Wardle Canal aka Middlewich Arm

[StarUKKiwi]

Saw this today, I think Wardle Canal sounds nicer 

 

https://www.middlewichdiary.co.uk/2021/12/the-wardle-canal-and-ici-works-in-winter.html

[BEngo]

The Wardle canal is only the section from the T and M main line to  Wardle Lock. (The tail I think). The remainder of the branch was part of the Shropshire Union.

 

N

[Tracy D'arth]

Wardle Canal, 45 metres long. Does the lock come under the Wardle Canal or the Shropshire Union (Middlewich Branch )?

 

The sheds above the lock cottage were Percy  Shaw's, the man who invented "cats' eyes", in which he kept contracting equipment.

[BEngo]

Edwards (1950 edition) says the Wardle canal ends at the head of the lock. 

To me that is surprising.  The T&M were a fairly commercially aware bunch, as evidenced by their dealings when  the North Staffs railway was being built and were not much  keen on the Middlewich branch.  For a long time they exacted a very high bar toll for the Wardle canal, to prevent loss of traffic to the Mersey via  Ellesmere Port and the SU main line.

 

I would therefore have expected them to leave the SU with the operating and maintenance costs of Wardle lock.

 

N

 

[Chris Lowe]

50 minutes ago, BEngo said:

The Wardle canal is only the section from the T and M main line to  Wardle Lock. (The tail I think). The remainder of the branch was part of the Shropshire Union.

 

N

The Middlewich branch was originally part of the Chester canal, built by the combined Ellemere & Chester canal company, all later merged with the Birmingham & Liverpool Juncion canal, Shrewsbury canal and several others to form the Shropshire Union.

[Tracy D'arth]

Maureen always claimed that the lock was a gauging lock. Indeed it is over long. Her front room was the ticket office, hence the bay window.

[Heartland]

There was a toll on boats raised by the T & M, hence the cottage was theirs

 

[David Mack]

15 hours ago, BEngo said:

Edwards (1950 edition) says the Wardle canal ends at the head of the lock. 

So does de Sallis in Bradshaw (1904).

The North Staffordshire Railway's Wardle Lock Branch "extends from a junction with the Main Line at the tail of Wardle Lock, Middlewich, to the head of Wardle Lock only, where it joins the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union Canal." 

[magpie patrick]

13 minutes ago, David Mack said:

So does de Sallis in Bradshaw (1904).

The North Staffordshire Railway's Wardle Lock Branch "extends from a junction with the Main Line at the tail of Wardle Lock, Middlewich, to the head of Wardle Lock only, where it joins the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union Canal." 

 Edwards probably took it from Bradshaw - elsewhere spelling mistakes are repeated in Edwards that first occurred in Bradshaw

 

I believe (from Pluto) that de Salis took his information from the canal and railway companies, or from a government office that they reported to 

 

Controlling the lock gave them total control of the junction

[BEngo]

The Bradshaw quote is indeed identical to the words in my Edwards.

It should have been obvious to me that the  T&M owned and controlled the lock so as to control entry to the SU and make sure the tolls were paid.

 

N

Edited January 4, 2022 by BEngo

[StarUKKiwi]

The article does make it clear that it was only the bit to Wardle Lock, but I still think it's a nicer name:)

[Heartland]

Controlling the lock gave them total control of the junction

 

And was the reason for the Wardle Lock Toll. When the Chester Canal Company first proposed the branch to Middlewich the Trent and Mersey objected to a junction and despite some work being done on the branch, the canal to Middlewich was abandoned. A more enlighted T & M management was reponsible for the control of junction branches both at Wardle and Hall Green later (the later being the Macclesfield Canal) see p 57-58 of my Trent and Mersey Book (Crowood Press) for the Wardle Reference. The Wardle Toll has been the subject of a RCHS Waterways History Group Paper.

Peter Brown in his book Shropshire Union Canal  RCHS 2018 has a map 1771 which shows a similar intended junction at Middlewich and deals with the construction of the Middlewich Branch  for the Ellesmere & Chester Canal p98-100 and is also refered to in my Borders Canal Book (Canal Bookshop 2016) p 88-89.