Shropshire Routes to Roots | Transport and communication

6. The decline of the canal

What happened to the canal after the railways were built?

The decline of the canals

The following words are part of a made-up story

As soon as the railways opened, the small cargoes and passengers moved over to this faster way of transport. The companies who ran the boats switched to run goods on the railways.

Bulk goods such as coal or stone from the mines were still carried on canal, but the competition to carry these cargoes increased, and prices dropped.

Many canal companies were bought by railway companies. Occasionally, a railway was built using the route of the canal. Tenbury Wells in South Shropshire is an example of this.

In 1845, six canals in Shropshire and the neighbouring counties joined together to form the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company.

Plans were drawn up to convert the canal through Market Drayton into a railway. Before this could happen, the canal company was taken over by the London and North Western Railway.

This sale brochure of 1877 suggests that land and buildings associated with the canal-side industries was eventually sold off.

Open the description of Market Drayton canal wharf from inside the brochure (Opens in a new window).
What buildings and appliances were on the wharf?

A sale poster advertising the sale of freehold propert in Market Drayton [Opens in new window: image size 44kb]

Poster advertising the sale of freehold property
Larger image, in a new window [44kb]
[Shropshire Archive reference: 327/5/7/1/16]

Although Market Drayton's canal was maintained, business declined, and I lost my job on the wharf. The railways had taken over.

But had John lived into the twentieth century, he would have seen his canal take on a new lease of life.

In this photograph, taken in the 1960s, the old and the new have met. The boat on the left is an old wooden tug being used as a maintenance boat. On the right hand side of the canal, some wooden pleasure cruisers can be seen. And on the shore, by the Ladyline Cruisers building, there are some modern fibreglass craft.

A sepia photograph of a boat on a canal by a large iron building [Opens in new window: image size 22kb]

Ladyline cruisers building
Larger image, in a new window [22kb]
[Shropshire Archive reference: P/M/6/3/5. Reproduced with kind permission of Shropshire Newspapers]

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Page created January 2004 and last updated 1 August 2007

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