Portsmouth and Arundel Canal opens

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The Portsmouth and Arundel Canal opened in 1822, passing through the Fishbourne area as part of an inland waterway route between Portsmouth and London. The canal was intended to avoid the dangerous open-sea passage around Selsey Bill. The section near Fishbourne ran from Chichester to the harbour at Birdham. The enterprise was commercially unsuccessful and could not compete with the railway when it arrived two decades later. The canal closed in stages during the 1850s.