‘Course it blew up

The search for London’s Lost Route to the Sea had finally reached the Wey and Arun Canal. 

A quick look at the National Trust sign and map orientated me to where I was - Stonebridge Wharf.

It was at this wharf that 'many a barge' was loaded with gunpowder, produced in the nearby Chilworth Gunpowder Mills.

Until the mid 19th Century when the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel perfected the use of trinitroglycerin for dynamite, gunpowder was produced in the mills, using a combination of water power from the Tillingbourne river,  sulphur and saltpetre. The charcoal was made from alder trees, which grew profusely along the River Wey.  Explosive production continued until about 1920. All explosives were transported down the River Wey and along the Thames to the arsenals to the east of London.

Looking around, I saw an old gunpowder store by the Stonebridge Wharf, supported by staddle stones, typical of this area, protecting the store from water seepage.

Later on I found out that there was a huge explosion at the Chilworth Gunpowder Mills in 1864 and in that same year a gunpowder barge blew up at Stonebridge Wharf

As the last River Wey barge master said in in his memoirs:

'The Powder Mill was at Chilworth. 'Course it blew up - can't tell you what date. But the last powder I remember coming from there... although I think they did still use it after that .. was about nineteen twenty six.' (from Captain White's River Life' edited by Nancy Larcombe).

These days it is a tranquil place to be and, looking out from the old wharf, I saw the muddy still river contrasting with the early yellow-greens of spring.

The commercial imperative of  exporting gunpowder around the world had given way to the peacefully moored canal boats around Shalford.

Hidden in trees up the Tilling Bourne valley is the site of the older Gunpowder Mills