Wappenshall Junction - History

History

The Shrewsbury Canal was authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1793, and was to run from the town of Shrewsbury to the Wombridge Canal, most of which was bought by the new canal company, to secure a link to the Donnington Wood Canal and the supplies of coal which were available there. The canal was level from Shrewsbury to Eyton, a little to the west of Wappenshall, where there were two locks. To the south-east of Wappenshall, it ascended through nine locks and then up an inclined plane at Trench, to reach the Wombridge Canal which was 75 feet (23 m) above the level of the canal at that point. It was opened in February 1797, as was suitable for tub-boats, which were 6.5 feet (2.0 m) wide, and nearly all the traffic through Wappenshall was coal towards Shrewsbury, with empty boats passing in the reverse direction.

The canal, which was part of the East Shropshire network, remained isolated from the rest of the British canal system. In 1825, the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal was authorised, to run from the Ellesmere and Chester Canal at Nantwich to Autherley Junction near Wolverhampton on the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. Two years later, that canal company approached the Shrewsbury Canal about a possible link between Norbury and Wappenshall. However, they experienced severe engineering difficulties in building their main line, and no further action was taken until 1831, when Henry Williams, who was superintendent and engineer for the Shrewsbury Canal and also worked for the on the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction company, costed a project to make the Shrewsbury Canal suitable for standard 7-foot (2.1 m) narrow boats. In the event, only the two locks to the west of Wappenshall were widened, and specially-built boats were used on the Trench branch, which could negotiate the narrower locks. The new canal to Wappenshall Junction opened in 1835.

The Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal became part of the Shropshire Union Canal in 1846, having amalgamated with the Ellesmere and Chester Canal the previous year. The Shropshire Union company bought up most of the East Shropshire network soon afterwards, and ran it profitably until the early twentieth century. However, decline set in after the First World War, and the Trench incline was closed in 1921, followed by Shrewsbury Basin in 1922. The canal, along with Wappenshall junction, was closed in 1944 under an Act of Parliament obtained by the London Midland and Scottish Railway, who owned it by then.