Canal and Boatyard





The Boatyard and Basin
Most people first see the Canal and Boatyard from the City Walls. The section of the city walls between Bonewaldesthorne’s Tower and Pemberton’s Parlour originally dates to the late eleventh or early twelfth centuries, when the defences of Roman Chester were extended westward, but was altered to form a raised promenade between 1701 and 1708, a walk that is about 2m wide.



Approaching the end of this stretch of the City Walls, the Canal and Boatyard come into view to the north. From Boughton to Mollington, the Chester Canal worms its way through the centre of Chester, forming a moat for the walls between Cow Lane Bridge and the Watertower. The Chester Canal which dates 1779 from was dubbed "England's first unsuccessful canal", after its failure to bring heavy industry to Chester.



The City Walls walkway also crosses the railway here, as described in glowing terms by the "Strangers Guide to Chester", where Hughes writes:


 * We are now upon a flat iron Bridge and whew with a rush like that of a tiger from his den the giant of the nineteenth century a steam engine and train emerge from the dark tunnel which passes under the city and dash away beneath us full forty miles an hour en route to Ireland by way of Holyhead The Roman Walls that resisted so successfully the Roundhead batteries have in our own times succumbed to the engines of peace and the railway trains with their living freight now career it merrily through two neighbouring apertures in these ancient fortifications.

It is possible to get down from the City Walls near Bonewaldesthorne’s Tower for a short side-trip to the canal and boatyard. It is also possible to explore the canal by walking along it, although it should be noted that for a veriety of reasons sections of the towpath are sometimes closed.

Why the canal?
During the 13th and 14th century, Chester was the largest and busiest port in the north-west, trading with ports throughout the British Isles and Europe. In the 18th century, it traded in raw hide with the Americas and even sent slave ships to Africa, but only on a fairly small scale. Grain and wine were also major imports. Until the start of the 14th Century, the ancient city walls provided adequate defence to the port (the River Dee used to flow close by the Watergate). Silting of the River Dee had become a problem by the early 18th Century, leading to a loss of maritime trade to rival ports such as Liverpool. In response, the River Dee Company was formed and the Old Port area was developed as a new port for the City. A "New Cut" was formed which, after its opening to shipping in 1737 allowed easier navigation and led to the construction of Crane Wharf.

Even just before the start of of the Industrial Revolution, improvements to the river Weaver after 1730 served to channel trade from central Cheshire away from Chester to the Mersey, and the Trent and Mersey Canal Act of 1766 threatened to strengthen still further the dominance of Liverpool over the Dee. Despite that threat, no apparent opposition to the Trent and Mersey Bill was voiced in Chester, but within two years of its passage there was a proposal for a canal to link Chester to the new canal at Middlewich and surveys were commissioned from the canal engineer James Brindley.





The Chester Canal
The original plan for the Chester Canal was for a canal linking the south Cheshire town of Middlewich with the River Dee at Chester, with a branch to Nantwich, providing a route for produce (including salt) from Nantwich to reach Chester and, beyond it, the sea via the Dee Navigation of 1737. However there were difficulties with the Trent and Mersey Canal company, and its owner the Duke of Bridgewater, who were jealous of their own lucrative traffic and opposed any link with the proposed Chester Canal. Many of the arguments relating to the canal are set out in John Monk's "Remarks relating to a Canal, intended to be made from the city of Chester, to join the navigation from the Trent to the Mersey, at or near Middlewich" (1770)

A limited plan was authorised in 1772 permitting the building of a canal 14 feet wide from Chester to Nantwich and Middlewich. The project was seriously undermined, however, by a requirement that the new canal should end at least 100 yards away from the Trent and Mersey Canal at Middlewich, requiring overland portage rather than allowing for a functional junction. As a result, the Middlewich branch of the Chester Canal was not begun. There were also arguments with the River Dee Company over access to the River Dee at Chester.

When the canal between Chester and Nantwich opened in 1779, it was a dead end and attracted little traffic, leading to financial disaster. No dividends were paid during the canal company between 1772 and 1813. Part of the canal was even closed in 1787, when Beeston staircase locks collapsed, and there was no money to fund repairs. The canal was funded by subscriptions with almost half of the capital of £38,500 coming from Chester, a fifth from Cheshire gentry a tenth from Nantwich and lesser sums from further afield. While the Chester Corporation was strongly in favour of the intended canal to Nantwich and beyond, it was a heavy investor through the Owen Jones charity in the company's shares, thus risking the funds of the charity rather than its own. Various plans wer put forward to improve the canal. In 1791 Joseph Turner, identified in various sources as either "a Chester architect" or a "Whitchurch Engineer" (Canal Ports, John Porteous), put forward a scheme for the course of the Ellesmere/Whitchurch Canal routed to the east of the Dee, with Whitchurch being served by a heavily-locked branch about 10 miles long, up the Wych Valley from a junction near Threapwood.

In 1793 Joseph Turner was to be paid "£20 on erecting a stone arch over the canal from the Northgate garden to the Blue Coat Hospital" (ZA/B/5/f.36v, [p.72] 30 July 1793). This became known as the Bridge of Sighs. He by now appears to have some role in local government as he is involved in the consideration of a "Petition from John Bramwell for a lease of land, to compensate for land recovered from him by River Company" (ZA/B/5/f.43, [p.85] 13 February 1795).

Overall, the Chester Canal was 19.5 miles long, has 17 locks and runs from the River Dee to Nantwich. It is now part of the Shropshire Union Main Line. Chester's canal was saved from ignominious closure by the 'Canal Mania' of the 1790s.

The Wirral Line
The Ellesmere Canal Act was passed in 1793, and although the scheme took 12 years to complete it ultimately connected the city to a much wider hinterland. The first section, opened in 1795, linked Chester to the Mersey at Netherpool (later Ellesmere Port). "Joseph Turner Architect" was named as a shareholder in the 1796 Act which enabled the purchase of the mortgage of the Chester Canal for £8000 from William Egerton (heir of Samuel Egerton). (it was valued at £15,0176 19s and 7d). Turner was engineer for the Chester Canal until 1797, when he was succeeded by John Fletcher.

The addition of the Ellesmere Canal led to some changes in the original layout at Chester. Hunter's Map of Chester (1775) shows how the canal was initially planned to go straight to the River Dee. Nowadays, the River Dee branch heads eastwards from the river, and passes through two locks before turning to the north - initially it went straight on after the basin to join the Northgate staircase of locks - as shown in Stockdale's Map of Chester (1795). The basin was originally tidal but this proved difficult of access and prone to silting, and so a new entrance with a tidal lock was opened in 1801 Another two locks now raise its level to that of the Ellesmere Canal. Originally, the branch continued eastwards after the first two locks, and another two brought it up to the level of the Chester Canal main line. From the junction, the Ellesmere main line heads south, to another right-angled band where it joined the Chester Canal. The last bend proved awkward for horse-drawn boats and was made worse when the railway cut across the cramped site below the locks.

The Wirral line of the Ellesmere Canal proved a great success and revived the depyt-ridden Chester Canal. It was navigable by flats, the standard craft of the Mersey and Weaver, and goods could be brought directly to Chester by water from Liverpool and other points on the Mersey. Lancashire coal, for example, became cheap enough to compete with that from north Wales. A service of passenger packet boats was provided from the opening of the canal, the journey to Liverpool optimistically timed at three hours, and 15,000 passengers a year were using it by 1801. The service continued until the opening of the Chester and Birkenhead Railway in 1840. The new link to the Mersey attracted a Leadworks and corn mills to the canal side. The interdependence of the Chester and Ellesmere companies led to their merger in 1813.

Successful as it was, the new canal served ultimately to demonstrate that Chester's waterborne traffic could be carried more effectively through Liverpool and the Mersey than through its own port. Although the increase in imported grain after 1860 initially made the canal more important, eventually it became more economic to open new mills on the Mersey and the canal-borne trade to Chester ceased, probably around the time of the First World War. The trade in timber brought from the Mersey to the yards at Cow Lane bridge also ceased soon after 1918.

The Langollen Canal
In 1806 Chester was linked by a circuitous new canal (later called the Llangollen Canal) to the Denbighshire coalfield near Ruabon, as well as to Whitchurch in Shropshire and Montgomeryshire. It joined the Chester Canal at Hurleston near Nantwich. Plans for a direct link between Chester and Wrexham foundered because of cost and engineering difficulties.

The Junction Facilities
At the side of the basin is a building which appears to have a roof but no walls. This is actually a covered dry-dock for narrow-boats and can accommodate two boats at once, allowing the hulls of the boats to be maintained. The dry dock at Tower Wharf (known as Graving Dock) is believed to date from 1798, potentially making it the oldest surviving example of its kind on the canal system.

Next to the Graving Dock is a "Roving Bridge". This allows the horses drawing a barge to cross from one side of the river to the other where the tow-path changes sides, as it does here. The clever design of the bridge allows this to happen without disconnecting the tow rope or tangling it. The bridge bears a memorial to L. T. C. Rolt who was a prolific English writer and the biographer of major civil engineering figures including Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Thomas Telford. He is also regarded as one of the pioneers of the leisure cruising industry on Britain's inland waterways, and as an enthusiast for both vintage cars and heritage railways. He was born in Chester to a line of Rolts "dedicated to hunting and procreation".

Telfords Warehouse was originally conceived by the famous industrial engineer Thomas Telford in the 1790’s, the Warehouse stands as a magnificent example of Georgian architecture and as a reminder of the once thriving port of Chester. The building was constructed partly over the canal to allow boats to be located and unloaded from the full height of the loading bay within the building. The grade 2 listed building from 1802 was originally converted to a public house in the 1980′s by local architect James Brotherhood.

In 2000, Telford’s was forced to close due to a major fire which destroyed much of the building’s internal features and took nearly a year to restore.

links

 * Chester canal on Wikipedia.
 * British History Online about the canal.
 * Boatyard on English Heritage;
 * Rolt's memorial;
 * Chester City Walls - Wall from Bonewaldesthorne's Tower to Pemberton's Parlour on Revealing Chesters Past;

=Chester Canal=

From Boughton to Mollington, the Chester Canal worms its way through the centre of Chester, forming a moat for the walls between Cow Lane Bridge and the Water Tower. Overall, the canal is 19.5 miles long, has 17 locks and runs from the River Dee to Nantwich. It is now part of the Shropshire Union Main Line.

Surveying and layout
The original surveyor was James Brindley and work on the canal started in 1772. Brindley's death (from diabetes) was noted in the Chester Courant of 1 December 1772 in the form of a dreadful epitaph which plays upon the cause of his death and is worthy of William McGonagall:


 * JAMES BRINDLEY lies amongst these Rocks,
 * He made Canals, Bridges, and Locks,
 * To convey Water; he made Tunnels
 * for Barges, Boats, and Air-Vessels;
 * He erected several Banks,
 * Mills, Pumps, Machines, with Wheels and Cranks;
 * He was famous t'invent Engines,
 * Calculated for working Mines;
 * He knew Water, its Weight and Strength,
 * Turn'd Brooks, made Soughs to a great Length;
 * While he used the Miners' Blast,
 * He stopp'd Currents from running too fast;
 * There ne'er was paid such Attention
 * As he did to Navigation.
 * But while busy with Pit or Well,
 * His Spirits sunk below Level;
 * And, when too late, his Doctor found,
 * Water sent him to the Ground.

James Brindley was a man of humble birth, and for several years worked as a labourer on a farm, amusing himself in his spare moments with making wooden models of machinery with a pocket-knife. He was so clever that he was often called in by the mill-owners of Macclesfield and Congleton to repair their machinery. When he was first employed by the Duke of Bridgwater he was paid only half a crown a day. He was a very practical man, and gained his knowledge not from books but from his own experiments. When he was called to the House of Commons to explain his scheme for carrying a canal over the Mersey, which many people laughed at as absurd, he took with him a Cheshire cheese which he cut in halves to represent the arches of the bridge, and made a complete cheese model of his proposed work which greatly amused his audience.

Boughton and the Steam Mill
This stretch of the canal is home to several pairs of swans, who build their chaotic nests on the banks.

Harkers Arms to Northgate
There is a turning basin by Cow Lane Bridge.

Northgate to the basin
A flight of three locks descends beneath the railway and ring-road bridges.

Near the base of the Water Tower can be found the Gloverstone worth a diversion to look at if you are passing by.

The Branch to the Dee
Opposite the Water Tower, where a newish development of flats can now be found, the canal tow path was made in part of the gravestones of those who had lived and died on the water. These stones are now gone.

Basin and Boatyard
Taylor’s Boatyard at Tower Wharf was for many years run by David Jones, (67 in 2009), who repaired craft there for 35 years, but is now semi-retired. Parts of the yard date from the 1840s, and it is said to be “possibly the best surviving example” of an historic boat-building yard. In its commercial heyday, the boatyard employed more than 200 people, servicing the huge fleet of canal company working vessels. It comprises a workshop, former saw mill building, former blacksmith’s workshop, covered slipway and dry dock

The yard has been known as Taylor’s Boatyard since it was leased by Joseph Harry Taylor in 1921 when the Shropshire Union Railway & Canal Company ceased carrying.

Prior to 1921, Taylors had a yard on the Dee Basin alongside South View Road. The Dee Basin Slipways were established by Joseph Harry Taylor about 1913.

Initially,Taylors operated the Graving Dock, and one of the 90 ft bays - the other half was operated by a Mr Horne, Canal Carrier of Cambrian Road. They also worked out of what was known as "Dandy's Shed". Dandy's Shed was removed when the North Basin was excavated.

The Taylor family owned and ran the yard until 1972. Bithells Boats then took over the yard for two years before David Jones leased the proprty in 1974.

In 2005 there was disappointment over the failure of a Lottery bid which would have restored the yard. It had been supported by waterway enthusiasts including Mr Taylor’s grandson Geoff Taylor, who lives in nearby Cambrian View.

Links to the canal

 * Chester canal by Jim Shead;


 * Chester canal at Wikipedia;


 * Chester Canal Heritage Trust;


 * "Canal plan";


 * Shropshire Union Canal;