Old River
The Old River is a wide, meandering loop of the Arun, cut off when a new channel was dug round the village of South Stoke at the time of the building of the Mid-Sussex Railway in the early 1860s. This avoided the need for swing bridges to allow trading vessels using the Arun Navigation to pass.
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' This River Arun, especially an estuary of it, called the Old River, along which there ran a secluded tow-path...made a deep impression on my mind. When my passion for rowing began to wane, I got into the habit - and this custom lasted for several years - of pacing up and down this secluded tow-path by the edge of the Old River.' |
The riverbed is now dry, save for a few swampy pools, and populated by tall reeds and small trees: what was once a tow-path now looks more like a woodland walk. The far bank of the former river is marked in the photograph by the taller trees in the background.
Bridge Hotel, Arundel
The Old Bridge Hotel, an 18th century coaching inn, stood on the south side of the bridge at the bottom of Arundel High Street.
' ...a certain old inn I used to frequent with " The Catholic," whose walls rose directly out of the water, close to the bridge into the main street of the town.' |
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The hotel came to a tragic end when the river was unintentionally diverted under it during work to widen the bridge in the 1930s. The foundations were washed away and the hotel collapsed. The establishment which replaced it was not a great success and the site is now occupied by flats.
Knucker Hole
Another watery location visited by Powys is Knucker Hole at Lyminster, well-known for its legend of the dragon. The name derives from an Anglo-Saxon word for water-monster or water-sprite (Wagnerians may recall that Alberich refers to the Rhinemaidens as 'ihr Nicker', which is the same word). JCP prefers the term 'Avanc' which he uses in Porius, his romance ('novel' seems a hopelessly inadequate description) set in Romano-British Wales. For a link to a site with the details, click here.
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