What is it about the Montgomery canal, it disappeared, only to reappear later

Canals have been a vital part of this country’s development from the eighteenth century – at the very dawn of the industrial revolution – and are still the threads that knit together communities throughout the land. Much of the industry that once thrived on the banks of the cut have long since disappeared or the canal itself is just a distant memory, but there are exceptions, take the Peate family from Maesbury Hall, Maesbury, situated just outside Oswestry on the, now restored section of the Montgomery Canal which forms part of the Shropshire Union Canal system. Yes, they have watched it thrive, decline, finally close and be nearly forgotten but then, almost miraculously, over half a century later, seen it rise from the mud and become navigable once more.

The story of the Peate family at Maesbury Mill starts way back in 1846, when a corn mill replaced a malt kiln, and the milling business, A&A Peate was incorporated with an arm from the canal being built so that boats could be unloaded directly into warehouses, ready for grinding then reloaded for shipped throughout the area. The canal at this time saw steady trade, mainly of agricultural products such as lime, animal feeds, cheese, stone as well as the ubiquitous shipment of coal. Francis Peate, who still lives at Maesbury Hall takes up the story, “The milling business steadily grew throughout the latter part of the 19^th and early 20^th century, with corn initially coming from a radius of about 40 miles, but later from Canada, via Liverpool and Ellesmere Port and shipped to Maesbury for processing then the finished product delivered all over the region. The narrowboat fleet was initially owned and run by the Shropshire Union Railway and Canal Company until 1921 when they ceased trading, and we bought 11 boats from them. These boats were family boats with husband, wife and children all living aboard. Of course, railway companies had owned the Shropshire canals for ages and with, what they called, the Grouping of the railways in the 1920s everything changed dramatically”.

Partly resulting from the lack of funding during the First World War, the government decided that the railways should be reorganised and go from, in the region of 120 companies, to just four – known as the Big Four. These large companies inherited just about all the UK canal system but had little interest in developing – or even maintaining – the waterways as they had the massive task of getting to grips with a sprawling railway network. London Midland & Scotland Railways (LMS) took over the Shropshire Union and found it expensive to run and not very profitable.

Francis continued, “Staffing levels and maintenance went downhill on the canal, and it was causing problems for our fleet, the locks were in poor condition and the channel was silted up so, towards the end of the 1920s, a decision had to be made to somehow change the shipping and distribution arrangements. LMS offered to lay a rail line to the mill, but my grandfather refused, choosing instead to buy a lorry. The powers that be at LMS were furious and said that the new lorry was too heavy to travel over Gas Works bridge, a bridge over the railway in nearby Oswestry, so they had to take quite a long detour. Sadly, in 1932, most of the boats were sold to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal Company so our involvement with the canal ended and, just a few years later, in 1936 there was a breach in the canal, which was not repaired so in 1944, the canal was formally abandoned”.

So that was the end of the A&A Peate fleet – but by chance – not the end of their association with canals as one of the boats, Cressy, built during the First World War, was sold in 1929 to Kyrle Willans, an uncle by marriage of L.T.C (Tom) Rolt, legend of the canal restoration movement. Kyrle had it converted to steam power at Beech’s Dock, at Frankton Locks on the Monty for a doomed project. It was then sold to someone in Leicestershire but in 1936 it was purchased by none other than Rolt. He had it converted at Tooley’s Boatyard in Banbury on the Oxford canal, to his specified ‘design for living’ as a liveaboard. He then travelled some 400 miles around the network and wrote the classic book, Narrow Boat, which was first published in 1944 – and is still in print.

“It’s amazing that one of the narrowboat fleet gained such notoriety later on but what I found more unlikely was the return of the canal. It was a wonderful surprise when, in the 1990s they told us they were restoring the canal to just past Maesbury Marsh at Gronwen Wharf, and once again there were boats moored on the cut”. Said Francis, “Certainly, as a child, I never imagined that the canal would come back to life – but that’s the strange thing about canals – people have such an affinity with, and love for waterways that against all the odds, waterways survive – and thrive”.

Sadly, Maesbury mill stopped milling after a fire in 1972, and other buildings burnt to the ground in 2002 but, rather like the canal, the refurbished wharf has attracted lots of small businesses, some canal related and is now a busy hub.

The restoration of the Montgomery canal is now far past Maesbury Hall Mill and has reached Crickheath, where the Tramway Wharf was rewatered in late 2024 and the restoration team of the Shropshire Union Canal Society, which have now restored a long stretch of the cut, are working hard to get to, School House bridge and then to close the Shropshire Gap forever as they reach the Welsh Border at Llanymynech.

Another great example of a canal reappearing – against all the odds.

If you’d like to be part of this reincarnation, go to www.shropshireunion.org.uk

With thanks to Fiona and Francis Peate