridges, signage along the route and anything else that comes up. The Landings is another development where the original developers, who were keen to incorporate the canal in its design have changed, so we are working on making sure the canal route is not lost as much as is possible.”
The Ford to Hunston Canal Society has a Facebook page.