Shropshire Routes to Roots

3. When the canal arrived

The canal network

On 2nd March 1835, the canal was opened in Market Drayton. By this time I was 28 years old. The canal went all the way from Wolverhampton (in the South, near Birmingham) to Nantwich where it joined with other canals to reach Ellesmere Port (near Liverpool) on the northwest coast.

The canal network which crossed England was built up of lots of smaller canals, often only linking one town or city to another. The Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal, which ran through Market Drayton, was a single canal but was linked to others at junctions.

The image on the right is a map of Shropshire. The survey on which the map is based was done in 1826. However, the map was reprinted in 1830, before the canal officially opened but when construction on it was well underway. Map makers around this time often revised their maps especially to include the new canals and roads. The image links to a detail of the northeast section of the map. Find Market Drayton and work out: Is the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction canal there now? Are there any railways in the County?

Greenwood's map of Shropshire, 1830 Larger image (detail from map), in a new window [84kb] [Shropshire Archive reference: CM 2/18]

In some areas, individual canals connected with each other and companies combined to make larger companies.

This happened in Shropshire, where six canals eventually joined together to make the Shropshire Union Canal in 1845. You can find a history of the different canals in Shropshire, including the Liverpool and Birmingham Junction Canal, in the Shropshire Union Canal theme.

Great excitement?

The opening of the canal was a quiet event. The canal had been there for five years anyway, and we had got quite fed up with waiting for the builders to sort out the problems elsewhere that stopped it being opened sooner.

Our canal was one of the last canals to be opened. The famous engineer, Thomas Telford, had died and canals no longer captured most peoples' imaginations. The railways which were being built seemed much more exciting! Nevertheless, I bought a paper to remember the occasion.

The Shrewsbury Chronicle reporting of the event was limited to a few column inches. It noted, in very plain terms:

"The public advantages to be derived from this new communication, as to facility of transit between various busy districts, require only to be known to be fully appreciated.

[Shrewsbury Chronicle, March 13, 1835]

The cost for traders wanting to use the canal was 1p per ton per mile for coal and iron, and half that for lime. Goods were unloaded at one of the wharves.

Plan of Market Drayton Wharf, 1845 [Shropshire Archive reference: DP326]

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