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The Wombridge Canal was a tub-boat canal in
Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...
, England, built to carry coal and iron ore from mines in the area to the furnaces where the iron was extracted. It opened in 1788, and parts of it were taken over by the Shrewsbury Canal Company in 1792, who built an
inclined plane An inclined plane, also known as a ramp, is a flat supporting surface tilted at an angle from the vertical direction, with one end higher than the other, used as an aid for raising or lowering a load. The inclined plane is one of the six clas ...
at Trench. It lowered tub boats , and remained in operation until 1921, becoming the last operational canal inclined plane in the country. The canal had been little used since 1919, and closed with the closure of the plane.


History

Iron ore and coal were mined at Wombridge, 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 long, connecting with both the furnaces and the Donnington Wood Canal. 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. Another feature was an iron bridge, built in sections, which carried Teague's Bridge Lane over the canal. In 1792, an Act of Parliament created the
Shrewsbury Canal The Shrewsbury Canal (or Shrewsbury and Newport Canal) was a canal in Shropshire, England. Authorised in 1793, the main line from Trench to Shrewsbury was fully open by 1797, but it remained isolated from the rest of the canal network until 183 ...
Company, with powers to build a canal from Wombridge to Shrewsbury. The company bought 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. It is also likely that he had exhausted the supplies at minerals at Wombridge by this time. The new company constructed an
inclined plane An inclined plane, also known as a ramp, is a flat supporting surface tilted at an angle from the vertical direction, with one end higher than the other, used as an aid for raising or lowering a load. The inclined plane is one of the six clas ...
, to transport
tub boat A tub boat was a type of unpowered cargo boat used on a number of the early English and German canals. The English boats were typically long and wide and generally carried to of cargo, though some extra deep ones could carry up to . They a ...
s from the level of the Wombridge canal, down to that of the Shrewsbury canal. It was long, with a fall of . 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. The inclined plane was the last operational canal plane in the country. A prominent feature near the top of the incline was the Wombridge Pumping Engine house. This was a Cornish type, with a tall chimney, and was erected in 1858, to pump water from the mines. The main cylinder was in diameter, with a stroke, and it lifted water from a depth of around . The engine developed and normally ran slowly, raising of water per minute, in three strokes. When running at maximum speed, it could achieve eleven strokes per minute.


Industry

Prior to selling the canal to the Shrewsbury Canal company, Reynolds' sons, William and Joseph, erected a glass house near to Church Road Bridge, just to the south of the current Wrockwardine Wood church building. They made a variety of objects from dark green glass, including door-stops, rolling pins, jugs and bottles for French wine manufacturers. They flourished for over 40 years, until the factory closed between 1835 and 1842. Less than to the west, John Bullock erected a corn mill by the side of the canal in 1818. It produced flour, and the company continued to be run by the Bullock family until the 1940s, after which it was run by new owners. The building was constructed of red brick, and powered by a steam engine. The original building had two storeys, but a new four-storey structure was added to the rear in 1891. The business closed in the 1970s and the mill has since been converted into apartments. The third industrial enterprise was owned by James Foster, who built two furnaces at Wombridge in 1818. He added a third furnace sometime before 1843, when he closed the operation and moved it to Madeley Court. In 1854, John Bennett, working for the Wombridge Iron Company, reopened it, and added a forge. It continued in use until 1900, producing wire and wire rods.


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. The Wombridge engine house survived the demise of the inclined plane, but was destroyed on 27 December 1964, when of
gelignite Gelignite (), also known as blasting gelatin or simply "jelly", is an explosive material consisting of collodion-cotton (a type of nitrocellulose or guncotton) dissolved in either nitroglycerine or nitroglycol and mixed with wood pulp and salt ...
were used to demolish it.


Points of interest


Bibliography

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References


External links


Pictures of the inclined plane
{{Unnavigable Canals of the United Kingdom Canals in Shropshire Canals opened in 1788 1788 establishments in England