Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
26
Shropshire Union Canal
Distance
107km from Autherley Junction to the Manchester Ship Canal
Highlights
Market Drayton Wharf
Bunbury Mill
The old Roman city of Chester
National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port, Britian's premier canal museum
Navigation Authority
Canal & River Trust
Canal Society
Shropshire Union Canal Society
OS 1:50,000 Sheets
117 Chester & Wrexham
118 Stoke-on-Trent & Macclesfield
127 Stafford & Telford
(139 Birmingham & Wolverhampton)
The canals that were united to form the Shropshire Union Canal were very different in many
respects. The Chester Canal was built between 1772 and 1779 and connected the Dee at
Chester with Nantwich. The Wirral Line of the Ellesmere Canal followed in 1793-1797 and
was intended to run on past Wrexham to the Severn. They were built to broad gauge to take
Mersey flats. A branch was built to Nantwich but the Trent & Mersey Canal refused a connec-
tion to the Middlewich Branch for 50 years, afraid that they would lose their northern trade to
the Chester route. As a result, the Chester Canal and the Wirral Line became semi-derelict and
it was to be the first canal to fail.
The Birmingham & Liverpool Junction Canal was built by Telford, one of his greatest
canals, completed in 1835. It was built to narrow gauge as the Birmingham Canal Navigations
