Bridge 114 Over Shropshire Union Canal - Christleton, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 08.533 W 002° 45.949
30U E 515664 N 5888117
This single arch brick built bridge is an accommodation bridge over the Shropshire Union Canal for nearby farms and is known as Nixon's Bridge.
Waymark Code: WMWRRT
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 10/08/2017
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.
The bridge is a Historic England Grade II Listed Building
"Canal accommodation bridge: c.1776 by Samuel Weston for the Chester Canal Company. Washed orange brick. Segmental arch on curving piers has stone springers and keyblock. Raised stone band above. Curving wing walls. Plain parapet has flat stone coping that steps down over the wing walls. Stone steps at north-west corner."
link
These days the bridge only carries a public footpath.