New Haw Lock on The River Wey, New Haw, Surrey is a pretty little spot, located slap bang in the middle of a largely residential area in the heart of Surrey. (map) There is a little car park right by the lock, located to south east of it, so if you find yourself at The White Hart pub you need to be over the other side of the River Wey and on the other side of the road bridge. (streetview) If you find yourself opposite the lock keepers cottage then you will have found the parking. The entrance is on Byfleet Road (A318) (streetview) This is where the poo bin is too.
Our walk from New Haw Lock was more colourful than we had anticipated when we set off. We thought we’d see some brightly coloured narrow boats, however the real colour was provided by the legs of the M25. Most unexpected!
We parked up, wandered over to the water’s edge so we were looking across the river at the lock keeper’s cottage, and turned left so on this occasion we were walking south along the tow path but of course you can walk north towards Weybridge if you wish. The tow path 
is very green: our walk took us past the bottom of lots of private gardens, some of which had put gates into their back fences to allow quick access to the tow path…lucky things. On the other side of the river was a myriad of house boats in all sorts of sizes and colours. A young boy was having his first fishing lesson from his grandfather, watched contentedly by his parents, and there were a few walkers strolling along with their dogs. It was a lovely scene, made all the nicer when you remember that you are actually right in the thick of it. A reminder of the hub bub behind the greenery were the legs of the M25, which you pass right under. They were decorated with graffiti … and how! I hadn’t seen ‘serious’ amounts of graffiti for years but I don’t remember it being quite so accomplished. It was quite fabulous, and was all the colours of the rainbow … including metallic silver. Shiny silver graffiti…When did that happen?! The work had obviously been done with some skill and I should imagine a huge sense of pride.
After passing under the M25 the landscape either side becomes immediately green again, and very shortly you pass under a railway bridge over which the 
trains pass so quietly you barely notice them even when they are right in front of you. At this point you have a choice: to carry on along The River Wey (The Wey Navigation) towards Pyrford, or to hang a right, cross over the footbridge and set off down The Basingstoke Canal, which takes you towards Sheerwater and Woking. Then of course the only decision you have to make is how far you go before you turn back…
If you do decide to stay alongside the River Wey you will be walking along part of the E2 European Long Distance Route (ELDR), which is a 4,850 km (3,010-mile) series of long-distance footpaths that is intended to run from Galway in Ireland to France’s Mediterranean Coast and currently runs through Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, Belgium, Luxembourg and France, with an alternative midsection equally designated via the Netherlands and east coast of England. It is one of the network of European long distance paths.
Next time we are over this way we plan to walk in the opposite direction towards Weybridge as I think I have found walk that is a nice little 3 mile loop rather than a ‘there and back’, so watch this space…
