Wombridge Canal

Stourbridge Extension Canal
Remains of a bridge over the infilled canal at Wrockwardine Wood in 1963
Specifications
Status	destroyed
History
Principal engineer	William Reynolds
Date completed	1788
Date closed	1921
Geography
Connects to	Shrewsbury Canal, Donnington Wood Canal

Shropshire Tub Boat Canals
Legend Shropshire Union Canal Pave Lane Lilleshall limeworks Donnington Wood Canal Lilleshall Branch Humber Branch Newport Canal Old Yard Junction Wrockwardine Wood plane Wombridge Canal Trench Branch Wombridge mines Ketley Canal Snedshill Tunnel Shrewsbury Canal Stirchley Tunnel Horsehay Branch Windmill inclined plane Shropshire Canal Hay Inclined Plane Coalport wharf River Severn

The Wombridge Canal was a tub-boat canal in Shropshire, England, built to carry coal and iron ore from mines in the area to the furnaces where the iron was extracted.

History

Iron ore and coal were mined at Wombridge,^[1] near to the church. In order to transport it to the furnaces at Donnington Wood, William Reynolds started to build a tub-boat canal in 1787. It was completed in 1788, at a cost of £1,640 and was 1.75 miles (2.82 km) long, connecting with both the furnaces and the Donnington Wood Canal.^[2][3] A curious feature of the canal was the tunnel which was constructed near to the church. There is no obvious reason for it, and it has been suggested that it was built to placate a local landowner.^[4] Another feature was an iron bridge, built in sections, which carried Teague's Bridge Lane over the canal.^[5]

In 1792, an Act of Parliament created the Shrewsbury Canal Company, with powers to build a canal from Wombridge to Shrewsbury. The company bought 1,848 yards (1.690 km) of the canal at a cost of £840. Although this price was considerably less than the cost of construction, Reynolds was both a shareholder and a director of the new company, and the Act specifically waived any tolls for his own internal traffic.^[3]

The new company constructed an inclined plane, to transport tub boats from the level of the Wombridge canal, down to that of the Shrewsbury canal. It was 243 feet (74 m) long, with a fall of 75 feet (23 m). It consisted of twin railway tracks, each with a cradle in which a single tub-boat was carried. Power was provided by an engine supplied by the Coalbrookdale Company. This was replaced in 1842 by a new engine that lasted for 79 years, until the final demise of the incline on 31 August 1921. Most of the working traffic was in the downward direction of the incline, and was counterbalanced by empty tub-boats returning up to the top level.^[6] The inclined plane was the last operational canal plane in the country.^[7]

Decline

In 1919, new furnaces were built at Wombridge and most of the rest of the canal fell into decline from then onwards. The canal was abandoned in 1921 when the inclined plane was closed. In 1968, material from the embankment and docks of the inclined plane was used to fill in the basin, destroying what remained.^[3]

References

1. 52°41′49″N 2°27′18″W / 52.697°N 2.455°W
2. 52°42′22″N 2°25′59″W / 52.706°N 2.433°W
3. Discovering Shropshires History CCS:MSA2199
4. Oakengates History
5. 'Wombridge: Communications', A History of the County of Shropshire: Volume 11: Telford (1985), pp. 284–285
6. Discovering Shropshires History CCS:MSA2197
7. Michael E. Ware, (1989), Britain's Lost Waterways, Moorland Publishing, ISBN 0-86190-327-7

External links

• Pictures of the inclined plane