 The north portal of the tunnel | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Location | Shrewsbury |
| Coordinates | 52°42′4.97″N2°41′22.22″W / 52.7013806°N 2.6895056°W |
| Status | Closed |
| Waterway | Shrewsbury Canal |
| Operation | |
| Opened | 1797 |
| Owner | Canal and River Trust |
| Technical | |
| Design engineer | Josiah Clowes |
| Length | 970 yards (887.0 m) |
| Width | 10 feet (3.0 m) |
| Towpath | Yes, Removed 1819 |
Berwick Tunnel is a canal tunnel located on the Shrewsbury Canal, Shropshire, England, UK.
The Shrewsbury Canal connected Shrewsbury to the Wombridge Canal, and provided a way to supply the people of Shrewsbury with coal at reasonable prices. The route between Shrewsbury and Wappenshall was relatively flat, although beyond Wappenshall, nine locks and a large inclined plane were needed to reach the Wombridge Canal. There were two more locks before Wappenshall. The valleys of the River Tern and the River Roden were crossed by aqueducts, Longdon-on-Tern Aqueduct being, in Thomas Telford's opinion, the first aqueduct made of cast iron, although Benjamin Outram's iron aqueduct on the Derby Canal actually opened a month earlier. [1] The other major obstacle to a level canal was a bluff of land near a large bend in the River Severn just to the east of Shrewsbury. A route closer to the river might have been possible and would have avoided a tunnel [2] if a large landscaped park at Attingham Hall had not been created there in 1786, to the design of Humphry Repton. [3]
Josiah Clowes was the engineer for the canal from the start of its construction until his death in 1795, and the tunnel was his design. However, William Reynolds, the iron founder responsible for the manufacture of the iron aqueduct, suggested that a towpath should be provided throughout its length. The tunnel was around 10 feet (3.0 m) wide, and the wooden towpath was fixed to bearers built into the wall. It was 3 feet (0.9 m) wide, but because the entire width of the tunnel was filled with water, including the bit below the towpath, the resistance to boats passing through the tunnel was reduced. The structure was 970 yards (890 m) long, and was the first tunnel to be constructed with a towpath. [4] Tunnels without a towpath were arduous for the crews, as the boats had to be legged through them.
The tunnel runs in a south-easterly direction away from Shrewsbury, and passes under fields and a wood. The ground above it is fairly shallow, and there is a ventilation shaft near the middle. Most of the tunnel is lined with bricks, but both portals are faced with stone, and the south-east portal carries the date 1797 on the keystone. The towpath lasted until 1819, when it was removed. [5] Because the tunnel was not straight, it was not possible to see if someone had entered the tunnel from the other end. To overcome this, a byelaw was introduced which stated that whoever reached the centre first should continue, whilst the other boat would have to turn back.
Today the canal is disused, and the tunnel remains, though the ends have been bricked up.
A towpath is a road or trail on the bank of a river, canal, or other inland waterway. The purpose of a towpath is to allow a land vehicle, beasts of burden, or a team of human pullers to tow a boat, often a barge. This mode of transport was common where sailing was impractical due to tunnels and bridges, unfavourable winds, or the narrowness of the channel.
The Stratford-upon-Avon Canal is a canal in the south Midlands of England. The canal, which was built between 1793 and 1816, runs for 25.5 miles (41.0 km) in total, and consists of two sections. The dividing line is at Kingswood Junction, which gives access to the Grand Union Canal. Following acquisition by a railway company in 1856, it gradually declined, the southern section being un-navigable by 1945, and the northern section little better.
The Dorset and Somerset Canal was a proposed canal in southwestern England. The main line was intended to link Poole, Dorset with the Kennet and Avon Canal near Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire. A branch was to go from the main line at Frome to the southern reaches of the Somerset coalfield at Nettlebridge. Construction of the branch started in 1786, using boat lifts rather than locks to cope with changes of level, but the company ran out of money and the canal was abandoned in 1803, never to be completed.
The Llangollen Canal is a navigable canal crossing the border between England and Wales. The waterway links Llangollen in Denbighshire, north Wales, with Hurleston in south Cheshire, via the town of Ellesmere, Shropshire. The name, which was coined in the 1980s, is a modern designation for parts of the historic Ellesmere Canal and the Llangollen navigable feeder, both of which became part of the Shropshire Union Canals in 1846.
The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is a navigable aqueduct that carries the Llangollen Canal across the River Dee in the Vale of Llangollen in northeast Wales.
The Chester Canal was an English canal linking the south Cheshire town of Nantwich with the River Dee at Chester. It was intended to link Chester to Middlewich, with a branch to Nantwich, but the Trent and Mersey Canal were unco-operative about a junction at Middlewich, and so the route to Nantwich was opened in 1779. There were also difficulties negotiating with the River Dee Company, and with no possibility of through traffic, the canal was uneconomic. Part of it was closed in 1787, when Beeston staircase locks collapsed, and there was no money to fund repairs. When the Ellesmere Canal was proposed in 1790, the company saw it as a ray of hope, and somehow managed to keep the struggling canal open. The Ellesmere Canal provided a link to the River Mersey at Ellesmere Port from 1797, and the fortunes of the Chester Canal began to improve.
The Montgomery Canal, known colloquially as "The Monty", is a partially restored canal in eastern Powys and northwest Shropshire. The canal runs 33 miles (53 km) from the Llangollen Canal at Frankton Junction to Newtown via Llanymynech and Welshpool and crosses the England–Wales border.
The Shrewsbury Canal was a canal in Shropshire, England. Authorised in 1793, the main line from Trench to Shrewsbury was fully open by 1797, but it remained isolated from the rest of the canal network until 1835, when the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal built the Newport Branch from Norbury Junction to a new junction with the Shrewsbury Canal at Wappenshall. After ownership passed to a series of railway companies, the canal was officially abandoned in 1944; many sections have disappeared, though some bridges and other structures can still be found. There is an active campaign to preserve the remnants of the canal and to restore the Norbury to Shrewsbury line to navigation.
Norbury Junction is a hamlet and former canal junction which lies about 1 mile (1.6 km) to the south east of Norbury, in Staffordshire, England. The junction is where the Shrewsbury Canal meets the main line of the Shropshire Union Canal. Both canals opened in 1835 but the Shrewsbury Canal closed in 1944. The main line still runs through the former junction.
Netherton Tunnel Branch Canal, in the West Midlands county, England, is part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations, (BCN). It was constructed at a 453–foot elevation, the Wednesbury or Birmingham level; it has no locks. The total length of the branch canal is 2.4 miles (3.9 km) and the canal tunnel is 9,081 feet (2,768 m) long.
The Ketley Canal was a tub boat canal that ran for about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from Oakengates to Ketley works in Shropshire, England. The canal was built about 1788 and featured the first inclined plane in Britain. The main cargo of the canal was coal and ironstone. The inclined ceased to be used in 1816, when Ketley Works was closed, but the upper canal was not finally abandoned until the 1880s. A few traces of the canal are still visible in the landscape.
The Shropshire Canal was a tub boat canal built to supply coal, ore and limestone to the industrial region of east Shropshire, England, that adjoined the River Severn at Coalbrookdale. It ran from a junction with the Donnington Wood Canal ascending the 316 yard long Wrockwardine Wood inclined plane to its summit level, it made a junction with the older Ketley Canal and at Southall Bank the Coalbrookdale (Horsehay) branch went to Brierly Hill above Coalbrookdale; the main line descended via the 600 yard long Windmill Incline and the 350 yard long Hay Inclined Plane to Coalport on the River Severn. The short section of the Shropshire Canal from the base of the Hay Inclined Plane to its junction with the River Severn is sometimes referred to as the Coalport Canal.
The Four Counties Ring is a canal ring which links the four English counties of Cheshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire and West Midlands.
The Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union Canal is located in Cheshire, in the north west of England, and runs between Middlewich, where it joins the Trent and Mersey Canal, and Barbridge Junction, where it joins the main line of the Shropshire Union Canal. It is 10 miles (16 km) long, and was planned as part of the Chester Canal, which was authorised in 1772, but the company ran out of money, and construction did not begin until 1827. The Trent and Mersey insisted that there should be no direct connection at Middlewich, and instead built the short Wardle Canal to join the two, charging large compensation tolls for traffic passing along it.
Josiah Clowes (1735–1794) was a noted English civil engineer and canal builder. His early years were spent running a canal carrying company with Hugh Henshall, and although he worked on some canal projects before 1783, that year marked his switch to being an engineer. His first major project included the Sapperton Tunnel on the Thames and Severn Canal, which despite huge engineering difficulties, gained him a reputation which enabled him to become the first great tunnelling engineer, responsible for three of the four longest canal tunnels built.
The Donnington Wood Canal was a 5.5-mile (8.9 km) private canal in East Shropshire, England, which ran from coal pits owned by Earl Gower at Donnington Wood to Pave Lane on the Wolverhampton to Newport Turnpike Road. It was completed in about 1767 and abandoned in 1904. The canal was part of a larger network of tub-boat canals, which were used for the transport of raw materials, particularly coal, limestone and ironstone, from the locations where they were mined to furnaces where the iron ore was processed. The canal was connected to the Wombridge Canal and the Shropshire Canal.
Wappenshall Junction is a British canal junction located at Wappenshall, Shropshire. It was created when the Newport Branch Canal joined the Shrewsbury Canal in 1835, and was closed along with the canal in 1944.
The Wombridge Canal was a tub-boat canal in Shropshire, England, built to carry coal and iron ore from mines in the area to the furnaces where the iron was extracted. It opened in 1788, and parts of it were taken over by the Shrewsbury Canal Company in 1792, who built an inclined plane at Trench. It lowered tub boats 75 feet (23 m), and remained in operation until 1921, becoming the last operational canal inclined plane in the country. The canal had been little used since 1919, and closed with the closure of the plane.
The Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal was a canal in England which ran from Nantwich, where it joined the Chester Canal, to Autherley, where it joined the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. Forming part of a major link between Liverpool and the industrial heartlands of the Midlands, the canal was opened in 1835, and merged with the Ellesmere and Chester Canal Company in 1845, which became the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company in the following year.
Chirk Tunnel is a canal tunnel near Chirk, Wales.
