| Wappenshall Junction | |
|---|---|
 The junction in 1964. The route to Newport is through the bridge, the Trench Branch is to the upper right, and Shrewsbury to the left. | |
| Specifications | |
| Status | Closed |
| History | |
| Date completed | 1835 |
| Date closed | 1944 |
Wappenshall Junction (grid reference SJ662145 ) 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 Shrewsbury Canal was authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1793, and was to run from the town of Shrewsbury to the Wombridge Canal, most of which was bought by the new canal company, to secure a link to the Donnington Wood Canal and the supplies of coal which were available there. The canal was level from Shrewsbury to Eyton, a little to the west of Wappenshall, where there were two locks. To the south-east of Wappenshall, it ascended through nine locks and then up an inclined plane at Trench, to reach the Wombridge Canal which was 75 feet (23 m) above the level of the canal at that point. It was opened in February 1797, as was suitable for tub-boats, which were 6.5 feet (2.0 m) wide, and nearly all the traffic through Wappenshall was coal towards Shrewsbury, with empty boats passing in the reverse direction. [1]
The canal, which was part of the East Shropshire network, remained isolated from the rest of the British canal system. In 1825, the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal was authorised, to run from the Ellesmere and Chester Canal at Nantwich to Autherley Junction near Wolverhampton on the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. [2] Two years later, that canal company approached the Shrewsbury Canal about a possible link between Norbury and Wappenshall. However, they experienced severe engineering difficulties in building their main line, and no further action was taken until 1831, when Henry Williams, who was superintendent and engineer for the Shrewsbury Canal and also worked for the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction company, costed a project to make the Shrewsbury Canal suitable for standard 7-foot (2.1 m) narrow boats. In the event, only the two locks to the west of Wappenshall were widened, and specially-built boats were used on the Trench branch, which could negotiate the narrower locks. The new canal to Wappenshall Junction opened in 1835. [3]
The Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal became part of the Shropshire Union Canal in 1846, having amalgamated with the Ellesmere and Chester Canal the previous year. The Shropshire Union company bought up most of the East Shropshire network soon afterwards, and ran it profitably until the early twentieth century. [4] However, decline set in after the First World War, and the Trench incline was closed in 1921, followed by Shrewsbury Basin in 1922. The canal, along with Wappenshall junction, was closed in 1944 under an Act of Parliament obtained by the London Midland and Scottish Railway, who owned it by then. [5]
Today the junction still has a warehouse over part of the canal, a roving bridge, and has been the subject of work by the Shrewsbury & Newport Canals Trust.
In 2007, the canalside buildings at Wappenshall, including a trans-shipment warehouse which has been little altered since it ceased to be used in the 1930s, and retains many original features, were put up for sale. They were eventually purchased, along with a length of the canal and the Wappenshall basin, by Telford and Wrekin Council, [6] who are working with the Shrewsbury & Newport Canals Trust to allow repairs to the buildings to be undertaken, with the aim of providing a museum and heritage centre for the canal, a cafe, and offices for the Canals Trust. [7]
The link from Newport to Wappenshalll was crossed by a towpath bridge immediately before the junction. This is still in situ, and is a grade II listed structure. [8] Nearby is a three-storey dock warehouse, which straddles a section of the canal. The first floor includes trap doors, which allowed goods to be hoisted up from the canal boats into the warehouse. It is also listed, and was built by the 2nd Duke of Sutherland, rather than the canal company, as was the basin. [9] The Sutherland Estate also built a fine office for the canal toll clerk. It is a two-storey building, constructed of red bricks, with a central half-octagonal bay containing three sets of windows. [10] A small community developed around the junction, as several cottages and the Sutherland Arms public house were built close by. The building is now called Bridge House, and it was rented to John Tranier when it was first opened. [11]
On the route to Shrewsbury, the canal was crossed by a lift bridge, to the west of the junction. The Trench Branch, which heads south-east, passes under a minor road at Wappenshall Bridge, and Wappenshall Lock, the first of the nine to Trench, was just after it. [12] Although much of the basin has been filled in, there is still some water in the canal through the basin, as the Hurley Brook, which formerly ran to the south of the canal, has been diverted into it just below Britton Lock, the second on the Trench Branch, and leaves it again below Eyton Lock, the first on the route to Shrewsbury. [13]
The Ellesmere Canal was a waterway in England and Wales that was planned to carry boat traffic between the rivers Mersey and Severn. The proposal would create a link between the Port of Liverpool and the mineral industries in north east Wales and the manufacturing centres in the West Midlands. However, the canal was never completed as intended because of its rising costs and failure to generate the expected commercial traffic.
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 Shropshire Union Canal, nicknamed the "Shroppie", is a navigable canal in England. The Llangollen and Montgomery canals are the modern names of branches of the Shropshire Union (SU) system and lie partially in 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 National Waterways Museum (NWM) is in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, England, at the northern end of the Shropshire Union Canal where it meets the Manchester Ship Canal. The NWM's collections and archives focus on the Britain's navigable inland waterways, including its rivers and canals, and include canal boats, traditional clothing, painted canal decorative ware and tools. It is one of several museums and attractions operated by the Canal & River Trust, the successor to The Waterways Trust.
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.
The Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company was a Company in England, formed in 1846, which managed several canals and railways. It intended to convert a number of canals to railways, but was leased by the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) from 1847, and although they built one railway in their own right, the LNWR were keen that they did not build any more. They continued to act as a semi-autonomous body, managing the canals under their control, and were critical of the LNWR for not using the powers which the Shropshire Union Company had obtained to achieve domination of the markets in Shropshire and Cheshire by building more railways.
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 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.
Dukinfield Junction is the name of the canal junction where the Peak Forest Canal, the Ashton Canal and the Huddersfield Narrow Canal meet near Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, England. The area has been designated by Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council as a conservation area.
Frankton Junction is the name of the canal junction where the Montgomery Canal terminates and meets the Llangollen Canal at Lower Frankton, Shropshire, England.
Hurleston Junction is the name of the canal junction where the Llangollen Canal terminates and meets the Shropshire Union Canal main line at Hurleston, Cheshire, England.
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.
Barbridge Junction is the name of the canal junction located at Barbridge, Cheshire, where the Shropshire Union Canal Middlewich Branch terminates and meets the Shropshire Union Canal main line.
Berwick Tunnel is a canal tunnel located on the Shrewsbury Canal, Shropshire, England, UK.
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.
Eyton upon the Weald Moors is a civil parish in the district of Telford and Wrekin, Shropshire, England. It contains twelve listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, one is at Grade II*, the middle of the three grades, and the others are at Grade II, the lowest grade. The parish contains the village of Eyton upon the Weald Moors, and is otherwise entirely rural. The Shrewsbury Canal, now disused, was built through the parish and joined its Newport Branch at Wappenshall Junction. A number of structures associated with the canal are listed, including a roving bridge, two warehouses, a toll office, and a lock keeper's cottage. The other listed buildings are houses and cottages, a farmhouse, a barn, a church, and a country house.
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