Bibliography - Paul Ashley Laurence Vine
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London's Lost Route to the Sea, by P. A. L. Vine, published 1965 (London: David & Charles, Dawlish & Macdonald) accessible at: East Sussex Libraries

It gives great pleasure to read a book concerning Sussex which has clearly involved much research by the Author both in written records and on the ground and which carries assurance of its accuracy. Every inhabitant of Sussex (especially in the Rape of Arundel) should possess a copy. As may be surmised the book deals at length and mainly with finance and local conditions. Details of the original and later shareholders of the various companies (surprisingly few in number) and of the traffic carried and the opposition and support of landowners and traders, is fully and clearly set out and there are useful appendices of traffic returns, barge-owners and officials. So far as Sussex is concerned and apart from abortive schemes the Author deals with the Wey and Arun canal, the Arun Navigation and the Portsmouth and Arundel canal.

The Royal Military Canal: an historical account of the waterway and military road from Shorncliffe in Kent to Cliff End in Sussex, by P. A. L. Vine, published 1972 (239 pp., Newton Abbot: David & Charles, ISBN-10: 0715355104 & ISBN-13: 9780715355107) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

The Royal Military Canal is the story of the building and operation of this canal during the century of its active life. It was designed to be the third line of defence against possible invasion by Napoleon and is one of only two canals in Britain to be built by the state, (the Royal Staff Corps). Construction began in October 1804 and the work was completed in April 1809. It was built in two sections and runs for 28 miles between Seabrook near Folkestone and Cliff End near Hastings. The Royal Military Canal covers not only the canal's construction but also much to interest the military historian. The early days of the Royal Staff Corps are covered as are the transport services of the Royal Wagon Train. Although the canal never saw military action there was an attempt to use it to control smuggling from Romney Marsh, however, this proved unsuccessful due in no small part to corrupt guards. The canal was finally abandoned in 1877 and is now an important environmental site.

West Sussex Waterways, by P. A. L. Vine, published 9 November 1985 (96 pp., Midhurst: Middleton Press, ISBN-10: 090652024X & ISBN-13: 9780906520246) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 12550][Lib 9458] & East Sussex Libraries

London's Lost Route to Midhurst: The Earl of Egremont's Navigation and the Building of the Petworth Canal, by P. A. L. Vine, published 29 June 1995 (160 pp., Stroud: Sutton Publishing Ltd., ISBN-10: 0750909684 & ISBN-13: 9780750909686) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries

London's Lost Route to the Sea, by P. A. L. Vine, published 1 July 1996 (5th revised edition, 280 pp., Midhurst: Middleton Press, ISBN-10: 1873793782 & ISBN-13: 9781873793787) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14513][Lib 14514] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

The development of the Arun navigation as early as 1545 and the Wey a hundred years later, made a canal link between the London and Portsmouth an attractive commercial concept. Sponsored by the 3rd Earl of Egremont and opened in 1816, the canal's trade fell below expectations. The Portsmouth and Arun Canal, opened in 1823, did increase trade but the need for transhipment and cargoes restricted to 30 tons meant it was easier and more economical to use Channel coasters to London. Like the Basingstoke, trade relied on local developments and the Wey & Arun enjoyed a period of prosperity in the 1830s but, as with the Basingstoke, it suffered water shortages on the summit pound and competition from better roads and then railways so that it finally closed in 1871. This book is a full length detailed study, written with the interest of the general reader in mind, but fully documented for the historian. The Appendices are of special note. The book is profusely illustrated with 135 plates and line drawings, of which 90 are new to this edition, and 16 maps.

The Arun Navigation, by P. A. L. Vine, published 1 October 2000 (128 pp., NPI Media Group, ISBN-10: 0752421034 & ISBN-13: 9780752421032) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14655] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

Around Pulborough, by P. A. L. Vine, published 30 April 2002 (128 pp., The History Press, ISBN-10: 0752426117 & ISBN-13: 9780752426112) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14736] & West Sussex Libraries

Wey and Arun Junction Canal, by P. A. L. Vine, published 1 April 2007 (128 pp., Tempus Publishing Ltd., ISBN-10: 0752442708 & ISBN-13: 9780752442709) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries

Largely as a result of substantial investment by the 3rd Earl of Egremont, a keen patron of the arts and perhaps the richest man in Britain at the time, the Wey & Arun Junction Canal opened in 1816. To contemporary commentators, it seemed set for success as part of a new navigable route from London to Portsmouth and the Sussex coast. Sadly, though the countryside remained 'beautiful and picturesque', the canal, after fifty-five years of modest trading, fell victim to competition from railways and problems with its own water supply. The order for closure came in 1871, and for the best part of a century the Wey & Arun lay abandoned. The derelict state of the canal as it lingered forgotten and crumbling, as well as the attempts being made since 1970 to reinstate it, are vividly evoked here by illustrations from the author's collection and those of the Wey & Arun Canal Trust.

The Arun Navigation, by P. A. L. Vine, published 1 November 2007 (revised edition, 128 pp., The History Press, ISBN-10: 0752443232 & ISBN-13: 9780752443232) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries

The Arun is the longest river in Sussex, running from St Leonards Forest to the English Channel and covering some thirty-seven miles. For many centuries the waterway assumed an important role as one of the main arteries of commerce in Sussex. In use since the Norman Conquest, it was improved by landowners in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with improvements at Palingham and canals built near Newbridge and Pulborough. In this section can be found the only tunnel in Britain to link two parts of a river navigation. The construction of the Wey and Arun Junction Canal in 1816 eventually linked the Arun with the Thames. Today the river is a haven for pleasure boaters. This updated and revised edition covers changes to the navigation over recent years and a selection of new illustrations.

The Royal Military Canal: An Historical Account of the Waterway and Military Road from Shorncliffe in Kent to Cliff End in Sussex, by P. A. L. Vine, published 8 April 2010 (192 pp., Stroud: Amberley Publishing, ISBN-10: 1848684509 & ISBN-13: 9781848684508) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries

The Royal Military Canal was one of only two waterways built in Great Britain by the Government. Together with the Martello towers it was designed as a defence against the threatened invasion of the Kent Coast by the Emperor Napoleon in 1805. The sixty-foot -wide waterway stretched 28 miles from beneath the cliff s at Sandgate and around Romney Marsh to Rye in Sussex. Here the Brede Navigation continued to Winchelsea and thence across Pett Level to Cliff End. After Nelson's victory at Trafalgar, the canal and military road was used for transporting troops by barge between Rye and Shorncliffe Camp. It was also opened up to commercial traffic. Between 1810 and 1867 the cost of maintenance was partially offset by the receipt of barge and waggon tolls which together with rents exceeded on average GBP1,200 a year. The book also deals with the proposed Weald of Kent Canal and gives a detailed account of the work of the Royal Staff Corps, who built the canal and of the transport services provided by the Royal Waggon Train. In 1877 the War Department leased part of the canal to the Lords of Romney Marsh and to the Corporation of the Hythe. In 1909 the last barge passed through Iden Lock. Nowadays the Environment Agency and Hythe Corporation have improved the canal's infrastructure by providing historic information about the waterway and its locality and by ensuring the good maintenance of facilities for anglers, pleasure boaters and walkers. This edition, first published 38 years ago, has been carefully revised. As well as new illustrations, included for the first time are plans showing the former location of the 15 station houses built to accommodate the canal's sentries. Military historians, canal enthusiasts and local residents will find the book of considerable interest.

The Arun Navigation and Hardham Canal Tunnel, by P. A. L. Vine, published 2011 in Sussex Industrial History (issue no. 41, article, pp.2-14, ISSN: 0263-5151) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16389/41] & The Keep [LIB/506538]   Download PDF

The River Arun has for centuries been the most important of the Sussex waterways. There seems little doubt that the river was partly navigable at the time of the Norman Conquest. While authorities are at variance upon whether Arundel boasted any river traffic before this date, the town is referred to as a port in Domesday Book time ('portum aquae et consuetudinem navium'). It is reported by various chroniclers that in about 1070, Roger de Montgomery, a Norman nobleman, created Earl of Arundel by William I for his help at Hastings, imported small square blocks of Caen stone from Normandy for refacing the castle keep. Hadrian Allcroft presents a strong case for accepting Ford as the then port of Arundel, since the tide probably flowed no higher than this point before 1300 and the crossing-point would have hindered the passage of boats which were heavily laden. Furthermore, the river would at that time have flowed an inconvenient half a mile east of where Arundel Bridge now stands.