National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port
Encyclopedia
The Ellesmere Port site of the National Waterways Museum is situated at the northern extremity of the Shropshire Union Canal
Shropshire Union Canal
The Shropshire Union Canal is a navigable canal in England; the Llangollen and Montgomery canals are the modern names of branches of the Shropshire Union system and lie partially in Wales....

 where it enters the Manchester Ship Canal
Manchester Ship Canal
The Manchester Ship Canal is a river navigation 36 miles long in the North West of England. Starting at the Mersey Estuary near Liverpool, it generally follows the original routes of the rivers Mersey and Irwell through the historic counties of Cheshire and Lancashire. Several sets of locks lift...

 at Ellesmere Port
Ellesmere Port
Ellesmere Port is a large industrial town and port in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It is situated on the south border of the Wirral Peninsula on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal, which in turn gives access to the River...

, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...

, England . It contains the largest collection of canal boats in the world.

History

The site consisted formerly of a canal port which covered an area of 7 acres (3 ha) which initially linked the Shropshire Union Canal with the River Mersey
River Mersey
The River Mersey is a river in North West England. It is around long, stretching from Stockport, Greater Manchester, and ending at Liverpool Bay, Merseyside. For centuries, it formed part of the ancient county divide between Lancashire and Cheshire....

. It was designed by Thomas Telford
Thomas Telford
Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE was a Scottish civil engineer, architect and stonemason, and a noted road, bridge and canal builder.-Early career:...

 under the direction of William Jessop
William Jessop
William Jessop was an English civil engineer, best known for his work on canals, harbours and early railways in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.-Early life:...

 and continued to function as a working canal port until the 1950s. The canal port consisted of a system of locks
Lock (water transport)
A lock is a device for raising and lowering boats between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a fixed chamber in which the water level can be varied; whereas in a caisson lock, a boat lift, or on a canal inclined plane, it is...

, docks
Dock (maritime)
A dock is a human-made structure or group of structures involved in the handling of boats or ships, usually on or close to a shore.However, the exact meaning varies among different variants of the English language...

 and warehouse
Warehouse
A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns. They usually have loading docks to load and unload...

s, together with a pump and engine room
Engine room
On a ship, the engine room, or ER, commonly refers to the machinery spaces of a vessel. To increase the safety and damage survivability of a vessel, the machinery necessary for operations may be segregated into various spaces, the engine room is one of these spaces, and is generally the largest...

. A toll house
Toll house
A tollhouse or toll house is a building with accommodation for a toll collector, beside a tollgate on a toll road or canal. Many tollhouses were built by turnpike trusts in England, Wales and Scotland during the 18th and early 19th centuries...

 was built in 1805. The Island Warehouse was built in 1871 to store grain.

Museum

The museum covers the area of the previous canal port and contains all the elements previously present in the port, including the locks, docks and warehouses. The Island Warehouse now includes an exhibition on the history of boat-building and, on the upper level, another exhibition which describes the social history of canals, and a soft-play area. The Pump House contains the steam-driven pumping engines which supplied power for the hydraulic
Hydraulics
Hydraulics is a topic in applied science and engineering dealing with the mechanical properties of liquids. Fluid mechanics provides the theoretical foundation for hydraulics, which focuses on the engineering uses of fluid properties. In fluid power, hydraulics is used for the generation, control,...

 cranes
Crane (machine)
A crane is a type of machine, generally equipped with a hoist, wire ropes or chains, and sheaves, that can be used both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally. It uses one or more simple machines to create mechanical advantage and thus move loads beyond the normal capability of...

 and the capstans
Capstan (nautical)
A capstan is a vertical-axled rotating machine developed for use on sailing ships to apply force to ropes, cables, and hawsers. The principle is similar to that of the windlass, which has a horizontal axle.- History :...

 which were used around the dock, and the Power Hall contains a variety of other engines. The blacksmith
Blacksmith
A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...

's forge
Forge
A forge is a hearth used for forging. The term "forge" can also refer to the workplace of a smith or a blacksmith, although the term smithy is then more commonly used.The basic smithy contains a forge, also known as a hearth, for heating metals...

 was where the ironwork for the canal and its boats was made. A resident blacksmith works in the forge. The stable
Stable
A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals...

s which housed the horses and pigs are still present. The former toll house hosts temporary and touring exhibitions. In the museum the Waterways Archive contains a wide range of material relating to waterways in Britain and abroad. The site contains a terrace of four houses known as Porter's Row. There were dock workers' cottages which have been decorated and furnished to represent different periods from the 1840s to the 1950s. The museum contains a collection of historic boats. Short boat trips along the Shropshire Union Canal are arranged. The entrance area to the museum includes a café and a shop. The museum is open at advertised times throughout the year.

The locks within the museum site are designated by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...

 as a Grade II listed building. Also listed Grade II are the lighthouse
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....

 at the entry of the canal into the Mersey, and a lock keeper's hut.

In 2010, the museum was one of three featured on the BBC Four
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....

 series Behind the Scenes at the Museum.

See also

  • National Waterways Museum
    National Waterways Museum
    The National Waterways Museum holds the inland waterways collection at three museum sites in England: Gloucester, Ellesmere Port, and Stoke Bruerne....

  • National Waterways Museum, Gloucester
  • Stoke Bruerne Canal Museum
    Stoke Bruerne Canal Museum
    Stoke Bruerne Canal Museum, part of England's National Waterways Museum, is a canal museum located next to the Grand Union Canal just south of the Blisworth Tunnel, near the village of Stoke Bruerne in Northamptonshire...

  • J. H. Taylor & Sons
    J. H. Taylor & Sons
    J. H. Taylor & Sons was a company that primarily built wooden canal boats on the Shropshire Union Canal at Tower Wharf, Chester. Joseph Harry Taylor set up the business with his son Wilfred in 1914 in the Dee Basin. The company was in Wilfred's name as his father was an undischarged bankrupt...


External links

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