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The Shropshire Union Canal stretches 107 km from the
English Midlands town of Wolverhampton to the River Mersey at Ellesmere.
The "Shroppie" is in fact a collection of canals built at
different dates by various companies. The first, the Chester Canal was built
from The River Dee in Chester to the Cheshire salt town of Nantwich and was
completed in 1779. |
In 1796, the Ellesmere Canal joined the Chester Canal to Ellesmere Port,
on the opposite side of the Mersey estuary to Liverpool. The port is now a
thriving Boat Museum. |
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By 1806, this canal served Ellesmere and reached as far as Llantisilio near the
Eisteddfod town of Llangollen in North Wales, passing over Thomas Telford's
magnificent Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. |
| A separate company built the Montgomery Canal from Newtown in mid-Wales to
Frankton near Ellesmere in 1821. This is a view of Frankton locks before
restoration. |
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A branch to join the Trent & Mersey Canal at Middlewich was
finished in 1833. So far, there was no direct connection to the south, then in
1835, the Birmingham and Liverpool junction Canal (B&LJC) was completed from
Autherley near Wolverhampton to Nantwich.
It was civil engineer Thomas Telford's last canal. |
The Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company took over the Ellesmere
canal and the B&LJC in 1845 and was successful throughout the mid 19th
century, particularly carrying cargo between the Midlands and the Mersey.
Today, the Shropshire Union is very popular for leisure cruising and the
Montgomery canal which became derelict in 1936 is being restored for navigation. |
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The video production Telford's Last Canal, produced in
association with the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust describes the building of the
Canal. It was I.A.Recordings third industrial archaeology project and the first
production to be released.
The images on this
page are taken from the video. |
