Bridge 122 Over Shropshire Union Canal - Christleton, UK
Posted by: dtrebilc
N 53° 11.123 W 002° 50.664
30U E 510397 N 5892904
This bridge carries Pepper Street over the Shropshire Union Canal and is known as Pepper Bridge.
Waymark Code: WMWF97
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 08/27/2017
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.
The Bridge
This bridge is over a stretch of the canal which was originally part of the Chester Canal, before it became the Shropshire Union Canal. There is a store of stop planks next to the bridge. These are used when a stretch of canal needs to be drained for maintenance. They are often stored near bridges or locks because these places tend to be at the narrowest part of the canal.
The bridge is a Historic England Grade II Listed Building
"Canal road bridge: c.1776 by Samuel Weston for Chester Canal Company. Washed brick with stone dressings. Segmental brick arch on canted piers has a keystone and a projecting stone course above. Rebuilt plain parapet with original coping turns to form short curving wing walls that end in plain pilasters with pyramidal stone caps. Brick flight of steps and stone stile against north-west wing wall."
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