In 1827 a private act of parliament was passed to give the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal powers to buy land and build a branch from Norbury Junction to Wappenshall Bridge to meet the existing Shrewsbury Canal and create Wappenshall Junction. This Newport Branch passed through the west of the Lilleshall Estate, including through Aqueduct Plantation, and had its own sub-branch, the Humber Branch. The Leveson-Gower family had its interests protected by the Act and as an investor in the company.
Planning the Newport Branch
Peter Brown’s book on the Shropshire Union Canal has an excellent description of the origins of the branch, largely based on the canal company records in the National Archives.
The main act of parliament for the canal was the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal Act of 1826. The original text included a branch running due west from the BLJC main line near Church Eaton to the end of the Donnington Wood Canal at Pave Lane. This would allow goods to be shipped from the main canal all the way to Shrewsbury and to the River Severn at Coalport near Ironbridge. But in the end, the branch was dropped to ease its passage through parliament.
It was James Loch, the Leveson-Gowers’ Chief Agent, who proposed withdrawing the branch to Pave Lane. He had a better route in mind, running from Norbury to Newport and then joining the Shrewsbury Canal at Wappenshall, with goods able to proceed west to Shrewsbury or southeast to the Donnington Wood or Shropshire canals. The canal’s 1827 act of parliament provided for some realignment of the main line and also gave the powers which were used to purchase land and construct this Newport Branch. It gave better access to the Estate, especially in the western Weald Moors area not already served by the Donnington Wood Canal.
The 1827 act described features which are still visible on the ground today. Section XXX required the canal company not to interfere with the drainage work already carried out by the Estate on the Weald Moors:
‘XXX. And whereas various extensive and complicated Works have been executed at a great Expence upon the Estate of the said Lord Gower, for the Purpose of draining a certain extensive District called the Wildmoors, and for preserving the adjoining Lands from the Inundation of the Strines or Rivers running through the same; be it therefore enacted, That it shall not be lawful for the said Company of Proprietors, by any Work to be done under the Authority of this Act, to alter, injure, or destroy any of the Drains, Ditches, Culverts, Embankments, or other Works made for the Purpose of the said Drainage”
Section XXXI described the aqueduct over Kynnersley Drive, its embankment which is now covered by the Aqueduct Plantation, and the now lost stone bridge. It also required the company to avoid damage to the drive and the horse chestnuts planted along its length:
“XXXI. And whereas the said Canal will intersect a private Road or Avenue belonging to the said Lord Gower, planted on each Side with Trees, and called The Lilleshall and Kinnersley Drive; be it therefore enacted, That the said Company of Proprietors shall carry the said Canal across the said private Road or Avenue, doing as little Injury to the same, and to the Trees at the Sides thereof, as may be, and shall keep the Banks of the Canal at that Point as low as the Safety of the Canal will permit, and shall construct in the Line of the said Road a Bridge across the said Canal, of the like Width with the said private Road or Avenue, with a sloping Bank leading thereto on each Side of the said Canal, not exceeding One Foot perpendicular for every Eighteen Feet in Length”
Side branches
Two side branches were set out in the 1827 act of parliament, both of which would have benefitted the Estate but neither of which were constructed in the end.
Peter Brown mentions one based on James Loch’s correspondence northwards to Wall Farm on the Kynnersley to Tiverton road, and this seems to correspond to this provision in Section III:
“one other new and additional Cut or Canal commencing from the Line of the said last-mentioned Branch Canal, at or near to a certain Place called The Buttery, in the Parish of Edgmond aforesaid, and terminating in a certain Field in the said Parish in the Occupation of John Masefield, adjoining the Road leading from Kinnersley to Edgmond aforesaid”
Judging by the contemporary Ordnance Survey maps, the best road route from Kynnersley to Edgmond was via Tibberton, although the current Restricted Byway through Buttery farmyard would have been another route at the time. John Masefield was the tenant of Buttery Farm according to Loch’s book describing the improvements to the family’s estates. Either way it would have been a short branch less than a kilometre long across level ground. Section XXXII allowed the canal company to build a wharf at the end of this side branch. Presumably it would have been used to bring lime from the Lilleshall Company’s limekilns to increase the pH of the surrounding acidic, peaty farmland of the Weald Moors, and export produce from the area by boat.
The other side branch in the act was specified by Section XXVII, in which the company undertook to build a canal or railway or tramroad from the Newport Branch to the turnpike road from Newport to Wellington to serve the mines of coal, ironstone, and limestone on the Estate. This wasn’t built in the end either, even though Section XXIX allowed the Leveson-Gowers to build it themselves and reclaim the cost from the company if it was not built for them in time.
This second unbuilt side branch had some similarity to the Humber Branch which was eventually built in 1844. This started just south of the Newport Branch’s crossing of Kynnersley Drive, running southeast for three quarters of a mile with no locks. It terminated with a basin and Lubstree Wharf, just before the ground began to rise which would have required locks and a source of water. It was connected to the Donnington Wood Canal with a tramway. Since it was entirely on Estate land, no act of parliament was required and Peter Brown reported it was not mentioned in the company’s minutes. Section CXXXIX of the original 1826 act allowed owners of land adjacent to the canal to make branches at their own expense and connect to the company’s main line and branches.
Closure and preservation
Lubstree Wharf on the Humber Branch was closed by the Estate in 1922. The Newport Branch was finally closed in 1965, despite opposition from local people and councils, and the land disposed of rather than retained as a footpath. The campaign to prevent this led to what became the Shropshire Union Canal Society and worked to preserve the main line. Newport town council did manage to save the length of canal through the town and have converted the narrow locks into weirs. There is a length near the town basin which is navigable when boats are brought in by road to promote the canal restoration. In 2000, the dedicated Shrewsbury & Newport Canals Trust was formed to work towards the restoration of the branch from Norbury Junction to Newport, Wappenshall Junction and Shrewsbury. In 2009 Telford and Wrekin Council purchased Wappenshall Junction and part of the surrounding canal for the Trust to maintain and restore, and it is set to open in 2025 with a cafe and small visitors’ centre. Parties of volunteers are at work elsewhere along the branch, clearing undergrowth and preserving the surviving line of the canal. One day the pieces may be linked back up and the branch will become navigable again.