THE CANAL

The canal which runs along the edge of the Heritage Area is named on old maps as The Shropshire Union Canal, but is now known as the Montgomery. Leaving the main Shropshire Union at Welsh Frankton Junction, between Oswestry and Ellesmere, via a flight of locks, the Montgomery runs for thirty five miles to Newtown in Powys. Three different companies were involved in the construction, which, because of cash difficulties, ultimately took thirty years to complete. The first section, to Carreghofa, about a mile west of Llanymynech, was opened in 1796 and the waterway reached Newtown in 1819.

Although much of the traffic was local, some boat companies had contracts to transport goods over long distances. A boatman called Tom Moody, with his boat, Endeavour, for many years carried 20 tons of coal from Black Park Colliery in Chirk to Cymric Mill in Newtown, every week until the mill closed in 1935. Much of the coal used to fire the lime kilns at Llanymynech, and at other sites along the canal, probably came from the same colliery.

Apart from the boats which carried dirty cargoes: coal, limestone, sand etc., (the H.G.Vs. of the waterway), there were also fly, or packet boats which were very fast and carried other freight and passengers. Many boats had quaint, even strange names: Sir John Jellicoe; Contraband; Lemburg; Manchuria, and Arcturus.

S. Owen & Son, coal merchants from Pant, near Llanymynech, had a boat named Five Sisters. Despite the ‘& Son’ part of the company’s title, Sam Owens’ five children were all girls, hence the boat’s name. The company was still using the canal in 1930, and, run by Sam’s grandsons, is trading today, although not on the canal which is now dry in that area.

By 1923 the canal was being managed by the L. M & S. Railway Company and was in slow decline until, in 1936, a major burst near Frankton Locks, which was not repaired, caused the closure.

Although the canal was constructed to carry freight, its presence also brought additional benefits to local people. Villagers remember. “In the 1930s I remember barges carrying coal along the canal,” says Dorothy Marshall, “and Mr. Wall, the builder, hired out canoes for one shilling a boat to visitors. . . Anglers from Warrington fished on the canal. My mother brewed tea for them at sixpence per jug”. Charlie Ingram: “ . . I can remember the last boat unloading sand into Mr. R. Wall’s builders yard . . .You could hire a boat from North View for three pence an hour . . .” And Brenda Driscoll: “When we had hard winters the canal seemed to be frozen for weeks on end. You could walk from Pant to Llanymynech on the ice, sliding. A few people used to go skating. . .” Charlie Ingram again: “Washing day was a chore in those days. I would have to carry the water from the canal (for which we had to pay 2/6, [12.5 pence] per year), and chop sticks for the boiler in the wash house . . .”

All along the canal local communities would use the long, narrow boats for outings, frequently horse drawn. Sunday School outings were the most popular, which the boatmen called, ‘scholar boating’, but the boats would also be used for fetes and carnivals with the vessel often decked out with flags, bunting and flowers. Food would be taken along with lemonade for the children and perhaps some smuggled ale for the dads and games would be played on fields bordering the canal.

For the horse drawn boats stables were sited at intervals so the horses could be rested or changed. Some of these remain and at Llanymynech one of the old stables, near the canal, has been refurbished and is now a Visitor Centre, open at weekends in the summer, with light refreshments and a small museum. The canal is currently being restored.