A Walk to Grindley Brook

If Starting from Grindley Brook take bus service 41 to Whitchurch Bus station.  Walk along Watergate Arcade, cross Watergate, and continue down Mill Street.  At the bottom of the slope, go right onto the footpath which used to skirt the northern side of the basin.  It may be possible to get through a door in the wall into the site of the principal wharf building..

[From the Clock at the centre of Whitchurch walk south past “Colour Supplies” down Mill Street  turning right into the path by the Green Hoardings This path leads into Jubilee park past where the canal basin used to be,]

Brief history of the Whitchurch Arm

The main line of the Ellesmere Canal, completed in 1805, bypassed Whitchurch.  To save money, it was decided not to build the branch from New Mills to Sherryman’s Bridge which had been authorised in the Act.  Dissatisfied with this, a group of Whitchurch businessmen led by William Turner asked the canal company to give permission to build the branch and to extend it to a terminus at Castle Well.  The canal company agreed, subject to it being able to take over the branch any time within ten years of its completion.

However, the lawyers realised that the canal company had no authority to delegate the powers in its Act.  A new proposal was put forward which had the same effect: a local consortium would contract with the company to build the branch for the sum of £2,000, the money being lent by the consortium to the canal company for four years ‘with lawful interest’, later agreed as 5%.  The company was to apply for an Act for the extension from Sherryman’s Hill to Castle Well.  The branch was made as far as Sherryman’s Bridge in 1808 and fully opened in 1811.  This method of financing was possibly unique.

The canal enabled Whitchurch to prosper, its population increasing by 36% between 1811 and 1841.  A large proportion of this increase was in Dodington, where the terminus of the canal was situated.

The last recorded commercial traffic using the Whitchurch Branch was in 1936.  The branch (together with the rest of what is now known as the Llangollen Canal) was formally closed by Act of Parliament in 1944.  The section southeast of Sherryman’s Bridge was sold in 1948; the rest of the branch had been sold by 1968.

Whitchurch Canal Basin

The canal company’s original plan was for a rectangular basin.  As this would have given William Trevor, owner of the property most affected its construction, control of the land for the wharfs, William Turner drew up a plan which enabled five people (including himself) to make wharfs, and it was this alternative plan which was approved by Parliament.  The basin as built was an elongated triangle, similar to that at Ellesmere.

The main wharf building, warehouse and stores were on the north side of the basin.  The ware­house had an awning which came over the water, enabling cargo to be transferred in the dry.  The end of the basin had an open wharf with a crane; on the south side were coal wharfs.

The four-story steam-powered corn mill was built near the basin in 1826.  It has been tastefully converted into Culshaw’s bistro.

Continue along the footpath, then cross the park to the children’s playground and car park to Sherryman’s Bridge.

To Sherryman’s Bridge

This path follows the approximate line of the former tow­path. Stagg’s Brook, Whitchurch’s natural watercourse is culverted from the far side of Tesco’s to Sherryman’s Bridge — its water can be heard under various drain-covers.  The stream never fed the canal, the water for which came from the main line, bringing with it silt and the need for frequent dredging.

The gas works had opened by 1851.  My assumption is that the original site was where the car park is now, and when that site proved too small it expanded on the other side of Sherrymill Hill.  Most early gas works were built canalside if possible; other local examples include Shrewsbury, Ellesmere and Welshpool.

The road used to have a double bend over a bridge, but this was improved some time after the Whitchurch Urban District Council bought the bridge in about 1950.

Adjacent to the bridge, on the north side of Sherrymill Hill was a corn mill.

There was never a winding hole here, so for the three years (1808–11) that this was the canal terminus, boats had to be pulled backwards to the junction.

From here the line of the former canal branch is lost for half a mile, first under Waterside Close and then the properties in Brookfield.  Take the footpath to the north of the stream and follow it, crossing the end of The Firs and continuing on as far as Greenfields Rise.

Site of eastern part of proposed Water Park

The area to the left just beyond the end of The Firs has planning permis­sion for 14 houses.

The Whitchurch Water­way Trust wishes to bring the navigation closer to the town by the creation of a lake in this valley.  This side of the Green­fields Rise would be the main area for visiting boats; below where you cross the stream is the intended site of the mooring basin.

On the other side of the valley, just to the south of the former line of the canal, is a row of cottages.  This was built by George Whitfield & John Sergeant as a silk mill in 1828, providing working space for 200 people.  It was two storeys high, but constructed in such a way that three further storeys could be added.  A 10hp steam engine powered four 104-bobbin doubling frames, four 100-bobbin drawing frames and  a silk engine with 100 swifts.  It was a commercial failure, and was offered for sale in 1831.  By 1851 it had been converted into a warehouse by Thomas Burgess, a cheese factor and corn merchant.

Cross Greenfields Rise bridge, take the path on the right, and go under Meadowcroft bridge to Chemistry Bridge.

Site of western part of proposed Water Park and inclined plane

The lake to the west of Greenfields Rise would be principally an environmental lake, designed to encourage wildlife.  The link between the lake and the canal arm would be by means of an inclined plane, the only operational one in the country.  This would be sited on the land south of the brook, to the west of Greenfields Rise; the control building would house an exhibition and meeting room.  A cheaper alternative would be a stair­case pair of locks but this would not be such a special feature, of course.

The idea for the inclined plane and Water Park came from a study in 1982 by Liverpool University on methods for regenerating the town’s economy, commissioned by the Town Council.  Backed by the North Shropshire District Council and the County Council, this became Shropshire’s bid  for funding by the Millennium Commission, becoming one of the 16 finalists in the national round.

The land for the Water Park and the site of the inclined plane was donated by the builders of the various housing estates.  As part of the planning requirements they also built the two bridges — unfortunately that at Greenfields rise is too low and would have to be rebuilt.

Chemistry Bridge is the only surviving original bridge on the arm.  The reason for the name is not known; one possibility is that chemicals for dyeing or tanning were made from oak galls in a building nearby.

Continue under Chemistry Bridge and along the towpath to the main line of the Ellesmere (now Llangollen) Canal; cross the bridge, turn right, and go along the towpath to Grindley Brook.

The canal

Shropshire County Council organised the restoration of the section from the junction to Chemistry Bridge, largely financed by a Derelict Land Grant.  It is now managed by the Whitchurch Waterway Trust.  Well used by private boaters visiting the town, it also has a few permanent revenue-earning moorings.

The lift bridge by the junction is modern but to a traditional design.

The line of canal from here to Hurleston Junction was never envisaged by any of the promoters.  The approved main line was from Shrewsbury to Trevor then via Bersham to Chester; people such as William Turner who wanted the canal to take a route east of the Dee thought the best line would be from Fens Hall (three miles west of Whitchurch) to the Chester Canal near Tattenhall.

The Chester Canal Company needed a better source of water for its summit level and proposed building a feeder from the River Weaver at Wrenbury.  At the same time, the Ellesmere Canal Company ran out of money having built or contracted for the line from Weston Lullingfields to Trevor and the branches to Llanymynech, Quina Brook and Tilstock Park.  A compromise was identified which would enable the isolated canals to be joined to the Chester Canal and also provide the latter with a reliable supply of water — the Ellesmere Canal was constructed to Hurleston Junction, the contractors being John Simpson & John Fletcher.  It opened in 1805, the same year as Pontcysyllte Aqueduct was completed.  (The navigable feeder from Horseshoe Falls opened in 1808.)

Grindley Brook

Staircase locks are normally considered to waste water, but this canal was unusual in having a good supply of water during the whole of the year.  However, they do delay boats, a great problem now for pleasure boaters.

The lock-keeper’s cottage is usually attributed to Thomas Telford, though there is no positive evidence that he designed it.  By the time of its construction he was spending most of his time in Scotland — he could have outlined what he wanted, or he could have left it entirely to one of his assistants, probably Thomas Denson.

Wharfs and warehouses were built here when the canal opened.  The concern that Grindley Brook might displace Whitchurch as the general market for the area was a major motivation for the promotion of the Whitchurch branch.  Boats were built and repaired here.  As at most of the canalside settlements, there were limekilns, principally for producing fertiliser for farmland but also building mortar.  A small settlement grew up — the Canal Tavern was built to serve the settlement and the boaters, but the Horse & Jockey may have pre-dated the canal.

The mill, built later in the 19th century, was powered by a waterwheel in the by-wash of the staircase locks.  The only other examples I know of where canal water was used as a power source were on the Montgomeryshire Canal and at the warehouse at Portland Basin on the Ashton Canal.  There is now a proposal for a small-scale hydro-electric power plant here at Grindley Brook.

A further warehouse building survives below the locks.

Walk down by the locks, view the warehouse, then cross the main road to the Horse & Jockey.

Bibliography

Charles Hadfield, Canals of the West Midlands

Peter Brown, ‘The canal comes to Whitchurch’, Shroppie Fly Paper, Winter 2003

Peter Brown

PJB\canal\walks\IWA 2010 – Whitchurch

22 December 2009