Shropshire Routes to Roots

If you have time, you could walk south along the towpath to Woodseaves Cutting, the longest cutting on any canal in Britain. The sides are steep, and over the years there have been many slips. Early canals tended to keep earthworks to a minimum by winding round hills, whereas late canals such as this one tended to have more direct routes, with deeper cuttings and higher embankments.

The wharf buildings were erected by the Twemlow family of Peatswood Hall, shortly after the canal was opened. Actually they wanted to build the wharf below the lock, but the canal company refused because this would have meant that too much water would have been drawn from the long pound. The triangular widening is called a 'winding-hole', where boats could be turned round.

From here the canal descends 33 feet through a flight of five locks. Late canals tended to have their locks grouped in flights. All except one of the locks on this canal have exactly the same drop, which meant that gates could be made to a standard pattern instead of being individually crafted.

The lock cottage is typical of Telford's designs. You can see some similarity with the toll houses he designed for the Holyhead Road some twenty years earlier. (One has been reconstructed in Blists Hill Open Air Museum.)

If you look carefully at the locks, you can see evidence that the design of the top gates have been changed. Telford's original design had two gates. In the 1840s, these were replaced by the current design, with only one gate. If you look on the far side, you can see that the stonework has a recess just long enough for the old smaller gate, with a curved end for the 'heel post' of the gate.

The bottom lock is in a cutting. The sandstone from here was used to construct bridges. One of the reasons why canals fit into the countryside so well is that they used the local materials.

Bridge 61 has the date '1829' inscribed. This is the date the bridge was built, though because of the problems constructing the massive Shelmore Embankment (between Norbury and Gnosall), the canal was not open for traffic until 1835. This is what is known as an 'occupation bridge', built to connect fields severed by the canal.

During the Second World War a large white rectangle was painted on the brickwork. This was to help boaters navigating at night without lights to see where the bridgehole is. Traces of this can still be seen.

Cast iron rubbing plates were put on all bridges shortly after the canal opened, in order to stop tow-ropes cutting into the stonework. When a rope is wet, it picks up grit, and this makes it very abrasive.

The canal now crosses the Coal Brook, a byroad and the river Tern on a steep-sided high embankment with a fine view over towards the church. A flight of steps showing 170 years of wear come up from the road. This embankment has been stable since it was built, unlike some of the other embankments on this canal. Because modern motor-powered boats create much more damaging waves than the old horse-drawn boats, it has been thought prudent to put the canal here in a concrete trough.

The home of John Wilson (c.1772-1831), the contractor who built this section of the canal, is now part of the Grove School. He had worked for Telford on the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, on the Holyhead Road in North Wales and on various of his works in Scotland.

In the Second World War, certain canals were to form defensive lines across Britain. Pill boxes were built in strategic locations. There is one just by the bridge under the former turnpike road to Newcastle.

A couple of the small buildings by the road are shown on the plan drawn in 1845, as is the rectangular basin. 'Holidays Afloat' has been serving boaters since the 1960s.

Behind the boatyard is the Talbot Inn, built about 1850 to cater for thirsty boatmen.

The main wharf at Market Drayton is on the opposite side of the canal to the towpath, immediately after the bridge.

You can see this building on a map of the wharf dated 1845 (Opens in a new window).

The corrugated iron building, now Ted's Boatyard, dates from the nineteenth century, and was for several decades the Shropshire Union Canal Carrying Company's depot. Between it and Betton Road bridge (63) is an elegant brick building. This seems to have been built in the first decade of the twentieth century as a warehouse for corn, becoming a mill during the next decade. It now contains a refreshment room and canal souvenir shop.

From the 1960s to the 1980s Ladyline, one of the largest canal-orientated firms in the country, occupied the site north of the bridge. After they went out of business, the land was sold for housing, though the former moorings for the hire fleet were retained for private boats. This is a good example of how housing can make effective use of a canal frontage.