Monument Type(s):

• CANAL (Early 18th century to Early 20th century (pre-war) - 1700 AD to 1913 AD)

Summary

The Montgomery Canal of 18th to 20th century date.

Related records

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events

• ESA4759 - 2001 watching brief on canal restoration works at Croft's Mill Bridge and Redwith Bridge by SCCAS
• ESA5031 - 1995 assessment of the Montgomery Canal between Croft's Mill and Crickheath Wharf in advance of Phase 3 restoration by SCC HET
• ESA5050 - 1995-1996 archaeological recording of Phase 2 works along the Montgomery Canal by SCCAS
• ESA5051 - 1994 evaluation of the Montgomery Canal between the River Perry and Aston Upper Lock by SCCAS
• ESA5527 - 2003 Landscape archaeology assessment of the Montgomery Canal (English section) by CPAT
• ESA5650 - 2004 assessment in connection with the Llanymynech Heritage Area Development Project by CPAT
• ESA6129 - 2007 WB of the Montgomery Canal at Redwith by CPAT
• ESA6163 - 2001 Archaeological Survey at Llanymynech heritage area, Shropshire, by Archenfield Archaeology Ltd
• ESA6317 - 2003 built heritage assessment of the Montgomery Canal (English section) by Michael Eaton
• ESA6395 - 1993 field observation of damage to the Montgomery Canal's heritage by G. Deamer
• ESA6582 - 1997 photographic survey of the Montgomery Canal
• ESA3365 - 1992 evaluation in connection with proposed Pant/ Llanymynech bypass by SCCAS
• ESA4828 - 2002 Stage 1 DBA of Llanymynech - Pant Bypass by ULAS
• ESA1891 - 1996 trial evaluation of land adjacent to the Montgomery Canal at Redwith by CPAT
• ESA7555 - 2015 community trial trench evaluation at Maesbury Marsh by Nexus Heritage
• ESA8870 - 2018 WB at Crickheath Wharf, Montgomery Canal by Martin Cook

Description

Cutting from Hordley westwards towards Llanymynech began early in 1794, to gain access to the limestone quarries there, and because the bill for an extension into Montgomeryshire was already in Parliament. This length, 11 miles from the bottom of Frankton locks past Llanymynech to the Junction with the Montgomeryshire Canal at Carreghofa, with 3 locks at Aston, cut a year earlier, was opened in the autumn of 1796.
The section from Pontcysyllte to Chirk and on towards Hordley was also begun. Chirk Aqueduct (SA 13171) was completed in 1801 and opened a waterway 8 miles long from Chirk basin at the northern end of the aqueduct to the bottom of Frankton Locks. There were four of these, including a staircase pair, and 2 at New Marton. In July 1795 contractors were sought for the section of the Shrewsbury line from Hordley to Weston . This was opened in 1797, and a wharf (PRN 00925), 4 lime kilns, a public house, stables a clerk's house, and a weighing machine were built. The canal got no nearer to Shrewsbury, because line from Weston had to compete with that brought along the Shrewsbury Canal (PRN 03410) from Dorrington. The extension from Weston to Shrewsbury was reconsidered along various routes but no action was taken. <1>

An in-house report on the canal and associated structures and buildings, along the section from Rednal Works, SJ 351 279 to Aston Locks, SJ 3355 2657, was compiled in 1985. <4>

In 1978 and 1979 A & B Tyler took colour slides (subsequently numbered Tn) of various features along the canal. From S to N these included:- (T9 & 10) a bridge at SJ274 217, (T43) a tramway bridge at SJ277 223, (T41) a bridge at SJ284 229, (T8) a canal cottage and (T42) a bridge at Crickheath Wharf (SJ292 235), (T2) Bridge No 80 at SJ310 249, (T66) a culvert at SJ3197 2507, (T74) Aston Bottom Lock and (T75) a Lock Keeper's Hut at SJ328 256, (T73) Aston Middle Lock at SJ332 260, (T76) Lockgate House at SJ332 362, (T40 & T77) a canal building at Heath Houses (SJ3511 2763), (T78 & T79) the remains of a boat at Rednal Bone Works (SJ3511 2795), (T27 & T28) Dandyford bridge at SJ395 297, (T70) culverts and (T71) the canal bed at Perry Aqueduct (SJ3600 2974). <8>

A report in 1993 on the implications of the preferred route of the A483 Pant/Llanymynech By Pass reported that a short section of the canal would be infilled at Penygarreg, SJ283 229, and a new cutting created. It was recommended that these works be monitored, and provision made for the recording of any wharves or associated features that might be revealed. <23>

In 1995 a desk top evaluation of the archaeological implications of Phase 3 of the Montgomery Canal Restoration was carried out by Malcolm Reid. The Frankton to Llanymynech section was opened in 1796, and was known as the Llanymynech Branch of the Ellesmere Canal. By 1930 this section of the canal was infrequently used by commercial transport, and with little revenue to maintain the canal it inevitably silted up and became choked with reeds. In 1944, the canal was legally closed by an Act of Parliament. The assessment and subsequent field visit recorded a number of features associated with the canal infrastructure. <24>

Subsequent to the desk-based assessment carried out in 1995, a programme of archaeological trial trenching was undertaken by CPAT in association with the restoration of the canal at Redwith. No features related to the canal were recorded, but a possible section of Wat's Dyke (PRN 01001), a cropmark field system (PRN 02425) and a series of cropmark enclosures (PRN 01306, 01416) were investigated. <25><25a>

The Montgomery Canal was originally the Llanymynech Branch of the Ellesmere Canal, and its purpose was to give access to the Llanymynech area's important Limestone quarries. The Ellesmere Canal itself was built during the "Canal Mania" of the 1790s, and it was originally intended to provide a waterway link between the Rivers Severn and Mersey … Work on the Llanymynech Branch of the canal was begun in 1794, and the branch canal was opened in the autumn of 1796 … [The Ellesmere Canal] was of great regional importance. The canal's prime function was the transport of industrial products and raw materials and agricultural goods. The Llanymynech branch in particular provided improved access to the important limestone quarries and limekilns of the Llanymynech area, whose products were used increasingly in the 19th century in the region's manufacturing, construction and agricultural industries … In 1845 the Ellesmere and Chester and the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal Cos merged and became part of the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company. By the 1930s lack of revenue had made it uneconomic to repair and maintain the canal and it fell into disuse. An Act of Parliament for its formal abandonment was obtained in 1944. <26>

A watching brief was undertaken in 2001 on the route of canal at Maesbury Marsh. A record was made of a section of the former Redwith canal bridge (PRN 20767). <27>

A desk-based assessment and walkover survey was carried out in 1994 of a stretch of the canal between the River Perry and Aston Upper Lock, ahead of phase 2 of a programme of restoration. A range of existing and new sites were identified (see child records). <28>

Subsequent to the desk-based assessment and walkover survey (see <28>), a programme of salvage recording was carried out during phase 2 of the restoration programme of a c.4km stretch of the canal. Works during vegetation clearance, structural repair and restoration were monitored (see child records for further detail). ->

-> Between Aston Upper Lock and Rednal Basin, the canal was in water at the time the Phase 2 restoration works commenced. Works to the canal itself along this section entailed dredging the canal bed and cutting back the banks. No lining of the canal sides was seen except at the wharfages at Queen's Head, Heath Houses, and Rednal Basin. Indeed, for the entire stretch between Queen's Head and Keeper's Bridge, the canal was seen to have consisted of a simple cut into the low-lying peaty topsoil. Where a short stretch of the canal between Heath Houses and Rednal Basin was drained to facilitate works to the Heath Houses and Rednal wharfages, the canal bed was seen to be an apparently unlined cut through the peaty topsoil into the underlying orange sand subsoil.->

-> Between Keeper's Bridge and the River Perry, the canal ran along a raised embankment. A section was cut at right angles across the line of the canal 306m southwest of the River Perry (c. SJ 3578 2949), a little to the north of where Lloyd's diversion rejoined the original route, in order to investigate the construction of this part of the canal. The "embankment" in fact was seen to have consisted of two low parallel banks, the western of which formed the canal towpath, with the canal bed lying between. The natural subsoil here was seen to consist of layers of brown, light grey, and dark grey clay overlain by a blanket of peat up to 0.9m thick. The canal itself had been cut through the peat down to the top of the underlying natural clay. The sides of the canal only were lined with deposits of dark grey clay, and the canal bed itself was unlined, relying on the natural waterlogged state of the peat and the impermeability of the natural clays to retain water. The eastern bank of the canal was raised a further 0.4m in height with deposits of loam with pebbles and chippings. The clay lining of the western side of the canal bed rested against deposits about 0.25m thick of sand, on which the towpath was raised. This latter consisted of layers of well compacted grey and pink stone chippings with a total height of 0.6m. A deposit of silty topsoil 0.25m deep filled the bed of the canal. Drains on the outer side of each of the banks collected water from moor drains. During the watching brief on the rebuilding of the embanked section further to the south, it was noted that the post-1830 section of the embankment was of similar construction. <29>

Historically known as the Shropshire Union Canal and subsequently as the Montgomeryshire Canal, the now named Montgomery Canal runs for approximately 53km from its junction with the Llangollen Canal at Lower Frankton in Shropshire to Newtown, in what was Montgomeryshire but is now Powys. Only about 16.8km of the canal are within Shropshire. It originated in four distinct canal schemes carried out between 1794 and 1821, three of which were originally constructed to carry and distribute lime for agricultural purposes from the Llanymynech quarries (only later were the ownerships linked together). The creation of the canal led to modification of the adjoining field patterns and increased drainage of adjacent mosslands, and pockets of industrial activity and settlement also sprang up alongside. <30>

The waterway now known as the Montgomery Canal was built in stages between 1794 and 1821, and runs from the Shropshire Union Canal at Frankton Locks to Newtown in Montgomeryshire. The canal, which reached Llanymynech by 1786 at the latest, originally consisted of four distinct schemes which have only been linked together in name under modern ownership. Three of the schemes were specifically constructed to carry and distribute lime for agricultural purposes from the Llanymynech Quarries [<45>]. By 1840-41 there were 92 limekilns along a 26 mile stretch of the canal and a peak carriage of 56,501 tons of limestone per annum was achieved. In addition to limestone, the canal was also used to transport lead from the Tanat Valley mines of Cwm Orog, Craig y Mwyn and South Llangynog, as well as slate from the Llangynog area, which had previously used a river port on the Vyrnwy at Carreghofa. The canal wharf at Llanymynech [see PRN 03813] developed in association with the tramway system. The Cambrian Railway’s Llanfyllin Branch was opened in 1863, and although at first the canal suffered little from railway competition the railway eventually took much of the lime trade from the canal. The wharf was probably disused by around 1900, although quarrying and lime burning continued until 1914. <31>

In the 1840s the canal became part of the Shropshire Union of Railways & Canals, which began as a scheme to fill in all the participants' canals and convert them into railways. This was never carried out and in fact by 1852 the company was advertising passenger boat connections to the Shrewsbury & Chester Railway at Rednal. There were specially adapted boats, which had right of way all along the canal. Unfortunately the venture was not very successful and ceased in 1853, but the passenger terminus at Rednal still survives [PRN 08463]. <33>

In May 2007 an archaeological watching brief was undertaken in connection with the restoration of a section of the Montgomery Canal at Redwith, Shropshire. The watching brief was carried out with particular reference to the location of the early medieval linear earthwork Wat’s Dyke which cropmark evidence suggests crosses the canal at approximately SJ 30432453 south of Gronwen Bridge. It is also possible that the canal bank and tow path to the south of Croft’s Mill Bridge, physically adopted the line of the dyke. During the installation of sheet metal piling, no evidence of the dyke was seen south of Gronwen Bridge, though a stone revetment wall was revealed in the south-eastern bank. This was probably an original feature of the canal to protect the banks. The later examination of the machined surface of the base of the canal again revealed no evidence of the dyke, only deposits related to the construction of the canal bank and its clay lining. It was concluded that evidence for the dyke either lay at a greater depth than that reached by the restoration work, or perhaps more likely, evidence of the dyke was removed during the original construction of the canal. <34>

In 2001 an historical, archaeological and landscape 'tier two' survey of Llanymynech and the surrounding environs and included land that had previously been used for limestone quarrying and a large area of mixed woodland. The development of the site was assessed from the pre-industrial landscape, to the development of the fields, kilns, tramways, canals, railways, plantations other industrial and economic infrastructures. <35>

A built heritage assessment was carried out along the length of the Montgomeryshire Canal. Includes a brief history of the canal and a thematic consideration of the variety of the associated structures on the canalside. The Montgomery[shire] Canal originated not as a self-contained project, but as a branch to the much larger Ellesmere Canal system. It was extended in two phases, reaching Newtown by 1821, yet remained ancillary to a larger system. It was to serve three different purposes – as a branch to feed limestone into the rest of the Ellesmere system; as an agricultural canal to distribute limestone, grain and raw materials; and as a transport link to a potential industrial town. ->

-> Because of this, the waterway was not conceived as a unit, but was instead managed in two branches by separate companies. These never amalgamated, and only in 1850 did the canal come under unified management by the Shropshire Union Railway and Canal Company, itself a dependent of the London & North Western Railway. With a brief interlude during World War I, this continued till 1922, when railway grouping placed the canal under the control of the London North Eastern Railway. There it remained till formal abandonment in 1944. So for most of its existence, the waterway was under the control of railway companies. These origins, and subsequent management, had profound effects on its development and buildings. <36>

In 1993 a survey was carried out to assess the recent damage to the canal's heritage, mainly since 1968 when the restoration of the canal commenced. <37><37a>

1997 Photographic record. <38>

Updated desk-based assessment (further to <23>) undertaken in 2002 mentions this feature, but provides no further information. <39>

Photographed during aerial photographic survey in 2010. <40>

A programme of trial trenching was carried out by members of the local community at Maesbury Marsh, as part of a Heritage Lottery Funded project undertaken by the Canal & River Trust, led by Nexus Heritage. This comprised the excavation of 3 trial trenches adjacent to the Montgomery Canal in Maesbury Marsh. All 3 trenches recorded agricultural and industrial remains associated with the canal. <41>

A gazetteer of selected features along the canal - see child records. <42>

Sources

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