You are here:

Shrewsbury & Newport Canal

Berwick Wharf Canal. © Mark Evison - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

A unique tunnel and the oldest cast iron aqueduct in the world add historical interest to the little-known Shrewsbury and Newport Canal.

In 1797 the midlands’ well-established tub-boat network was extended to Shrewsbury with a 17 mile canal. This length boasted the Trench inclined plane (which outlived even the Foxton inclined plane, closing finally in August 1921) and the Berwick Tunnel (remarkable for being the only tunnel of any significant length to have a towpath running through it).
Thomas Telford also built the world’s first cast iron aqueduct for the Shrewsbury Canal at Longdon on Tern – a good dry run for his later (and more famous) Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.
Unfortunately, few people were able to appreciate this unique canal architecture as the waterway was isolated from the rest of the canal network until 1835 when a new branch was built through Newport. Finally, at the end of the canal era Shrewsbury was linked to the rest of the waterway network.