page_title: Wombridge Canal
hierarchical_section_title: Wombridge Canal
caption_attribution_description: English: Remains of former canal bridge, Wrockwardine Wood The child here is standing on the deck of a former canal bridge. The canal has been filled in, although had I got here about five years earlier it would probably have still been in water. This was the Wombridge Canal, opened in 1788, which extended westwards from the previously isolated Donnington Wood Canal to Wombridge, and later about 1795 was connected by the Trench Inclined Plane to the Shrewsbury Canal at Trench Lock. The canal here was used by tub boats, measuring about 20ft x 6ft, and with capacity for about 8 tons of coal. The main traffic was coal, westwards from the collieries at Donnington Wood to Shrewsbury. At Trench Lock, the cargo was transferred from the tub boats into special 'narrow' narrowboats for onward shipment to Shrewsbury. Unfortunately the zombies of the Telford New Town development agency ignored all the rich industrial heritage in this area, and it has now all disappeared submerged in a sea of mediocrity.
context_page_description: The Wombridge Canal was a tub-boat canal in Shropshire, England, built to carry coal and iron ore from mines in the area to the furnaces where the iron was extracted. It opened in 1788, and parts of it were taken over by the Shrewsbury Canal Company in 1792, who built an inclined plane at Trench. It lowered tub boats 75 feet, and remained in operation until 1921, becoming the last operational canal inclined plane in the country. The canal had been little used since 1919, and closed with the closure of the plane.
context_section_description: The Wombridge Canal was a tub-boat canal in Shropshire, England, built to carry coal and iron ore from mines in the area to the furnaces where the iron was extracted. It opened in 1788, and parts of it were taken over by the Shrewsbury Canal Company in 1792, who built an inclined plane at Trench. It lowered tub boats 75 feet (23 m), and remained in operation until 1921, becoming the last operational canal inclined plane in the country. The canal had been little used since 1919, and closed with the closure of the plane.
caption: Remains of a bridge over the infilled canal at Wrockwardine Wood in 1963
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