Shropshire Routes to Roots

The Ellesmere Canal: A Happy Hotel Owner

This is the story of Mrs. Price whose hotel, The Royal Oak (now the Ellesmere Hotel), hosted the subscription meeting for the Ellesmere Canal in 1792. Her fictional words are derived from accounts in the Shrewsbury Chronicle (14th September, 1792):

That was the best pair of days trading I ever did when I was at the Royal Oak. The promoters of the Ellesmere Canal used to meet in the big room at my hotel, so naturally they chose it for the meeting when the public were invited to buy shares. Each share cost £100: £5 deposit and £95 to buy later. I thought we'd be busy that Monday - but I had no idea just how busy!

That was the year of the 'Canal Mania'. Everyone knew how much the Bridgewater Canal had made - and the Duke of Bridgewater was one of the backers of our canal. People thought canals were an easy way of making money. Pay a deposit, and sell the shares at a profit. Not that everyone wanted the shares to make a quick profit - many of the promoters were the big local landowners like the Earl of Powis and his son, Lord Clive, Lord Hill of Hawkestone, John Kynaston Powell and the Duke of Bridgewater himself. They were mainly interested in bettering the communications for their estates, so that their tenants could use limestone to improve the land, increase their crops and get their products to market easier and cheaper. Not that these gentlemen weren't interested in money: bigger profits for their tenants meant higher rents for themselves.

But the people from away were mainly speculators expecting easy money. We had a lot from the east Midlands, Leicestershire in particular, I remember. I don't know why. They flooded into our little town on the Sunday, wanting beds for the night. My hotel was soon full, as were the inns which let rooms; many other houses took people in for the night too. I heard that late-comers were offering three guineas [in modern money, around £300] for a bed! The roads were crowded and there was such a demand for stabling. The visitors were hungry, and good drinkers too. Yes, I certainly made money!

The subscription list opened at eleven o'clock on Monday morning, and by the time it closed six hours later, something like a million pounds had been promised. This was more than double what was needed - or so they thought then - and later the committee worked out a method of scaling down the applications. About 1500 people came into my room that day to buy shares. I'm glad I didn't buy any - though I admit I was tempted - because it was years before the meagre dividends were paid. People are so foolish. Instead of getting rich they lost most of the money.