The Wey Navigation Canal was one of the first canals to be completed in 1653. It was designed to make the River Wey navigable to the River Thames and provide a merchant route from Guildford to London.
In Pyrford the canal is actually higher than the surrounding farmland and on completion of the canal local farmers complained that their land was flooding because the canal presented a dam to natural drainage. Thus the fields behind the Old House and across Pyrford Golf Club were useless for long periods of time in winter.
The solution was to drain the land under the canal and provided the old ditches are kept clean, free of weed and dredged regularly still work perfectly well today. The good o’l boys knew a thing or two!!!!
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