Monument Type(s):

• CANAL (Opened, Early 19th century - 1808 AD to 1808 AD)

Summary

By 1804 the Whitchurch Branch of the Ellesmere Canal had reached Grindley Brook, where warves and warehouses were constructed. The canal was extended nearer the town to Sherryman's Bridge by 1808, where two wharfs were built bringing the canal nearer to the town. (PRN 05891). In 1811 the canal company extended the canal from Sherryman's Bridge to the new canal basin (05850) at Castle Well, off Mill Street.

Related records

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events

• ESA5870 - 2003-2004 assessment of former canal wharf, Mill Street, Whitchurch by Castlering Archaeology

Description

Shown on 1880 OS map <1>

CMHTS Comment:- Includes towpaths <2>

The Ellesmere Canal opened in 1805 and the branch to Whitchurch opened in 1808 <3>

CMHTS Report <4>

By 1804 the Whitchurch Branch of the Ellesmere Canal had reached Grindley Brook, where warves and warehouses were constructed. The canal was extended nearer the town to Sherryman's Bridge by 1808, where two wharfs were built bringing the canal nearer to the town. This was still unsatisfactory, as the townpeople were anxious to increase trade within the town and wanted the canal to reach the town centre. Proposals to link the canal to Whitchurch resulted in the Earl of Bridgwater taking down the disused town mill and giving the site of the mill and a parcel of land 60 feet wide, together with part of a pool, to the public. This was presumably the 1739 mill [PRN 05866], though the town mill [PRN 05899] was also taken down prior to the canal development. The grant enabled the canal company to extend the canal from Sherryman's Bridge to the new canal basin at Castle Well, off Mill Street [PRN 05850]. <5>

Closed in 1944. Sections of the abandoned Whitchurch branch were built over, but the local Whitchurch Waterway Trust has lobbied hard for its restoration and have succeeded in reopening the first section from the main line to just short of the first bridge - Chemistry Bridge; plans are well advanced to continue the line further to a new basin. <6>

<01> Ordnance Survey, 1880, OS County Series 07.04, 1880 (Map). SSA9543.

<02> Buteux Victoria, 1993/ 1996, CMHTS SMR Records Shropshire: Whitchurch, Whitchurch 5889 (Record form). SSA19975.

<03> James R B, 1979, Whitchurch - A Short History, p9 (Monograph). SSA3289.

<04> Buteux Victoria et al, 1996, Archaeological Assessment of Whitchurch, Shropshire (CMHTS) (Historic landscape survey report). SSA12088.

<05> Frost Pat, 2004, Former canal wharf, Mill Street, Whitchurch: archaeological desk based assessment & site visit (Archaeological fieldwork report). SSA22086.

<06> Morriss Richard K, 2014, Land to the east of 163 Wrexham Road, Whitchurch: an impact assessment of proposed development on heritage assets (Deskbased survey report). SSA28472.

Sources

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.