Thing to do when visiting the Chester CHESTER CANAL - The Shropshire Union Canal
The Shropshire Union was created by a series of mergers of canal companies in the 1840s, creating a network with well over 200 miles of waterways. This was very unusual for the time. Although canal mergers were not unknown - the Ellesmere and Chester Canals had merged in 1813, for example - they were not common.
The network was also remarkable for the number of inclined planes (four in total) and for the involvement of Thomas Telford, one of the foremost engineers of his day. He was the co-designer of the world's first large scale iron aqueduct which is found on the Shrewsbury Canal.
The oldest of the constituents was the Chester Canal, a broad canal going from the River Dee at Chester down to Nantwich. Having employed a succession of engineers of varying incompetence, it finally opened in 1779. Until it was connected to the main canal network, the Chester Canal was an economic failure. Cash was so short that when in 1787 Beeston Lock collapsed because it had been built on running sand, it was closed for three years.
