An article by Ron Martin of Sussex Industrial Archeology Society:
In the article I wrote in the SIAS Newsletter No. 139, I described the work that was carried out between 1723 and 1786 in the failed attempt to improve the access from Rye town to the sea. Although this work was a failure there was a beneficial indirect result in relation to the Brede Navigation.
The River Brede was navigable from early times as far as Sedlescombe, carrying various cargoes such as lead for Battle Abbey, iron ore, gunpowder and guns. Prior to the 18th. century the Strand Wharf in Rye was the transhipment point as the outlet of the River into Rye Bay would have been some distance south-west of the town. However, when Smeatone’s Harbour was constructed this intercepted the course of the River, which was then diverted into the channel of the new cut as the Brede Navigation to reach Rye at what is now called Brede Sluice. This is located where the road to Rye Harbour turns off the Winchelsea Road and this is referred to as a “sluice” it is in fact a lock which was erected in 1788. When the Royal Military Canal was constructed in 1804 -06, this part of the Brede Navigation was incorporated in the design.
The Rye Harbour Act of 1833 required the Commissioners of the Sewers for the Levels of Brede and Pett to maintain the Brede Sluice and the river navigable for barges up to Brede Bridge. This enabled the materials for the construction of the Waterworks in 1903 to be brought up to the wharf which was located on the north bank of the river immediately west of the bridge. Another wharf on the south side of the river, east of the bridge, served the brickyard, where there was a substantial two-storey warehouse and an alehouse. One of the barges, the Primrose, used for this trade can be seen at the back of the Shipwreck Heritage Centre in Rock-a-Nore Road, in Hastings. These barges had a single square sail, similar to a Humber keel but without a topsail. The Primrose was locally built and was carvel boarded with diagonal boards. Difficulties were experienced during winter floods when lack of headroom beneath the bridges at Winchelsea halted barge traffic. Navigation effectively ceased in 1933 when land drainage needs were given priority over barge traffic, although the Brede wharf was used until 1935 to bring fuel up to the water works, when the road between Brede village and the waterworks was opened.
(Ref. P.A.L.Vine, Kent and East Sussex Waterways.(1989) 57-61)
