A Unique Relic uncovered by an Abandoned Canal.

Good folk. Welcome to the UK's only surviving Noria. (Google it). Brian and his team have done some amazing work here on the Wey and Arun Canal in restoring this Noria. You can help the team in a number of ways by visiting their website here: weyarun.org.uk/
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[@pwhitewick]

You can help the team in a number of ways by visiting their website here: weyarun.org.uk/

[@aliasdeputydog]

@Paul and Rebecca Whitewick. The Monarch at that time would have been King George the Third.

[@southerneruk]

Extremely very old idea, they think it came out of China and the Romans used the same idea to remove water out of mines

[@plebiansociety]

0:01 Do British automatic venioles not have 1 2 D on the gear selector?

[@kb-zk1yg]

Just fyi automatics have gear selection still...

[@alilonghair7792]

A fascinating project!

[@fzriow]

Fun Fact, At the 5:00 mark my company actually made the stainless steel flanges and shaft. Was a great project to work on and Brian was a great guy to work with on it. Each flange was milled from an 80kg billet of stainless steel and each one took about 10 hours to machine.

[@althejazzman]

A true Cottage Industry.

[@robertansell4538]

Brilliant 👏 just that 👏

[@PatGilliland]

Nice work - thank you!

[@annarboriter]

I am always enthused when pieces of the industrial past or restored and put back into use. I have looked at the website but it seems to not have been updated with this latest breakthrough. Do you have a sense of how much of the canal this operational noria has added to the length of the watered canal? (Posted as a reply because YT rejected this comment as a new thread)

[@IvanDrago69]

Nice work.

[@pyrojunkie88]

I grew up in the house that backs on to the field you drove through after turning off the road, my dad worked on the farm where lordings lock is situated, I have many memories of walking g down to the canal to see how Winston was getting on, he was always happy to talk to me about it all. I have pictures of me and our kids standing in the pit next to the wheel when I took them for a walk a few years ago. My dad has a Collection of clay pipes he recovered from the bottom of the canal during the excavation in the early 90s, many many memories from down by the lock 😌

[@harveysmith100]

What a lovely place to grow up. I have walked nearly the entire length of the canal. Hopefully I can see it fully open in my lifetime.

[@randallthomas5207]

The wheel is a noria, which date back to about 1000 BCE. I once suggested building one to get water into a field to irrigate, with out moving the point of diversion upstream, and building more irrigation ditch. Got told we didn’t have time to screw around with new technology. Started looking for a new job that afternoon

[@robinjones6999]

Another fun fact for you Paul. I have to be a bit vague, but I worked for an organisation, who had 2 original share certificates for the canal. I think they were 500 pounds each. Anyway, these certificates were probably twice the size of A4 paper and made of vellum and the artwork was just incredible. Truly things of stunning beauty but of no value. I would love to know what ever happened to them. Hopefully they are safely in a museum somewhere.

[@smac4749]

That went from "a few bricks on the ground" to "a fully functioning restored water wheel". Incredible! What a lot of hard work from all involved - well done.

[@TheTwistedStone]

Yes but it doesn't function ! The wheel may go round but the river is too low to draw water for it's original purpose of filling the canal.

[@samhklm]

Fascinating. Credit to all of people that took the time to understand the importance of this structure and to the folks that restored it. That stainless steel flange and axle are beautiful. And thanks to Whitewicks for bringing this type of work to light. Wonder how much technology are we throwing to the side now days that people in 200 years from now would want to understand.

[@george2113]

Before the Chinese sold stainless, the price of stainless was excessive. Now everyone makes it for that price.

[@MrDazvere]

What a wonderful piece of Georgian engineering and a wonderful piece of restoration!

[@ltipst2962]

Georgian hahaha thats it! Cheers!

[@thescarlettbandit5542]

Incredible restoration. It was so interesting listening about Mr Harwood’s early efforts. Then to see it functional thanks to the wonderful volunteers... I can feel hope for our waterways! Bravo team. 🕊

[@Zoe-c9z]

🐙🐞

[@paulinehedges5088]

Golly..that was fascinating and Brian and his colleagues are amazing. What a wonderful piece of English heritage now restored for us to enjoy 300 years after it was built. As always ...huge thanks for making the video and sharing it.

[@midnightwind8067]

So cool. In America we just tear it out and forget it all. I love the way you cherish your history. Now everyone can learn from it. Think of how much precision and care was put in. And no one had a calculator or common equipment of today. Just a shovel and an unnamed man on the end of it. They had to believe in it a great deal.

[@ltipst2962]

We've lost a lot of history here too. If Americas land mass was squeezed into that of England, I'm positive there'll be the random niche restorations and findings. I mean we dug tunnels through dinosaur bones! And today you can still see massive dinosaur footprints in the US. How cool is that? If America was as old as England it'd be nice different. What is cool is that in gravestones you can see who really designed entire villages. They all leave a mark of sorts its very cool, a lot of history. Perhaps even your ancestors.

[@babaganoush6106]

Hang on it was not cherished until recently…..it was forgotten for nearly two hundred years lol

[@Nym146]

Plenty of examples of things being preserved in the US.

[@DavePocklington]

There is a connection with your country in this. It was built in the reign of George the third. The very same king who lost the American war of independence.

[@richardmassoth8237]

Hello! This is a fascinating part of engineering history! Yet, isn't this a Georgian-era canal works? 1780s would be in the Georgian era of 1714 to 1837 or so. This canal would have been before the railroad craze that come in with the Victorian era of 1837 to 1901.

[@ktipuss]

Correct. George III reigned from 1760 to 1811, 51 years! You can see why the railways did the canals in. Trips that took two days could suddenly be done in 2 hours at 60km/h (35mph)! For the late Georgian period it must have been like landing on the moon was for us.

[@timeast6412]

I didn’t know this existed but what an amazing restoration.I take my hat off to the volunteers. A few years ago my daughter who lives in Llandaff,Wales showed me the Melingriffith water wheel on the river Taff which used the same principle to fill the Glamorgan Canal,which was in a sorry state sadly.

[@tonykyle2655]

I love seeing history restored and/or maintained. Thank you

[@SteveInskip]

A great engineering project which shows the ingenuity of engineers in the 1700’s. Well done to the guys there and we’ll done for the video.

[@TrevsTravelsByNarrowboat]

The innovations people came up with 250 years ago to help gives us the wonderful canal system we still have today is quite amazing.

[@stegra5960]

This brings to mind hydraulic ram pumps, albeit with very different physics at play. Essentially, both use a small head of liquid to raise a portion of itself to a greater height than the original head. Very interesting.

[@iplanes1]

Where I live here in Aotearoa (New Zealand) I am surrounded by pasture that is used for rearing cattle and sheep. We are at a height of almost 300 metres and the nearest water course is a stream a few miles away and about 100 meters lower. In the stream is a water ram which use the movement of the water to push a lesser amount of water up to our height. For house water we collect rain and we are never short of water but raising cattle and to a lesser extent sheep (they get much of their water from eating grass) would be impossible without the water coming up from the stream to troughs for the animals. We use the stream water for our fruit trees and vegetables. We also use it for flushing the toilets which saves the rain water for drinking and washing. The ram takes no external power and requires little maintenance.

[@alecoldroyd6213]

Your last sentence was what I was trying to work out how to say! Thanks!

[@stepheneyles2198]

I was fortunate enough to see a hydraulic ram pump which was still in its original location near the village I grew up in. My father, an engineer, explained to me how it used to work. Fascinating that someone thought of that so many years ago!

[@ManicXD]

Fascinating piece of engineering, and those diagrams definitely helped me get my head around it!

[@davie941]

omg this was great Paul and Rebecca , really well done to Brian and the team for restoring this wheel , well done and thank you guys 😊

[@a11oge]

Paul and Rebecca - what a very professional looking video, that rightly records the very inspiring and professional work carried out to restore this Noria.

[@chasbodaniels1744]

Right-o! The graphics and annotation made this so much easier to understand. The extra production work is appreciated!

[@TIMMEH19991]

The unsung heroes of our heritage restoring and caring of what could so easily be lost.

[@tomlee812]

What a great video. So interesting. How lucky are we that Brian and his co-workers have put their time and skills into this project. Fascinating.

[@kevbaker153]

To add a bit of detail that is missing The water level in the river arun is currently 0.8m lower than it was. As a result of the new weir below the lock which was put in place to help prevent flooding in the 1970s The wheel is one of three similar wheels built locally I personally haven't seen the 3rd The new weir needs restoration work to make it water tight and of the correct height this in turn would maintain the canal south to Lee Farm Lock a mile away and provide enough water to fill a restored canal to Rowner Lock to the north ( the original purpose of the wheel) The weir the leads water to the culvert under the aqueduct was repaired in 2021 with new timber boards and the fencing was replaced around the site to keep people safe as well as the restoration of the wheel we also excavated the lower half of the lock and rebuilt the lower wing walls unfortunately time did not permit further work as the winter set in and the site becomes impossible to get to after late September

[@combinedagent]

Looks like a great idea foiled by the vagaries of nature and water levels.

[@kevbaker153]

It works correctly if the river level is maintained correctly

[@pdtech4524]

What a fantastic piece of engineering and a look into the issues faced in the running of canals. We often forget canals are man made water ways and require a water source at some point to replenish the levels as water is lost through the action of locks etc

[@Sim0nTrains]

Really enjoyable video, love the engineering and the wheel from the canal, BTW George III was King back then

[@c.curmudgeon2834]

That was a very well explained video on how the water wheel worked, great visuals.

[@GuyChapman]

Fascinating! Thanks, Paul, and thanks to Brian and the Wey and Arun Canal Trust for sharing.

[@martinmarsola6477]

A great resurrection of the wheel! Thanks! Cheers mates!

[@jennyd255]

When I was at boarding school in Sussex in the 1960's my parents often used to take me for a walk along a stretch of the disused canal. It was my dream that one day I might see it back in water, hopes that were boosted when in the 1980's one of my late father's old business associates, who had been the head of a giant UK civil engineering firm, that among other things had helped to build Television Centre, threw his support behind the project. Sadly that restoration seems to be taking longer than I hoped, and at 62 already, I'm already aproaching the age where I am starting to wonder if I will actually live long enough to see it completed. So it is really great to see that progress is being made. It would be lovely to see boats on the canal once again.

[@DJ-xx8hd]

Go to Loxwood and take a boat trip on the canal. It's well worth the cost. Lovely, gentle glide through the water with plenty to see and a friendly crew to give information.

[@mquietsch6736]

In my neighbouring village (in Germany) we've got a wooden wheel with real buckets to do something similar. It's turned by the river and at the same time lifts bucketfuls of river water onto a sort of wooden gutter waterway. The buckets are simply fixed on one side of the wheel, one bucket for each paddle. I don't know what the water was used for. Maybe irrigation, maybe it provided water for the village. Every autumn the wheel is taken off (it's about 4 meters in height) and stored through the winter, and remounted in spring, when the frosts are over. There's always a little fair with the usual German things (bratwurst, beer, loud music etc) to celebrate it. The village even has the wheel in its emblem.

[@leannemaidment5224]

Wow, this is incredible! To go from "just a few bricks on the ground", to that is just amazing. Well done to the team working on that, for saving another piece of buried history.

[@heathergustafson4237]

See how smart people were. I love the idea of restoration

[@WardyLion]

I love engineering history like this, whether it worked well or not, and I applaud all involved in digging out, researching and re-building this unique(?) piece of work.

[@Deebz270]

Home territory for me. Arun-Wey Navigation. Walked all of its route as it marches accross the Weald. So good to see this fascinating use of free renwable - albeit intermittant - energy to fulfill a task. Great show Paul/Rebecca/Brian e al.

[@michelewhitewolf9856]

I lived near the Delaware river canel in Pennsylvania. It was built a bit later and ran from Canel st in Philadelphia up to connect with the Lehigh Navigation canal system that fed coal and other resources to Alentown, Bethlehem, area all the way to Philadelphia. This was one of the superhighway's that allowed the industrial revolution to take root in America. I love the ingenious ways of people worked out how to accomplish such big tasks and envied how the England and the surrounding countries have done so much to keeping there history alive.

[@mileshigh1321]

This fantastic! So many people made this happen and glad they did! Very cool to see it in operation!

[@ReubenAshwell]

Always nice to see old pieces of heritage being restored. :)

[@holly50575]

What a brilliant construction ! Thank you!!!!

[@frankparsons1629]

1780 - king George III. Reigned 1760 to 1820. Keenly interested in farming, the sciences, astronomy et al. A really all round good chap.

[@trek520rider2]

I believe his nickname was Farmer George.

[@davidsedlickas8222]

A brilliant discovery. We know the Wey and Arun canal and helped donate by using the restored section of canal. However the challenges require more money than the society can generate. I have always felt and still do their best option is to punch into the Wey Navigation and set up a toll booth entry to raise funds.

[@robertmaitland09]

it might be worth considering different weather conditions/patterns back when it was built. Brilliant piece of working industrial archeology.

[@mateofleet3390]

Very very cool Engineering for such an old peices of brick. Still can be reused today. Love the old ways

[@gjohnston281]

Very nice work ,deserves to be restored and maintained

[@timothyoo7]

Thank you Brian and everyone who have had a hand in making this project come to life. Brilliant!

[@Dmac-7558]

Preservation of all our history is very important Great work

[@shirleylynch7529]

That was brilliant. What an amazing wheel. Thank you so much for showing us this, so interesting. All those kind volunteers.

[@SteamCrane]

Thanks for another rabbit hole! Chasing norias now, amazing!

[@pwhitewick]

Let me know if you find anymore in the UK....

[@SteamCrane]

@@pwhitewick Seems like they're mostly in 3rd world, an efficient tool that requires no electricity. Simple is often best! An alternative is the Water Ram, a friend of mine ran one to pump water up 50+ feet.

[@chrismccartney8668]

Superb a real bit finding and understanding the past its warts and all. Superb work getting it working.

[@hedleythorne]

Enjoyed that, and great to see how one of these water wheels actually lifts water into the canal.

[@PRRGG1]

What a wonderful piece of engineering to have saved!

[@markwestmoreland5713]

Absolutely brilliant!! Imagine anyone trying to build anything like this these days. Millions to build, massively over budget, no where near on time, then after a couple of days, broken down!! They don't make me like they used to. Cracking piece of engineering👏

[@CarlosAlberto-ii1li]

I dont have deep interest in this but l do have respect for the man that uncovered it and made it work because had it not been for him this piece of history would have never been known.

[@mattbosley3531]

George III was king in 1780. As someone from the U.S. we tend to remember him. Although I would think the British would remember him as well.

[@arnoldsnodgrass2953]

Because? We’ve had lots and lots of Kings and Queens over the hundreds of years, why would we recall any one with their dates in particular?!

[@julianmorris9560]

Absolutely brilliant, saving our wonderful history, many thanks to all involved 😀

[@guidor.4161]

Amazing technology, archeology and engineering to replicate the original!

[@carjockey7]

As with all we all have to do our part to save the history of the places around you to do what you can however you do it God bless and thank you for listening to me

[@dilwyn1]

Great vid as always .. As an engineer myself these old masterpieces fascinate me, but as you found out, nature usually has the last say in matters !! LOL!

[@Lemma01]

Exceptional. Love it. ❤ Thank you

[@peterwalton1502]

Fantastic because without these people we would have lost most of our industrial heritage 👏👏👏

[@nyotamwuaji6484]

What a amazing piece of history that could have been lost to time and now stands proud. And functional!

[@phillunn4691]

Another really fantastic video. It was really interesting, how the waterwheel works! It takes just the right amount of water to get the wheel turning. The team of volunteers have worked so hard to restore more of our heritage back to its former glory! Brilliant video again Paul and Rebecca 👍🏼👍🏼

[@Cdr_Mansfield_Cumming]

7:56 “Georgian” is the era you were looking for. I saw this place on the BBC a year ago. The beauty is it shows our children very real and practical methods used before the days of electricity. I know schools visit and I can only imagine it fires the neurons in the budding engineers.

[@Hairnicks]

That was superb, how wonderful to see such excellent preservation.

[@martynbuzzing3327]

Love these clever people 👏 My part of the world a few years ago. Loved the canal. Thanks for sharing 👍

[@douglasboyle6544]

An absolutely unique and stunning piece to not only find but to have restored, brilliant!

[@madgardener5820]

Really enjoyed that one and what a fantastic job they've done. A couple of weeks ago the wife and went to look at the Avon navigation at Salisbury thanks to you. The weir is very impressive I never knew any of that existed, thank you.

[@georgebodley8068]

Clearly used to top up the cannal .many canals had natural streams flowing into them .my local canal that was, was fed via two ponds , one was constructed for the very purpose of a reservoir to top up the canal via a mini aquaduct .the second pond was originally a feeder for an ancient fulling mill ,the feed for the second pond was diverted into a leat which drained the pond which was turned into a Rugby field .Excellent bit of engineering you have there .Hope funding will become available to restore your canal .

[@jeno264]

What an extraordinary little project! 💖 If the second canal route wasnt there maybe the flow would have been enough to turn the wheel back when it was in use.

[@peters6601]

Thanks Paul & Rebecca for another interesting video.

[@markstott6689]

Impressive when it works that's certain. It made for a very interesting video.

[@shiralleehaggart72]

Nice to see these structures back in working order. Well done to all involved in getting this up and running again.

[@alanclarke4646]

Genius idea, and a fantastic restoration.

[@jackprier7727]

Well, this is too wonderful in every way. Thanks for the exposition-

[@UsualmikeTelevision]

Fascinating story and wonderful water wheel. Gotta love the English countryside. On a completely different note, Paul you are such a pro at talking to the camera when others are around. Well Done and great episode.

[@iancharlton678]

A glorious piece of filming you two………. A major factor in my never watching the television 🇬🇧🙂

[@MrYfrank14]

I never saw such a thing before. Every water wheel I have seen was powered by water and used as an engine to do some task . But this one has a second stream of water to feed the wheel to bring water up. Instead of the wheel powering something to move the water, it is its own engine. The device that powers the device that moves the water and the device that moves the water is the same device.

[@douglasengle2704]

It's apparently a well constructed water lift for topping off the canal. Now a days for short term water augmentation from the creek below to the canal volunteers might rent an engine driven pump on a small trailer and pull it into position with a large SUV or pickup truck. The attached hosing allows great flexibility in intake and outflow locations. In the USA people sometimes arrange for their volunteer fire department to use their pumper truck to move water with a momentary donation to support their fire department. Commonly used to fill a remote club's medium sized swimming pool from a fire pond 100 meters or more distant.

[@Trebuchet48]

I'm a retired engineer too. And this is the coolest thing I've seen all day; and I've watched a rocket launch and formula one practice! I have to admit I'm not wild about the use of modern materials and components in the restoration. But when I build medieval catapult recreations, there's lots of modern stuff, so whatever works.

[@doccops]

Fabulous, it is a wonde3rful thing that there are people willing to put their time into restoring things like this.

[@andyknott8148]

Re-visited this after watching the "Top Ten" video, and I am glad I did, fascinating.

[@goodhealthgoodtimes]

Wow! Very informative and allows us to understand as well how it went out of use.

[@dougcook7507]

I love seeing different methods people over the year and in different regions came up with to solve the same problem. I also believe when it was built, the water levels at the canal would have been different due to there only being one path of the river.

[@geofsharp658]

Amazing job by Brian and the team 👍

[@Bender24k]

Great story & great job reviving it! Thanks!

[@richardjames63]

Fascinating as always Paul and Rebecca. Next time you are in South Wales you may want to explore the Tennant Canal and Neath Canal. Where they join at Aberdulais there is also the start point of Parsons Folly, an ancient rope hauled mineral railway.

[@unclejohnbulleit2671]

Absolutely fascinating, and a wonderful tribute to our ancestors. Thanks for sharing this!

[@michaelbartle7354]

Fantastic to see a real passion in the project . Thanks for going and taking time to show us their work .

[@robertansell4538]

What invite Paul Rebecca so lucky top vlog outstanding people involved with with this don't just love good people ❤ who ever thay are in rebuilding of this weel and building 😀

[@timsully8958]

What a fantastic project, and it's thanks to people like them that we have so many wonderful projects across the country that preserve objects which may not be famous but in their way are very significant. I just love the concept and execution of the build, even if, as was pointed out, it was a little limited in its reliability 🤷‍♂️ Thanks again you guys for providing me with another 10 minute gem to kick start my day off in the best possible way 👍🍀🍻

[@stormx2827]

Super enjoyable video as ever! Thanks

[@paulfrench3586]

Thanks Paul & Rebecca for another excellent video. I've been a member of the Wey & Arun Canal Trust for more than 20 years (mainly crewing and skippering their trip boats) and never been able to visit this site, so it's been great to see the tremendous work that's been done and to see how it all works.

[@hufc999]

Another fantastic video. Really enjoyed it. Thanks.

[@AutoShenanigans]

Awesome.. what a great video. Really good guys. Love you long time x

[@Furzeparkuk]

Incredibly clever piece of kit. Great video 👍🏻

[@stevesalvage1089]

Very interesting indeed ! Great that it's saved for the future, and thanks for sharing this !

[@leorussellmoore3329]

What an awesome video! This truly is my favourite type of content from you; unique, intriguing, captivating story and awesome people. I'd be really interested to hear specifically and in detail about the journey this piece of infrastructure went through to be functional again? Perhaps a follow up?

[@pwhitewick]

Thanks Leo. We may well be back

[@miketherefurbisher8000]

Great Content guys!!. Always fascinating to watch. Thank You

[@simonablett8613]

Love it. Great work, guys.

[@RogueWraith909]

What an amazing piece of engineering history! Thankyou to all involved for restoring it!