The Chester Canal was an English canal linking the south Cheshire town of Nantwich with the River Dee at Chester. It was intended to link Chester to Middlewich, with a branch to Nantwich, but the Trent and Mersey Canal were unco-operative about a junction at Middlewich, and so the route to Nantwich was opened in 1779. There were also difficulties negotiating with the River Dee Company, and with no possibility of through traffic, the canal was uneconomic. Part of it was closed in 1787, when Beeston staircase locks collapsed, and there was no money to fund repairs. When the Ellesmere Canal was proposed in 1790, the company saw it as a ray of hope, and somehow managed to keep the struggling canal open. The Ellesmere Canal provided a link to the River Mersey at Ellesmere Port from 1797, and the fortunes of the Chester Canal began to improve.
Chester Canal basin, on the Wirral Line of the Ellesmere Canal, at Raymond Street, near the junction with the Chester Canal and the River Dee
Boats passing on the Northgate Staircase. The boat on the left is ascending the flight, and is moving from the bottom to the middle chamber. The boat on the right is descending.
The Ellesmere Canal was a waterway in England and Wales that was planned to carry boat traffic between the rivers Mersey and Severn. The proposal would create a link between the Port of Liverpool and the mineral industries in north east Wales and the manufacturing centres in the West Midlands. However, the canal was never completed as intended because of its rising costs and failure to generate the expected commercial traffic.
The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct opened to traffic on the Ellesmere Canal in 1805.
Chirk Tunnel on the Ellesmere Canal was completed in 1802.
Whitby Locks, Ellesmere Port Docks.
The Llangollen Canal begins here with a flight of four locks raising the water level more than 34 feet (10 m) from the Shropshire Union.
