Shropshire Union Canal
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The Shropshire Union Canal is a navigable canal in England; the Llangollen and Montgomery canals, sometimes counted as branches of the SU, lie mostly in Wales.
The canal lies in Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire and Cheshire in the north-west midlands of England, and in north Wales. It allows boaters in the English Midlands and north-west to travel to north Wales, and also connects with the River Mersey (and Manchester Ship Canal).
The "SU main line" runs south east from Ellesmere Port on the River Mersey to the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal at Autherley Junction in Wolverhampton. Other links are to the Llangollen Canal (at Hurleston junction), the SU Middlewich Branch (at Barbridge junction) and the River Dee (in Chester). With two connections to the Trent and Mersey (via the SU Middlewich Branch and the Staffs and Worcestershire canal) the SU is part of an important circular and rural holiday route called the Four Counties Ring.
The SU main line has been described as the last trunk canal route to be built in England. It was not completed until 1835 and was the last major civil engineering accomplishment of Thomas Telford.
As the name indicates, the "canal" is actually the name of a network formed by joining several canal (and railway) companies.
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[edit] Route
[edit] Wirral Line
From Ellesmere Port on the River Mersey, the SU crosses the Wirral peninsula to Chester. This stretch was built in 1805, as the Wirral Line of the Ellesmere Canal. It connected Chester (and the River Dee) to the River Mersey at Ellesmere Port. The Ellesmere Canal was to have continued west and south to Wrexham, and Trevor and them on to the River Severn at Shrewsbury. The line from Chester to Trevor was never built, and the section beyond Trevor was not completed in its planned form. However, some stretches of the Ellesmere were built: these now form the modern Llangollen Canal and Montgomery Canal both of which are (or were until very recently) considered branches of the Shropshire Union canal.
[edit] Chester Canal
In Chester, from the top of the arm leading down to the Dee, the SU follows the old Chester Canal built in 1772 to connect Chester and Nantwich. The canal passes alongside the walls of Chester Castle in a deep, vertical red sandstone cutting. After Chester, there are only a few locks as the canal crosses the nearly flat Chester Plain, passes Beeston Castle, and the junctions at Barbridge and Hurleston and arrives at Nantwich basin, the original terminus of the Chester Canal).
The two junctions on this stretch are very important links in the English/Welsh connected network.
- At Barbridge, the "Middlewich Branch" of the SU goes NE to Middlewich on the Trent and Mersey Canal. This was the original planned main line of the Chester Canal, but was in fact built much later than the Nantwich stretch.
- At Hurleston, the old Ellesmere canal from Llangollen and Montgomery made a connection from Frankton junction eastwards to with the old Chester Canal after it was realised that the planned main line from Trevor to Chester along the Dee was never going to be built. This canal eventually merged with the Chester Canal and became the Llangollen Branch of the Shropshire Union. These waters are now known as the Llangollen Canal and (south from Frankton Junction, and still being restored) the Montgomery Canal.
[edit] Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal
The odd angle between Nantwich basin and the next stretch of the SU shows that the journey southwards is on a newer (and narrow) canal originally constructed as the narrow Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal to connect Nantwich, at the end of the Chester Canal, to the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal at Autherley Junction, near Wolverhampton. An important lost link can be seen at Norbury Junction, where a branch (1841) ran south-west through Newport to connect with the Shrewsbury Canal at Wappenshall.
After Nantwich basin, a long sweeping embankment incorporating an aqueduct carries the canal across the main A534 Nantwich-Chester road. The canal then has to climb out of the Cheshire Plain by means of a dozen locks at Audlem. The canal passes near Market Drayton. Further south there are substantial lengths of embankment through the Staffordshire village of Knighton. There is an aqueduct south of Norbury Junction and deep cuttings at Loynton near Woodseaves, and Grub Street, south of High Offley. There is a 690 yard (631 m) tunnel near Gnosall. The SU terminates at Autherley junction on the Staffs and Worcester Canal, after a stop lock built to prevent the loss of water where the new rival connected to the pre-existing Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal.
[edit] Onward Links
The link with the Staffs and Worcester provides a choice of onward journeys
- Northwards, the S&W meets the Trent and Mersey at Great Haywood junction - allowing journeys east to the Leicseter Branch of the Grand Union Canal (or the Trent) or north to the Potteries, Manchester, and the Pennines.
- Southwards, Aldersley Junction is only a mile away, connecting to the Birmingham Canal Navigations (the maze of canals centered on Wolverhampton and Birmingham) and onwards to the Grand Union Canal main line and London.
- Beyond Aldersley, the S&W is a very popular holiday route down to the River Severn at Stourport.
[edit] Formation of the "Shropshire Union" company
In 1846, the Shrewsbury Canal and other canals in the east Shropshire network (linking modern-day Telford with the River Severn to the south at Coalport) were acquired by the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company. Then (in 1847), the latter was taken over by the London and North Western Railway Company, which allowed the Shrewsbury Canal and the branch from Norbury Junction to decline.
Near Brewood the canal is fed from Belvide Reservoir, and passes by aqueduct over the A5 road.
[edit] Further reading
- Gordon Emery - The Old Chester Canal (2005) ISBN 1-872265-88-X
