Exploring Telford
The Old Canal System
Although this section of the canal was the last to be in use, and I have seen three photographs, taken well into this century, it proved hard to trace.
From the junction opposite Canal Side on Furnace Lane, it crossed Furnace Lane (originally a plateway) turning east along Canal Side -rather a give-away to a canal-hunter, that. Then it ran across Wade Road, forward to Church Road and across it just north of Wrockwardine Wood Primary School.
Matthew O'Neill kindly sent a photo of the path which is the remains of the towpath between Church Road and Wade Road.
West of Church Road there is a mill building which was formerly a canal-side flour mill, and the reason why the canal up to the point was the last section in use. It was being converted into residences, but the project must have failed and it is now, very sadly, derelict.
From there the canal curved south into the grounds of Oakengates Leisure Centre. Here the ground has been flattened to make playing fields, and a stream which used to run south to north has been culverted or diverted - either way, it was gone by 1937. The canal made a loop to the south, almost to where Wrockwardine Wood Way is now, and left these grounds by a path which skirts the end of Kingston Road and emerges onto Wombridge Road.
The name of the Bridge pub is another give-away, even if the pub is modern; the canal passed by it, parallel to Teagues Crescent as long as it runs level and following the contour where the road bends north and goes downhill, emerging from the backs of the houses onto Capewell Road. Here there was a junction with the Wombridge arm, and the top of Trench Inclined Plane, which ran down past the site of Teagues Bridge Primary School and the Community Centre to the Blue Pig pub (formerly the Shropshire Arms) which stands at the southern corner of Trench pool. The pool was a canal reservoir, and the bottom of the inclined plane was under the modern Queensway.
