The Ellesmere and Plas Kynaston Canals.

Back in 1791 a group of local businessmen and bankers came together to discuss an ambitious project. The success of canals like the Bridgewater and the Trent and Mersey encouraged them to propose a canal running south from the Mersey to join the Severn at Shrewsbury, taking in the Dee at Chester on the way. The suggested route would pass the coal and iron ore producing areas around Wrexham and Ruabon, and would include branches to Whitchurch to the east and Llanymanech to the southwest. Several shorter branches would connect to existing collieries to the west, the idea being that the canal would allow access to raw materials for the industrial centres of the west country, and also to the coast at Chester and on the Mersey estuary. Most importantly, a reservoir and feeder were to be built in the hills west of Wrexham to feed the canal.
The Ellesmere Canal Company was formed and an Act of Parliament granted to start construction. The first sod was cut the following year and work continued apace, the Llanymynech Branch from Frankton to it’s namesake opened in 1796, joining up with the under-construction Montgomeryshire Canal at Carreghofa Locks.  In the same year the short contour section was finished from the end of the earlier Chester Canal to the Mersey at a small village called Netherpool, later to become the inland complex of Ellesmere Port.
 But all was not going well, with spiralling costs and the increasing threat of railway competition on the horizon. In 1800 construction of both the northern and southern sections were abandoned, the central section terminating at Trevor Basin just north of Poncysyllte Aqueduct and the channel to Shrewsbury petering to a stop at Weston Lullingfields, 10 or 12 miles short of it’s intended destination. The eastern branch to Whitchurch was to be saved, however, and extended to join the Chester Canal at Hurleston just north of Nantwich, and opened in 1806. The cancellation of the northern route to Chester posed a problem. With it went the new reservoir at Hope Mountain and the feeder, Ffrwd Canal.
In 1803 an alternative was decided on, and by 1806 the navigable feeder line running from The Dee above Llangollen was open, bringing much needed water to the main canal.

The cancellation of the Chester route also meant that the local industries around Acrefair and Cefn Mawr remained reliant on poor road transport, so part of the 1803 discussion was to provide a short canal, starting on the line of the original proposal but looping around below the slopes of Cefn Mawr to a terminus below the Queens Hotel.
It took a while, but this, the Plas Kynaston Canal,  was finally completed in 1830, giving boat access for the foundries, chemical works, tile works and pottery lying in the shadow of the hill. The industries further afield were serviced by a network of tramways running back to Trevor Wharf.
By the middle of the 20th century traffic on the canal had declined, and most of the channel was filled in. But with the closure of all the industry adjacent to the canal the Plas Kynaston Canal Group was formed in 2010 with the aim of recovering the now lost navigation.

Back on the main line, British Waterways, the authority for inland waterways that took control in 1962, rebranded the navigation as the Llangollen Canal, effectively the route from Hurleston to Llangollen. The Llanymynech Branch of the Ellesmere Canal from Frankton became the northern half of the Montgomery Canal, and the Montgomeryshire Canal to Newtown lost it’s shire. The branch up into Whitchurch itself was filled in, as was long lengths of what should have been the main line to Shrewsbury, leaving just a short stub below Frankton Locks.

And that’s pretty much what we have today. A pretty, popular canal, but think of what might have been. A route from Ellsemere Port to the Severn, then down into the Black Country. And another off west into Wales. Wow.

I had a walk around the basin here at Trevor this morning, camera in hand…

Trevor Wharf, now home to Anglo-Welsh, still has evidence of the tramways that connected to the quarries and collieries away from the canal.

Trevor Basin, with loading wharves on the left and what should have been the Chester route to the right.


The bridge at the end of the basin is blocked, the short arm to the left was once a covered dock.

The route of the Plas Kynaston Canal ran over there somewhere, across the cleared industrial landscape. Apart from the parapets of the Queen Street Bridge there’s little sign of the route.

Richard turned up early on Sunday morning bringing our fuel delivery.
He’s hoping that this weekend’s van runs will be the last up here. Hurleston Locks should re-open in a fortnight and Mountbatten will be one of the first boats through, able to start delivery by water again.

And the water quality in the basin must be fairly good, we’ve had the company of this cormorant for the last 3 days, so there must be fish here.


Unless he’s getting a take-away…

Visitors tomorrow, all being well, then we’ll shove off towards Llangollen on Wednesday.
Not forgotten about your request for a brief guide to facilities and moorings on the canal, Tony. It’s a work in progress…

Locks 0, miles 0.