Wey and Arun Canal

The London to Portsmouth canal was a concept for the construction of a secure inland canal route from the British capital of London to the headquarters of the Royal Navy at Portsmouth. It would have allowed craft to move between the two without having to venture into the English Channel and possibly encounter enemy ships. There is no naturally navigable route between the two cities, which resulted in several schemes being suggested. The first, which was put before Parliament in 1641, was for a canal to link the River Wey and the River Arun, whose sources were only 2 miles (3.2 km) apart, but the bill was defeated. Improvements to the River Wey were authorised in 1651, and navigation was extended to Godalming in 1763. During the American War of Independence, goods was conveyed to Godalming by water, and overland from there to Portsmouth, but this ceased when the war ended. Several other routes for a canal were proposed around the end of the 18th century, as was a railway, but the first to be authorised was the Wey and Arun Junction Canal, which would link the River Wey to the Arun Navigation. It was authorised in 1813 and completed in 1816. This provided a link to the south coast, but the link to Portsmouth was completed by the building of the Portsmouth and Arundel Canal linking the Arun to a ship canal near Chichester. This was authorised in 1817, and included provision for dredging a channel around Thorney and Hayling Islands and construction of another ship canal across Portsea Island. The work was finished in 1823. It was not a success, as there were problems with salt water leaking into farmland and contaminating the water supply for Portsmouth, while it was easier and cheaper to ship goods around the coast once the war with France had ended. Between 1823 and 1825, three grand schemes for an overland ship canal were proposed, but came to nothing, despite brief interest from the Admiralty. The Portsea Canal was abandoned in 1830, having been hardly used. Trade on the Portsmouth and Arundel and the Wey and Arun canals was much lower than anticipated, and they were abandoned in 1841 and 1871, but the Chichester Canal continued to operate until 1892, when it was given to Chichester Corporation. Parts of it have been restored since 1984, and the Wey and Arun Canal Trust has also succeeded in restoring significant sections of that canal since it was formed in 1970.

Alfold Football Club is a football club based in Alfold, Surrey, England. They are currently members of the Southern Combination Division One and play at the Recreation Ground.

Dunsfold Aerodrome (former ICAO code EGTD) is an unlicensed airfield in Surrey, England, near the village of Cranleigh. It extends across land in the villages of Dunsfold and Alfold. It was built by the Canadian Army and civilian contractors as a Class A bomber airfield for Army Co-operation Command. It was commanded by the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1942 to 1944 and was known as Royal Canadian Air Force Station Dunsfold. Under RAF control it was RAF Dunsfold. Post-war it was used by Hawker Siddeley and then its successor British Aerospace. From 2002 to 2020, it was used as the main site of the BBC show Top Gear.

Alfold is a village and civil parish in Surrey, England on the West Sussex border. Alfold is a dispersed or polyfocal village in the Green Belt, which is buffered from all other settlements. The Greensand Way runs north of the village along the Greensand Ridge and two named localities exist to the north and south of the historic village centre which features pubs, a set of stocks and a whipping post. Alfold Crossways has a country park, recreational ground and a garden centre whereas Alfold's centre has a village store and the Anglican parish church. The population was 1,059 in the 2011 UK census.

The Top Gear test track is used by the BBC automotive television programme Top Gear. It is located at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey, United Kingdom. The track was designed by Lotus Cars as a testing facility, with many of its Formula One cars tested there. It is used to test both cars and drivers seen on the programme, mainly in Power Laps and Star in a ... Car. For the 23rd series of Top Gear the track was expanded with a rallycross section for the "Star in a Rallycross Car" segment, but it was abandoned at the end of series 23. In December 2016 planning permission was granted for 1,800 homes to be built on the current site of the aerodrome. As part of the redevelopment, it was proposed that the track (and associated aerodrome infrastructure such as the runway drag strip) was to be demolished.

Fir Tree Copse is a 6-hectare (15-acre) nature reserve south-east of Dunsfold in Surrey. It is managed by the Surrey Wildlife Trust and is part of the Chiddingfold Forest Site of Special Scientific InterestThis is oak and ash woodland, with hazel coppice. Pipistrelle bats have been recorded, together with birds such as the tawny owl and willow warbler. There are many species of fungi on rotting logs and invertebrates include the nationally scarce common fan-foot moth.There is access from Dunsfold Road.

Cranleigh was a railway station on the Cranleigh Line between Guildford and Horsham. It served the village of Cranleigh, Surrey in southern England.

Rikkyo School in England (立教英国学院, Rikkyō Eikoku Gakuin) is a Japanese boarding primary and secondary school in Rudgwick, Horsham District, West Sussex. The school uses the Japanese curriculum, and is one of several Japanese schools in the UK to do so. It is a Shiritsu zaigai kyōiku shisetsu (私立在外教育施設) or an overseas branch of a Japanese private school.

Loxwood is a small village and civil parish with several outlying settlements, in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England, within the Low Weald. The Wey and Arun Canal passes to the East and South of the village. This Civil Parish is at the centre of an excellent network of bridleways and footpaths crossing the Low Weald and joining with those in adjacent Counties.

Dunsfold is a village in the borough of Waverley, Surrey, England, 8.7 miles (14.0 kilometres) south of Guildford. It lies in the Weald and reaches in the north the southern escarpment of the Greensand Ridge. It includes the Wey and Arun Canal, and just under half of Dunsfold Aerodrome, which is shared with Alfold.

Glebelands School is a county-funded and charity-supported secondary school in Cranleigh, Surrey, England. It is co-educational and takes students aged 11-16; it does not have a sixth form.

Cranleigh School is a public school (English fee-charging boarding and day school) in the village of Cranleigh, Surrey.