History of the River Arun

The Romans called it Alta Ripa, the Normans used the name Haute Rey. Much later the Arun became know as the Tarrant and the High Stream of Arundell Rape, at which time Sussex was sub-divided into six Rapes, each with its own castle, river and forest.

Like many of the Sussex rivers, the history of the upper reaches of the Arun (and Rother) is tied up with the iron industry using local deposits of iron ore. Hammer ponds such as Hawkins Pond, Birchenbridge Pond and Carters Lodge Pond in the Slougham and Mannings Heath areas, show how important the streams were to the Wealden iron industry.

The ironstone of the Weald was first exploited in the Iron Age and then by the Romans and sporadically through the Middle Ages. The headwaters of the Sussex and East Kent rivers were used for cooling the molten masses or iron which were extracted by heating within a charcoal mound. By Tudor times, blast furnaces had been introduced which revolutionised the industry. The draught from bellows created higher temperatures allowing cast iron to be produced and wrought. The steep streams of the Weald were ideal for damming to give a head of water to drive water wheels for bellows and forging hammers.

In terms of the course of the River, until the latter part of the 15th century the Arun shared a common outlet to the sea at Pen-House with the River Adur. However, longshore drift pushed the the Arun back to Littlehampton until the River broke here between 1500 and 1530. In the last half of the 16th century, Henry Fitzalan had the channel cleared and widened to enhance Arundel's propsects as a commercial port. As a result, ship building became an important local industry and imports included playing cards, glass, wrought iron, millstones, Purbeck paving stones, tombstones and French and Spanish wine. A thriving oyster fishery based on shellfish beds in the English Channel also brought great prosperity.

For centuries the River Arun's major use was as an important trading route in West Sussex. Arundel is mentioned as a port at the time of the Domesday Book, and at about 1077, shortly after the Norman Conquest, the Arun was used to carry Caen stone from Normandy to reface the keep of Arundel Castle.

Arundel grew in importance as the market town of the Arun Valley and in the late 16th century a huge development operation began to upgrade the River with active encouragement of the Earls of Arundel, wharves were set up, shipyards opened, the River dredged and even the course of the Arun was changed so that it flowed to the edge of the town.

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the Arun was made navigable from Littlehampton as far as its junction with the Rother at a place called 'Turning Stream'. It was also cleared to carry timber by barge from nearby Pallingham to Arundel for shipment.

As trade grew in the late 18th century navigation on the Arun was further extended so that by 1790 you could travel on the Arun to within about 35 kilometres of the River Way, near Guildford.

The coming of the railways saw the decline of the canals and the fixing of the formerly movable railway bridge at Ford stopped the general use of sailing barges. Hence the route was formally abandoned in 1871.