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The history of the Llangollen Canal

orginally the Ellesemere canal.

When the original plan for the Ellesmere Canal was published in 1791 it proposed a route connecting the River Mersey to the River Severn at Shrewsbury via Chester, Wrexham and the iron and coal trade at Ruabon. There was to be a branch to the limestone quarries near Llanymynech and another to Whitchurch. It was granted its act in 1793.

The first part of the route, through The Wirral, went according to plan and the line running from the Mersey at the tiny fishing village of Netherpool, southwards, into Chester opened in 1796. Netherpool grew into a major terminus for the Ellesmere Canal and because of this it soon became known as Ellesmere Port.

Also in 1796 another part of the line was opened from Welsh Frankton, just west of Ellesmere, to Llanymynech on the Welsh border where there were numerous limestone quarries - this line was to be known as the Carreghofa Branch. Meanwhile, south of Llanymynech a completely separate company was also busy building a canal which would connect the Carreghofa Branch to the many lime kilns in the Welshpool area. This route was to be known as the Montgomeryshire Canal and it opened in 1797.

The branch line, which headed east from Welsh Frankton, was also being built. When it reached the south side of Ellesmere a short arm was cut from the branch to a basin in the town. An agreement in 1797 was now reached with the Chester canal for this branch to be continued to Hurleston to join the Chester canal but this only got as far as Tilstock park four miles short of Witchurch before, due to pressure of work elsewhere it came to a halt. Another arm, the Prees Branch, was also started, it left the Whitchurch line a few miles west of Whitchurch and headed south towards Prees.

1801 The most difficult part of the main line was the stretch between Wrexham and Welsh Frankton. This part of the route was to include a giant stone aqueduct at Chirk, built in stone 1796 to 1801 and a massive lock flight to cross the River Dee near Froncysyllte. The original plan was to construct a lock flight down one side of the Dee valley and then cross the river on a small aqueduct just above the water level. Another lock flight would then be built to take boats back up the other side. This would have been very time consuming for the boatmen and very costly in terms of water usage and maintenance. An alternative was needed and it came in the form of an aqueduct - but not just any old aqueduct!

Pontcysyllte was to be over 1,000 feet long and 120 feet high. It was to have an iron trough and would be supported by around 20 brick piers. Never before - and never again - was such a structure ever built. The building of the mighty Pontcysyllte was both time consuming and money sapping. It soon became apparent that the building of the main line link northwards, from the aqueduct to Chester, would have to be suspended until more funds could be raised. This left the company stuck in no man's land with two separate canals and a 17 mile gap between them. At the head of the southern section was a half built monster of an aqueduct with a dead end just yards past the end of it!

Then in 1804 work was renewed on Whitchurch line reaching Hurleston on the Chester Canal, just north of Nantwich by 1805. The Whitchurch line now became the main line, replacing the severed route through Chirk to the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.

With a dead end at Trevor a further Act in 1804 authorised the cutting of a navigatable feeder to the River Dee above Llangolen. This was finally opened in 1808. The whole of the southern part of the Ellesmere Canal was now fed by the River Dee on a very long feeder, which started in the Welsh mountains at Llantisilio. (To ensure water Bala lake was raised to act as a storage reservoir.)
The feeder passed through Llangollen high on the side of the hills to the north of the town. Around 5 miles further east it ran into the canal at Trevor Basin - just a matter of feet to the north of Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. Luckily the feeder was just about wide enough and deep enough to get a boat down it and thus the original main line became known as the Welsh Branch and Pontcysyllte was saved from becoming a very expensive mistake. Instead, it became a very expensive feeder that just happened to pass the small Welsh town of Llangollen.

In 1805 Pontcysyllte Aqueduct opened to the sounds of brass bands, a parade and a thousand cheers from the astonished spectators who travelled from miles around to watch the first boats "fly" across the valley. There must have been much relief for the canal company now that the feeder could be used and some relief for those who'd had to work 120 feet above the ground. Telford was proud that only one man had died during the 6 years of construction.

In 1813 The 'Ellesmere Canal Company' and the 'Chester Canal Company' became one 'The Ellesmere and Chester Canal Company'. The whole line from the River Mersey at Ellesmere Port through Chester to Hurleston and then on into Wales was now controlled by the one canal company. Despite all this, the Chester Canal company's much dreamed of line to Middlewich was still not constructed.

However the problems of subsidence at Beeston on the old Chester line was now dealt with by Telford with the installation of an iron lock.

In 1821 extra trade came to the Ellesmere & Chester Canal when the adjoining Montgomeryshire Canal (via the Carreghofa Branch) was extended to Newtown in mid-Wales.

In 1827, faced with the authorisation of the Birmingham & Liverpool in 1825, the Trent and Mersery allowed the construction of the link to Middlewich. It was finally opened in 1833 after the construction of a sizable embankment and aqueduct at Church Minshull.

Eventually the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal, which would meet the original Chester Canal head on at Nantwich, was opened in 1835. At last the canal had links with the main canal network.

By the 1840's the canal was running steamers from Chester to Ellesmere Port.

In 1845 the Birmingham & Liverpool Junction Company joined forces with the Ellesmere & Chester Company to form one large partnership. Then in 1846 the whole of the Birmingham & Liverpool Junction Canal became part of the Shropshire Union Railways & Canal Company.

Sources.

Nicholson Guides to the Waterways.

Roots & Routes, Peter Hardcastle's Website
http://www.canals.btinternet.co.uk/index.htm

Canal Companion, Welsh Waters, J.M. Pearson. Published by Central Waterways Supplies of Rugby in 2006. ISBN 0-9549116-3-6

Llangollen and Montgomery Canals, Waterways World Guide 2. Published by Waterways World, Burton, 2005. ISBN 1-870002-89-X

Canal to Llangollen by Thomas Pellow & Paul Bowen, Published by the Landscape Press, Nantwich, 1993. ISBN 0-947849-01-7

Some pictures of this canal?

Pictures of the Llangollen canal.

General information on the canal. / History of the LLangollen Canal.

History of canals which later took over what is now the LLangollen.Shropshire Union / Birmingham & Liverpool Junction

Find our information about other canals on the canal index page.

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or email us at martinreed@reedboats.co.uk