Landscape Detective

The canal system in Shropshire had a comparatively short life span, but a significant impact on the landscape. Canals are a feature of the eighteenth century, and brought features like tunnels, aqueducts, bridges and embankments. The Shropshire canals were first developed to serve the coalfields. The Shrewsbury canal operated from 1793. The only canal still functioning today is at Ellesmere.

This photograph is of Lyneal Wharf, which lies on the banks of the Llangollen Canal in the heart of the Meres district of North Shropshire. The Llangollen canal crosses the Shropshire and Cheshire borders and into Clwyd, weaving its way through some of the most beautiful canal sides in the country.

The Montgomery Canal, which runs from north of Llanymynech to Newtown, is now overgrown and largely dry. The main purpose of the canal was to transport quicklime, a vital ingredient, needed to produce good agricultural land along the Upper Severn Valley. The opening of the Cambrian Railway in 1860 resulted in a decline in traffic and it finally closed in 1936. During the height of extraction at the Llanymynech mines some 35,000 tons of stone were loaded annually. This photograph shows Llanymynech Wharf as it looks today. It is difficult to imagine the bustle and activity that would have taken place here less than 200 years ago.

Taken in 1978, this photograph shows an un-restored section of the Montgomery Canal and a canal-side cottage. A serious breach at the northern end of the canal caused its closure in 1936. Although the cost of repairs was estimated to be just £400 this was refused and the canal was finally abandoned in 1944. Note that the canal here remains waterlogged.

At other times canal engineers in the early 18th century had to address specific problems with the landscape. This Listed Ancient Monument is at Longden on Tern.

The aqueduct was designed to carry the Shrewsbury canal high over the river. It is the oldest cast iron aqueduct in the world. Thomas Telford was the engineer and the iron trough was cast by William Reynolds at Ketley. The trough was 62 yards long and 16 feet high. The canal leading to it has gone but is still visible in the hedge extending across the landscape.

Another example of the engineering skill of the time is the Hay Incline. In 1788 William Reynolds proposed a canal joining the Donnington Wood canal of north Shropshire with the Severn. It started with an inclined plane rising 120 feet from the Donnington Wood Canal, the techniques for which had been perfected on the Ketley canal.

The photograph shows the dock at the bottom of the Hay incline. The incline was used to carry coal barges between the Shropshire Canal on the hillside down to a lower canal that ran through the China Works at Coalport and on to the River Severn. It is the best preserved of the Severn inclined planes in Shropshire and is open to the public in the guardianship of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum.