Whitchurch Waterway Trust is a registered charity number 701050 that exists to promote the management and restoration of the Whitchurch Arm of the Llangollen Canal. It was formed in 1988, in response to plans by Whitchurch Town Council to bring the canal back into the town, as a way of promoting tourism.
The Whitchurch Arm was first authorised by an act of Parliament [ which? ] in 1796, which also allowed the Ellesmere Canal Company to alter the route of its main line. The main line joined the Chester Canal at Hurleston Junction, and was opened throughout by 1805. [1] The canal company decided to abandon the planned arm to Whitchurch in 1800, but in 1805 was approached by a group of businessmen who wanted to build both the branch and a short extension to Castle Well, so that the terminus was nearer to the centre of the town. [2]
| Ellesmere Canal (Whitchurch Extension) Act 1810 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act to enable the Company of Proprietors of the Ellesmere Canal to extend the Whitchurch Line of the said Canal from Sherryman's Bridge to Castle Well, in the Town of Whitchurch, in the County of Salop; and for amending the several Acts for making the said Canal. |
| Citation | 50 Geo. 3. c. xxiv |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 6 April 1810 |
| Other legislation | |
| Repealed by | Ellesmere and Chester Canal Act 1827 |
Status: Repealed | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
The canal company decided that it did not have the powers to delegate construction of the arm to the consortium, and so completed the construction of the original route using money borrowed from the businessmen. It was opened on 6 July 1808. The act of Parliament needed to authorise the extension was not applied for until 1809. [3] It was passed as the Ellesmere Canal (Whitchurch Extension) Act 1810 (50 Geo. 3. c. xxiv) and the extra quarter mile (0.4 km) of canal was opened in 1811, featuring a narrow triangular basin at its terminus, rather than the rectangular one shown on the plans. [4]
By 1939 all traffic on the Llangollen Arm of the Shropshire Union Canal from Hurleston to Llangollen had ceased, and both the Llangollen Arm and the Whitchurch Arm were formally closed to navigation under the London Midland and Scottish Railway Act 1944 (8 & 9 Geo. 6. c. i). The Whitchurch branch was not reopened when the adjacent section of canal, now re-branded as the Llangollen Canal, was reopened in the 1950s.
In the early 1980s, Whitchurch Town Council began to consider options for bringing the canal back into the town, as a way of promoting tourism. In 1983, they funded a feasibility study to look at the costs, benefits and potential problems of restoring the infilled arm, which was carried out by Liverpool Polytechnic and the Civil Engineering Department of Aston University. [5] After a public meeting was held to gauge support for the proposals, the district council protected the route for the canal in its local plan.
A group of enthusiasts formed the Whitchurch Arm Trust in mid-1986. The group had the backing of the town council, and had the reopening of the arm as its primary aim. As the goals became clearer, the council suggested the formation of a charitable trust, to be called the Whitchurch Waterway Trust, [6] and this was incorporated on 26 July 1988. The trust would initially be responsible for the reopening of 0.75 miles (1.21 km) of the branch. Beyond that, much of the route had been redeveloped in the 1950s, and a new route would be required to reach the town centre. [6]
The trust managed to secure grants to fund the restoration of the first section of the arm from its junction with the Llangollen Canal to the bridge at Chemistry, and this was completed in October 1993, [7] providing overnight and long stay moorings. The trust is responsible for the management of the arm. [8] The trust is registered charity number 701050.
The trust then turned their attention to raising funds to buy the land needed to restore the canal to the town centre. [7] In 1997, the hopes of many working within the canal restoration movement were raised by the announcement that the Millennium Commission would be making significant grants to enable projects to be completed. The trust made applications to both the Millennium Commission and to the Rural Challenge Fund, but both were rejected, and so phase two of the project was postponed. [9]
In February 2012, Whitchurch Waterway Trust unveiled plans to extend the canal under Chemistry Bridge and create a new basin with moorings on part of the country park, which would enable canal boats to moor closer to the town of Whitchurch. The estimated cost of the extension and new basin was revised in January 2014 to £650,000 which includes a generous contingency to allow for possible discovery of contamination of soil in the excavation – although a number of sample bore-holes did not realise such fears. [10] [11]
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The Chesterfield Canal is a narrow canal in the East Midlands of England and it is known locally as 'Cuckoo Dyke'. It was one of the last of the canals designed by James Brindley, who died while it was being constructed. It was opened in 1777 and ran for 46 miles (74 km) from the River Trent at West Stockwith, Nottinghamshire to Chesterfield, Derbyshire, passing through the Norwood Tunnel at Kiveton Park, at the time one of the longest tunnels on the British canal system. The canal was built to export coal, limestone, and lead from Derbyshire, iron from Chesterfield, and corn, deals, timber, groceries and general merchandise into Derbyshire. The stone for the Palace of Westminster was quarried in North Anston, Rotherham, and transported via the canal.
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Caldon Canal is a branch of the Trent and Mersey Canal which opened in 1779. It runs 18 miles (29 km) from Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent, to Froghall, Staffordshire. The canal has 17 locks and the 76-yard (69 m) Froghall Tunnel.
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Dudley Tunnel is a canal tunnel on the Dudley Canal Line No 1, England. At about 3,172 yards (2,900.5 m) long, it is now the second longest canal tunnel on the UK canal network today.. However, since the Dudley Tunnel is not continuous this status is sometimes questioned:.
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.
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 Dudley Canal is a canal passing through Dudley in the West Midlands of England. The canal is part of the English and Welsh network of connected navigable inland waterways and forms part of the popular Stourport Ring narrowboat cruising route.
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Montgomery Waterway Restoration Trust is a British registered charity, number 510448, which exists to promote the restoration of the Montgomery Canal.
The Shrewsbury & Newport Canals Trust is a waterway society and a registered charity which exists to promote the restoration of the Shrewsbury Canal and the Newport Arm of the Shropshire Union Canal. The trust was created in 2000.
Whitchurch Waterways Country park is an open space to the west of the Shropshire town of Whitchurch. Opened in its current form in 2002, it is a recreation area and Green corridor that takes in a town park, Greenfields Nature Reserve, Staggs Brook and the Whitchurch Arm of the Llangollen Canal. The area is maintained by Whitchurch Town Council and owned by Whitchurch Waterway Trust. There are plans to extend the canal within the country park and create a basin for Narrowboat moorings.
