Ellesmere Canal

Ellesmere Canal was a waterway in England and Wales that was planned to carry boat traffic between the rivers Mersey and Severn. The proposal would create a link between the Port of Liverpool and the mineral industries in north east Wales and the manufacturing centres in the West Midlands. However the canal was never finished as intended. Problems arose because of the project's raising costs and the failure to generate the expected commercial traffic.

The Ellesmere Canal, which was first proposed in 1791, would have operated as a waterway between Netherpool and Shrewsbury. However the parts which were completed eventually became sections of the Chester Canal, the Montgomery Canal and the Shropshire Union Canal main line. Although several feats of engineering were overcome, most major building work ceased following the completion of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct in 1805. The navigation's mainline eventually ended 25 kilometres (16 mi) away from Chester at Trevor Basin near Ruabon and 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from Shrewsbury.

As part of the rebranding of Britain's industrial waterways as leisure destinations, the surviving central section is now called the Llangollen Canal; even though historically its builders had no intention of sending boat traffic to Llangollen. The branch, from which the waterway now takes its name, was primarily a water feeder from the River Dee above the village. Therefore it was not built as a broad-gauge canal hence its inherently narrow design.