Everything about The Shrewsbury Canal totally explained
The
Shrewsbury Canal (or
Shrewsbury and Newport Canal) was a
canal in
Shropshire,
England. Dating back to
1793, it was officially abandoned in
1944; many sections have disappeared, though some
bridges and other structures can still be found.
History
From 1768 several small canals were built in the area of what is now
Telford. These canals carried
tub boats. By 1792 this had been expanded to a network extending to
Coalbrookdale and
Coalport. In 1793 an Act of Parliament was authorised to create a canal to link the town of
Shrewsbury with the east Shropshire canal network serving
coal mines and
ironworks around
Oakengates,
Ketley,
Donnington Wood and
Trench, nowadays part of the new town of Telford. This canal became the Shrewsbury Canal.
Josiah Clowes was appointed Chief Engineer, but died in
1795 part way through construction. He was succeeded by
Thomas Telford, then just establishing himself as Shropshire's County Surveyor and already engaged on the
Ellesmere Canal slightly further north. The Ellesmere Canal was originally intended to connect
Chester with
Shrewsbury, but never reached the latter - it became the modern
Llangollen Canal and
Montgomery Canal.
One of Telford's first tasks was to rebuild a stone
aqueduct over the
River Tern at
Longdon-on-Tern which had been swept away by floods in February 1795. Telford's stone-mason instincts initially led him to consider replacing the original structure with another stone-built aqueduct, but the heavy involvement of iron-masters in the Shrewsbury Canal Company, notably
William Reynolds, led him to reconsider. Instead, it was rebuilt using a 62-yard
cast iron trough cast in sections at Reynolds' Ketley ironworks and bolted together in 1796. The aqueduct was the world's first large-scale iron navigable aqueduct, though it was narrowly predated by a much smaller 44ft-long structure on the
Derby Canal built by
Benjamin Outram. The aqueduct still stands today, though it's isolated in the middle of a field. This successful use of an iron trough to contain the water of a navigable aqueduct casts the Tern aqueduct in the role of Telford's prototype for the much longer
Pontcysyllte Aqueduct on the Llangollen Canal, where he mounted the iron trough on high masonry arches.
The Shrewsbury Canal was finally finished in 1797, being 17 miles (27 km) long, with 11 locks. At Trench an
inclined plane was built, which was 223 yards long and raised boats 75 feet up to the
Wombridge Canal. From the Wombridge Canal, boats could travel via the
Shropshire Canal southwards to the
River Severn at
Coalport.
The canal was originally built as a narrow canal intended for horse-drawn trains of 20ft-long tub boats no wider than 6ft 4inches. However, in preparation for the
Newport branch of
Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal to Wappenshall the section from there to Shrewsbury was surveyed in 1831 and subsequently widened to take standard narrow boats. This heralded the canal's most profitable period, though it was short-lived.
The Shrewsbury Canal operated isolated from the rest of the national network until 1835, when the Newport Branch was built. This linked the Birmingham & Liverpool Junction Canal at
Norbury Junction with the Shrewsbury Canal at
Wappenshall Junction.
In 1844 the Humber Arm was constructed. This short branch ran to Lubstree Wharf, which was owned by the Duke of Sutherland. Tramways ran from the end of the branch to various works owned by the Lilleshall Company, who shipped cargoes of pig iron, coal and limestone for use as a flux in the production of iron. The wharf was leased to the Shropshire Union Railways & Canal Co. in 1870, by the third Duke of Sutherland, and closed in 1922 by the fifth Duke.
Decline
In
1846, the
Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company bought most of the east Shropshire canal network, including the Shrewsbury Canal. The
London and North Western Railway Company (LNWR) took control shortly afterwards and allowed the canal to decline. In
1922, the
London, Midland and Scottish Railway took over the canal and the basin in Shrewsbury was closed. The LMS finally abandoned the canal network in
1944.
Restoration
Of all the canals that formed part of the
Shropshire Union Canal system, the Shrewsbury Canal is the only one which has no part open or under restoration. The
Shrewsbury & Newport Canals Trust was created in 2000 to preserve and restore the waterway.
In 2008 the trust agreed a deal in principle to purchase warehouses at Wappenshall Junction, with a view to converting them into a canal museum, heritage centre, cafe and headquarters.
Today the short stretch of canal to the first lock is used as moorings, while the lock itself is used as a dry-dock.
Route
Wappenshall before meandering north-west over the
River Tern at
Longdon-on-Tern, through
Withington, and
Uffington towards Shrewsbury where it terminated at a basin adjacent to the Buttermarket building. This canal incorporated the 970 yard
Berwick Tunnel. At the time this was the longest canal tunnel in Britain, and the first equipped with a
towpath through it.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Shrewsbury Canal'.
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