Shropshire Union Canal (Dee Branch) - Top Lock - Chester, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 11.674 W 002° 54.004
30U E 506676 N 5893919
The Dee Branch is broad canal and is a short stretch of the Shropshire Union Canal less than 1 mile long. It connects the main line of the canal with the River Dee.
Waymark Code: WMWF06
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 08/25/2017
Views: 1
The Canal
Before canals became popular in the UK there was a port on the River Dee at Chester.
After the Trent and Mersy Canal was built a loat of boat traffic diverted to the canal and Chester was worried about losing all its trade and so proposed a canal from the River Dee to connect to the Trent and Mersey Canal at Middlewich
with a branch to Nantwich. However the Trent and Mersey Canal were unco-operative about a junction at Middlewich, and so the route to Nantwich was opened in 1779.
Later on in 1795 the Ellesmere Canal was built from Ellesmere Port to connect to the Chester Canal and later after other extensions various parts of the Canal were merged to form the Shropshire Union Canal.
When the Chester Canal was completed it used to connect to the River Dee at a point to the south of here. When the Ellesmere canal was completed the easternmost part of the connection to the Dee including two locks was infilled and the start of the branch moved north to here and two new locks built including this one.
These days most of the short Dee Branch that connects the Shropshire Union to the River Dee is closed and boats can no longer connect to the River Dee.
The are proposals to renovate this stretch of the canal and build a new lock in a weir to restore navigation to the River Dee.
The Lock
This top lock is still operational and provides access from old canal wharves down to moorings on the highest part of the Dee Branch of the canal.
This lock is a Historic England Grade II Listed Building.
"Broad lock. Early-mid C19. Brick. Designed to convey "Mersey flats" between the Dee at Crane Wharf and Chester Basin. Lock chamber of brick with massive sandstone blocks to corners of lock-gate recesses. Pairs of timber lock gates, repaired; upper end to lock chamber is segmental in plan; steel-lined grooves to take planks of wood so that a boat can be supported on them to grave its bottom or do other small repairs to the boat; outlet from sluiceway from adjacent dry dock (qv) has roughly-shaped stone quoins and segmental brick arch. Brick-and-sandstone walls to lower entrance to lock. Replaced broad footbridge across lock."
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