Bridge 69 Over The Shropshire Union Canal (Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal - Main Line) - Adderley, UK
Posted by: dtrebilc
N 52° 56.921 W 002° 29.509
30U E 534145 N 5866683
This single arch bridge carries Greenbank over the Shropshire Union Canal (Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal - Main Line) and is known as Adderley Wharf Bridge.
Waymark Code: WMYJ5R
Location: West Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 06/19/2018
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.
After the canal was built to Nantwich the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal was built to connect Nantwich to Authley near Wolverhampton. Eventually these canals and a number of others merged to form the Shropshire Union Canal.
The Bridge
The bridge is next to the bottom gates of Adderley lock number 1 and is a Historic England Grade II Listed Building.
"Canal bridge. Circa 1830. Thomas Telford and Alexander Easton, engineers. Dressed red/yellow sandstone with tooled ashlar dressings. Elliptical arch with voussoirs and flush keystones. Chamfered string and parapet with square end piers and rounded coping. Slightly battered and curved abutments. Cast-iron corner posts on towpath side with grooves formed by rope haulage. Oval cast-iron number plate to south. This stretch of canal was built as part of the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal (Act passed 1826, opened 1835) which was absorbed by the Ellesmere and Chester Canal in 1845 and eventually became part of the Shropshire Union in 1846. This bridge is slightly different from most on this stretch of the canal as it is not humped-backed but spans the short cutting at an angle to the horizontal. The bridge marks the top end of the Adderley flight of locks. Charles Hadfield, The Canals of the West Midlands, pp. 183-9.
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