p* A - En v ir o n m e n t Ag e n c y Environment Agency - a better body', which means that the environment in England and Wales organisation works for the public and for present and future generations. has specific duties and powers. The Environment Agency is one of the The Agency has funding of about world's most powerful environmental £585 million, 75 per cent of which is watchdogs, regulating air, land and funded from its own charges and the water. As 'guardians of the rest from Government. environment' the Agency has legal duties to protect and improve the Nationally, around 15 million hectares environment throughout England and of land are managed by the Agency Wales and in doing so contributes along with 36,000km of rivers and towards 'sustainable development' - 5,000km of coastline, including more meeting the needs of today without than 2 million hectares of coastal harming future generations. waters. Created by the 1995 Environment Act, There are eight the Agency started work in 1996. It is regional offices officially a 'non-departmental public which are split into 26 area offices. Southern Region covers the counties of Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. ENVIRONMENT AGENCY 083092 River Arun A major West Sussex watercourse, the a Site of Special Scientific Interest River Arun flows for 84 kilometres from (SSSI) which is situated within the its source at St Leonard's Forest near South Downs Area of Outstanding Horsham and southwards through the Natural Beauty. Tidal velocities at Downs before joining the sea at Arundel Bridge are very high and Littlehampton. Much of the Arun runs makes the Arun one of the fastest through countryside and farmland flowing rivers in the country. which includes Amberley Wild Brooks, Facts at a glance Hawkins Pond, St. Leonard's Forest Length of main river 84 km Area of river system 1,405km2 (sq) Resident population 500,000 Average annual rainfall 806mm Potential licensed abstraction 270 million from river Ml per day O The River Ar un climate warmed and sea level gradually rose, this valley silted up, leaving the modern river perched on a deep bed of alluvial silt and peat. Ancient river meanders at North Stoke and Burpham were by-passed in the nineteenth century when the railway was driven south from Pulborough to Littlehampton, blazing a new path through the Arun valley. The older Swanbourne Lake north-south road, now the A29, had been forced to take a route over the From source to sea Downs, avoiding the valley floor which The River Arun rises 120 metres above was too wet and muddy for wheeled sea level in the High Weald of St traffic. Below Arundel the river is Leonard's Forest, to the east of scoured by violent tidal currents, both Horsham. The river, fed by springs in on the flood tide and the ebb, and the the Tunbridge Wells Sandstone strata, river discharges to the sea at runs westwards before turning south Littlehampton. at Bucks Green, where hard rocks give way to the Wealden Clay. From here The largest tributary of the Arun is the the Arun meanders through a broad Western Rother, which joins it at floodplain to Pallingham, the tidal Hardham, between Pallingham and limit, even though it still has nearly Pulborough. This river rises from Chalk thirty kilometres to run before meeting springs near Petersfield in Hampshire, the sea. flowing eastwards for more than thirty kilometres in the vale between the The tidal reaches are characterised by Chalk of the South Downs and the high flood banks which protect low- Lower Greensand ridge to the north. lying land. Between Houghton and The Western Rother is sustained by a Arundel the Arun runs in a deep valley number of small spring-fed streams cut through the Chalk of the South rising at the foot of the Downs, giving Downs by a torrential Ice Age river, at it a stable base flow. It also has a time when sea level was some sixty something of the flashy character of a metres lower than it is now. As the e Wealden river on account of those the landscape and a popular tourist tributaries which flow from the Lower honneypot. In recent years water levels Greensand and Weald Clay to the in the lake have declined drastically North. due to a prolonged drought and the effects of groundwater abstraction A winterbourne to the north of for public supply. The Environment Arundel was dammed in the Agency is working with the abstractors eighteenth century to form and others to restore the situation. Swanbourne Lake, which is a feature of o The River Arun History The Romans called it Alta Ripa, the Pond is still strewn with heaps of slag Normans used the name Haute Rey. and clinker. The ironstone of the Much later the Arun became known as Weald was first exploited in the Iron the Tarrant and the High Stream of Age and then by the Romans and Arundell Rape, at which time Sussex sporadically through the Middle Ages. was sub-divided into six Rapes, each The headwaters of the Sussex and East with its own castle, river and forest. Kent rivers were used for cooling the molten masses of iron which were Like many of the Sussex rivers, the extracted by heating within a charcoal history of the upper reaches of the mound. By Tudor times, blast furnaces Arun and Rother is tied up with the had been introduced which iron industry using local deposits of revolutionised the industry. The iron ore. Hammer ponds such as draught from bellows created higher Hawkins Pond, Birchenbridge Pond temperatures allowing cast iron to be and Carters Lodge Pond in the produced and wrought. The steep Slaugham and Mannings Heath areas, streams of the Weald were ideal for show how important the streams were damming to give a head of water to to the Wealden iron industry. drive water wheels for bellows and Cinderbank Copse below Hawkins forging hammers. The Arun Cap o Man's influence on the lower reaches For centuries the River Arun's major of the river is comparatively recent. use was as an important trading route Until the latter half of the 15th century in West Sussex. Arundel is mentioned the natural outlet of the river to the as a port at the time of the Domesday sea was at a place called Pen-House Book, and at about 1077, shortly after not far from Lancing Church, where the Norman Conquest, the Arun was the River Adur also entered the sea. used to carry Caen stone from Shingle drift, driven by the prevailing Normandy to reface the keep of south westerly winds and waves, Arundel Castle. restricted the entrance, diverting the River Adur progressively eastwards and Arundel grew in importance as the causing the River Arun to turn back on market town of the Arun Valley and in itself and find new outlets to the west. the late sixteenth century a huge The river broke through at Worthing, development operation began to Goring and Ferring and ultimately at upgrade the river With active Littlehampton between 1500 and encouragement of the Earls of Arundel, 1530. In the last half of the 16th wharves were set up, shipyards century, Henry Fitzalan had the opened, the river bed dredged and channel cleared and widened to even the course of the Arun was enhance Arundel's prospects as a changed so that it flowed to the edge commercial port. As a result, ship of the town. building became an important local industry and imports included playing During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, cards, glass, wrought iron, millstones, the Arun was made navigable from Purbeck paving stones, tombstones Littlehampton as far as its junction and French and Spanish wine. A with the Rother at a place called thriving oyster fishery based on Turning Stream'. It was also cleared shellfish beds in the English Channel to carry timber by barge from nearby also brought great prosperity. Pallingham to Arundel for shipment. The River Arun As trade grew in the late eighteenth and chalk from both Houghton and century navigation on the Arun was the pit at the Black Rabbit which was further extended. Two canals were used for road building and river bank built, one from Coldwaltham to maintenance. Hardham to allow waterbourne trade as far as Newbridge. The completion The coming of the railways saw the of these works in 1 790 meant you decline of the canals and the fixing of could travel on the Arun to within the formerly movable railway bridge at about 35 kilometres of the River Wey, Ford stopped the general use of sailing near Guildford. An idea to link the two barges. Hence the route was formally rivers led to the building of the Wey abandoned in 1871. and Arun Junction Canal in 181 3. The final link was completed in 1816 Littlehampton remains a small but and provided access to the London active port popular with yachtsmen markets from Surrey and Sussex. and with commercial trade mainly in However, commercial use of the river sea ballast and stone for the was largely confined to the carriage of construction industry and occasional lime from Pepper's Kilns at Houghton seasonal cargos such as grain. Bridge for building and agriculture, mpM m The River Ar un Water Quality The Environment Agency monitors the quality of water in all rivers, lakes and estuaries in England and Wales. There is a strong commitment to improve these waters and protect their ecology wherever possible.