Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The M53 crosses back at Junction 9 and ahead lie Ellesmere Port docks of 1833. The name
was changed from Netherpool by the Ellesmere Canal Company in 1796 to be the port for
the Shropshire town with which they hoped to connect directly. A transhipment port, it is
the finest canal port in England and is now the home of the National Waterways Museum;
Ellesmere Port; and Britain's premier canal museum with the world's largest collection of
inland waterways craft - over 60 of them - including a 1912 tunnel tug and an Iron Age
dugout. Other exhibits include dock workers' cottages of the 1840s and 1950s, a power hall
and working pumphouse with steam, gas and diesel engines, painted boat ware, tools, plans,
documents, stables, a working forge and a cafe. It was opened in 1976. A popular attraction,
the museum is visited by many groups of children during term time. An entry fee is likely to
be requested if following the canal through the site.
There are basins to the left of the lock flight and then the canal turns right past a lighthouse
of 1795. This was to guide shipping in from the River Mersey although, even at high water,
that is at least 500m away across marsh now and the Manchester Ship Canal directly fronts
the Shropshire Union Canal. It is closed to small boats and even narrowboats have to raft up
in pairs. Nearby are a Ro-Ro ferry terminal, a container terminal and large ocean tankers and
other craft passing down the Manchester Ship Canal. For many, over the decades, this point
has not marked the end of the journey so much as the start of something much bigger.
Telford's lighthouse by the Manchester Ship Canal
.
