Publications
The rise of the port of Newhaven, 1850-1914, by D.F. Gibbs, published 1970 (Newton Abbot: David and Charles) accessible at: East Sussex Libraries
The Upper Ouse Navigation 1790-1868, by D. F. Gibbs and J. H. Farrant, published December 1970 in Sussex Industrial History (No. 1, article, pp.22-40) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16389/1] & The Keep [LIB/506524] Download PDF
Abstract:Sussex at the end of the eighteenth century was essentially an agricultural county with no large industry. In that age of agricultural improvement, stimulated in Sussex by the demand for food from London and later by the Napoleonic Wars, any means of increasing agricultural productivity was readily seized upon. Hence, each of the rivers Arun, Adur, Ouse and Eastern Rother, running roughly parallel to each other into the heart of Sussex, was improved for navigation by local landowners. P.A.L. Vine, in his book London's Lost Route to the Sea, has written admirably about the Arun Navigation, its crucial Act of 1785 and its role along with the Portsmouth & Arundel Canal, the Wey & Arun Junction Canal and the Wey Navigation in linking London to Portsmouth by waterway. The Adur, with its mouth at Shoreham, was improved for navigation by an Act of 1807 and later extended further inland by the Baybridge Canal Act of 1825. The Western Rather, too, was canalised by an Act of 1791 and the Eastern Rother flowing out at Rye, and used along with the River Brede by the Wealden ironmasters since Tudor times, was gradually improved. The Ouse was improved under Acts of 1790 and 1791, which created two bodies; the Trustees of the Lower Ouse Navigation and the Company of Proprietors of the River Ouse Navigation, which were responsible for the river below and above Lewes respectively. Although today the small volume of water in the river does not readily suggest it, these bodies made it navigable for barges for thirty miles inland and for sea-going vessels up to Lewes, a distance of nine miles. This article reconstructs the history of the Upper Ouse Navigation Company and describes the physical remains of its works .