Shropshire Routes to Roots

7. The Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal

The final link

The final link in the chain was the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal. The name expressed the canal's intention well: to provide a fast link between the manufacturing heart of the country (Birmingham) and the principal west-coast port (Liverpool).

However, it never reached either of these cities. Thirty-nine miles long, it joined the Ellesmere and Chester Canal at Nantwich with the Staffordshire and Worcester Canal at Autherley Junction near Wolverhampton. This gave easy access to the Birmingham Canal Navigations network and from here to the canals to London.

Telford's design for an aqueduct at Nantwich Larger image, in a new window [27kb] [Secret Shropshire]

One of the towns the canal passed through was Market Drayton, in the northwest corner of Shropshire. You can find out how the new canal affected the small market town and its inhabitants in the Transport and communication: The day the canal came theme.

Construction

Construction started in 1826 under the direction of Thomas Telford, but the embankment at Shelmore proved particularly troublesome. Telford died in 1834, and it was not until the following year that the canal was open to traffic.

A branch from Norbury Junction passed through Newport and joined to Shrewsbury Canal at Wappenshall Junction. In anticipation of the opening of this branch, the Shrewsbury Canal rebuilt two locks to the standard width in order to allow narrowboats to reach Shrewsbury.

Telford's design for a lock Larger image, in a new window [19kb] [Secret Shropshire]

The construction and maintenance of canals was rarely trouble-free. Big floods could sweep away structures such as the masonry aqueduct at Longdon-on-Tern. In addition, floods could cause a breach, such as that which happened in 1869, near Cheswardine. The event was witnessed by Thomas Langford:

• Thomas Langford's story (Opens in a new window).

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