Shropshire Union Canal

The Shropshire Union Canal is a canal linking Wolverhampton with the River Mersey. It has been described as the last trunk canal route to be built in England, being completed in 1835, and it was the last major civil engineering accomplishment of Thomas Telford.

The majority of the canal (ie: the stretch south of the Cheshire town of Nantwich) was originally constructed as the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal. At Nantwich, it links with what was then known as the Chester Canal; north of Chester, the route to the Mersey was completed by the northern extremity of the Ellesmere Canal.

The stretch at Nantwich is notable for a long sweeping embankment incorporating an aqueduct carrying the canal across the main Nantwich-Chester road. Further south there were substantial lengths of embankment south of the Shropshire village of Knighton and south of Norbury Junction, deep cuttings at Woodseaves and south of High Offley, plus a 690-yard tunnel near Gnossall.