THE ELLESMERE CANAL.
The ellesmere canal consists of a series of navigations proceeding
from the river Dee in the vale of Llangollen. One branch passes
northward, near the towns of Ellesmere, Whitchurch, Nantwich, and
the city of Chester, to Ellesmere Port on the Mersey; another,
in a south-easterly direction, through the middle of Shropshire
towards Shrewsbury on the Severn; and a third, in a south-westerly
direction, by the town of Oswestry, to the Montgomeryshire Canal
near Llanymynech; its whole extent, including the Chester Canal,
incorporated with it, being about 112 miles.
[Image] Map of Ellesmere Canal
The success of the Duke of Bridgewater's Canal had awakened the
attention of the landowners throughout England, but more especially
in the districts immediately adjacent to the scene of the Duke's
operations, as they saw with their own eyes the extraordinary
benefits which had followed the opening up of the navigations.
The resistance of the landed gentry, which many of these schemes had
originally to encounter, had now completely given way, and, instead
of opposing canals, they were everywhere found anxious for their
construction. The navigations brought lime, coal, manure, and
merchandise, almost to the farmers' doors, and provided them at the
same time with ready means of conveyance for their produce to good
markets. Farms in remote situations were thus placed more on an
equality with those in the neighbourhood of large towns; rents rose
in consequence, and the owners of land everywhere became the
advocates and projectors of canals.
The dividends paid by the first companies were very high, and it
was well known that the Duke's property was bringing him in immense
wealth. There was, therefore, no difficulty in getting the shares
in new projects readily subscribed for: indeed Mr. Telford relates
that at the first meeting of the Ellesmere projectors, so eager
were the public, that four times the estimated expense was
subscribed without hesitation. Yet this navigation passed through
a difficult country, necessarily involving very costly works; and
as the district was but thinly inhabited, it did not present a very
inviting prospect of dividends.*[1] But the mania had fairly set
in, and it was determined that the canal should be made. And
whether the investment repaid the immediate proprietors or not, it
unquestionably proved of immense advantage to the population of the
districts through which it passed, and contributed to enhance the
value of most of the adjoining property.
The Act authorising the construction of the canal was obtained in
1793, and Telford commenced operations very shortly after his
appointment in October of the same year. His first business was to
go carefully over the whole of the proposed line, and make a careful
working survey, settling the levels of the different lengths,
and the position of the locks, embankments, cuttings, and aqueducts.
In all matters of masonry work he felt himself master of the
necessary details; but having had comparatively small experience of
earthwork, and none of canal-making, he determined to take the
advice of Mr. William Jessop on that part of the subject; and he
cordially acknowledges the obligations he was under to that eminent
engineer for the kind assistance which he received from him on many
occasions.
The heaviest and most important part of the undertaking was in
carrying the canal through the rugged country between the rivers
Dee and Ceriog, in the vale of Llangollen. From Nantwich to
Whitchurch the distance is 16 miles, and the rise 132 feet,
involving nineteen locks; and from thence to Ellesmere, Chirk,
Pont-Cysylltau, and the river Dee, 1 3/4 mile above Llangollen, the
distance is 38 1/4 miles, and the rise 13 feet, involving only two
locks. The latter part of the undertaking presented the greatest
difficulties; as, in order to avoid the expense of constructing
numerous locks, which would also involve serious delay and heavy
expense in working the navigation, it became necessary to contrive
means for carrying the canal on the same level from one side of the
respective valleys of the Dee and the Ceriog to the other; and
hence the magnificent aqueducts of Chirk and Pont-Cysylltau,
characterised by Phillips as "among the boldest efforts of human
invention in modem times."*[2] The Chirk Aqueduct carries the canal
across the valley of the Ceriog, between Chirk Castle and the
village of that name. At this point the valley is above 700 feet
wide; the banks are steep, with a flat alluvial meadow between
them, through which the river flows. The country is finely
wooded. Chirk Castle stands on an eminence on its western side,
with the Welsh mountains and Glen Ceriog as a background; the whole
composing a landscape of great beauty, in the centre of which
Telford's aqueduct forms a highly picturesque object.
[Image] Chirk Aqueduct
The aqueduct consists of ten arches of 40 feet span each.
The level of the water in the canal is 65 feet above the meadow,
and 70 feet above the level of the river Ceriog. The proportions
of this work far exceeded everything of the kind that had up to
that time been attempted in England. It was a very costly structure;
but Telford, like Brindley, thought it better to incur a considerable
capital outlay in maintaining the uniform level of the canal, than
to raise and lower it up and down the sides of the valley by locks
at a heavy expense in works, and a still greater cost in time and
water. The aqueduct is a splendid specimen of the finest class of
masonry, and Telford showed himself a master of his profession by
the manner in which he carried out the whole details of the
undertaking. The piers were carried up solid to a certain height,
above which they were built hollow, with cross walls. The spandrels
also, above the springing of the arches, were constructed with
longitudinal walls, and left hollow.*[3] The first stone was laid
on the 17th of June, 1796, and the work was completed in the year
1801; the whole remaining in a perfect state to this day.
The other great aqueduct on the Ellesmere Canal, named Pont-Cysylltau,
is of even greater dimensions, and a far more striking object in
the landscape. Sir Walter Scott spoke of it to Southey as "the
most impressive work of art he had ever seen." It is situated about
four miles to the north of Chirk, at the crossing of the Dee, in
the romantic vale of Llangollen. The north bank of the river is
very abrupt; but on the south side the acclivity is more gradual.
The lowest part of the valley in which the river runs is 127 feet
beneath the water-level of the canal; and it became a question with
the engineer whether the valley was to be crossed, as originally
intended, by locking down one side and up the other--which would
have involved seven or eight locks on each side--or by carrying it
directly across by means of an aqueduct.
The execution of the proposed locks would have been very costly,
and the working of them in carrying on the navigation would
necessarily have involved a great waste of water, which was a
serious objection, inasmuch as the supply was estimated to be no
more than sufficient to provide for the unavoidable lockage and
leakage of the summit level. Hence Telford was strongly in favour
of an aqueduct; but, as we have already seen in the case of that at
Chirk, the height of the work was such as to render it impracticable
to construct it in the usual manner, upon masonry piers and arches
of sufficient breadth and strength to afford room for a puddled
water-way, which would have been extremely hazardous as well as
expensive. He was therefore under the necessity of contriving some
more safe and economical method of procedure; and he again resorted
to the practice which he had adopted in the construction of the
Chirk Aqueduct, but on a much larger scale.
[Image] Pont-Cyslltau--Side view of Cast Iron Trough
It will be understood that many years elapsed between the period at
which Telford was appointed engineer to the Ellesmere Canal and the
designing of these gigantic works. He had in the meantime been
carefully gathering experience from a variety of similar
undertakings on which he was employed, and bringing his
observations of the strength of materials and the different forms
of construction to bear upon the plans under his consideration for
the great aqueducts of Chirk and Pont-Cysylltau. In 1795 he was
appointed engineer to the Shrewsbury Canal, which extends from that
town to the collieries and ironworks in the neighbourhood of
Wrekin, crossing the rivers Roden and Tern, and Ketley Brook, after
which it joins the Dorrington and Shropshire Canals. Writing to his
Eskdale friend, Telford said : "Although this canal is only
eighteen miles long, yet there are many important works in its
course--several locks, a tunnel about half a mile long, and two
aqueducts. For the most considerable of these last, I have just
recommended an aqueduct of iron. It has been approved, and will be
executed under my direction, upon a principle entirely new, and
which I am endeavouring to establish with regard to the application
of iron."*[4]
It was the same principle which he applied to the great aqueducts
of the Ellesmere Canal now under consideration. He had a model made
of part of the proposed aqueduct for Pont-Cysylltau, showing the
piers, ribs, towing-path, and side railing, with a cast iron trough
for the canal. The model being approved, the design was completed;
the ironwork was ordered for the summit, and the masonry of the
piers then proceeded. The foundation-stone was laid on the 25th
July, 1795, by Richard Myddelton, Esq., of Chirk Castle, M.P., and
the work was not finished until the year 1803,--thus occupying a
period of nearly eight years in construction.
The aqueduct is approached on the south side by an embankment 1500
feet in length, extending from the level of the water-way in the
canal until its perpendicular height at the "tip" is 97 feet;
thence it is carried to the opposite side of the valley, over the
river Dee, upon piers supporting nineteen arches, extending to the
length of 1007 feet. The height of the piers above low water in the
river is 121 feet. The lower part of each was built solid for 70
feet, all above being hollow, for the purpose of saving masonry as
well as ensuring good workmanship. The outer walls of the hollow
portion are only two feet thick, with cross inner walls. As each
stone was exposed to inspection, and as both Telford and his
confidential foreman, Matthew Davidson,*[5] kept a vigilant eye
upon the work, scamping was rendered impossible, and a first-rate
piece of masonry was the result.
[Image] Pont-Cyslltau Aqueduct
Upon the top of the masonry was set the cast iron trough for the
canal, with its towing-path and side-rails, all accurately fitted
and bolted together, forming a completely water-tight canal, with a
water-way of 11 feet 10 inches, of which the towing-path, standing
upon iron pillars rising from the bed of the canal, occupied 4 feet
8 inches, leaving a space of 7 feet 2 inches for the boat.*[6]
The whole cost of this part of the canal was 47,018L., which was
considered by Telford a moderate sum compared with what it must
have cost if executed after the ordinary manner. The aqueduct was
formally opened for traffic in 1805. "And thus," said Telford, "has
been added a striking feature to the beautiful vale of Llangollen,
where formerly was the fastness of Owen Glendower, but which, now
cleared of its entangled woods, contains a useful line of
intercourse between England and Ireland; and the water drawn from
the once sacred Devon furnishes the means of distributing
prosperity over the adjacent land of the Saxons."
[Image] Section of Top of Pont-Cyslltau Aqueduct.
It is scarcely necessary to refer to the other works upon this
canal, some of which were of considerable magnitude, though they
may now seem dwarfed by comparison with the works of recent
engineers, Thus, there were two difficult tunnels cut through hard
rock, under the rugged ground which separates the valleys of the
Dee and the Ceriog. One of these is 500 and the other 200 yards in
length. To ensure a supply of water for the summit of the canal,
the lake called Bala Pool was dammed up by a regulating weir, and
by its means the water was drawn off at Llandisilio when required
for the purposes of the navigation; the navigable feeder being six
miles long, carried along the bank of the Llangollen valley.
All these works were skilfully executed; and when the undertaking
was finished, Mr. Telford may be said to have fairly established
his reputation as an engineer of first rate ability.
We now return to Telford's personal history during this important
period of his career. He had long promised himself a visit to his
dear Eskdale, and the many friends he had left there; but more
especially to see his infirm mother, who had descended far into the
vale of years, and longed to see her son once more before she died.
He had taken constant care that she should want for nothing.
She formed the burden of many of his letters to Andrew Little.
"Your kindness in visiting and paying so much attention to her,"
said he, "is doing me the greatest favour which you could possibly
confer upon me." He sent his friend frequent sums of money, which
he requested him to lay out in providing sundry little comforts for
his mother, who seems to have carried her spirit of independence so
far as to have expressed reluctance to accept money even from her
own son. "I must request," said he, "that you will purchase and
send up what things may be likely to be wanted, either for her or
the person who may be with her, as her habits of economy will
prevent her from getting plenty of everything, especially as she
thinks that I have to pay for it, which really hurts me more than
anything else."*[7] Though anxious to pay his intended visit, he
was so occupied with one urgent matter of business and another that
he feared it would be November before he could set out. He had to
prepare a general statement as to the navigation affairs for a
meeting of the committee; he must attend the approaching Salop
quarter sessions, and after that a general meeting of the Canal
Company; so that his visit must be postponed for yet another month.
"Indeed," said he, "I am rather distressed at the thoughts of
running down to see a kind parent in the last stage of decay, on
whom I can only bestow an affectionate look, and then leave her:
her mind will not be much consoled by this parting, and the
impression left upon mine will be more lasting; than pleasant."*[8]
He did, however, contrive to run down to Eskdale in the following
November. His mother was alive, but that was all. After doing what
he could for her comfort, and providing that all her little wants
were properly attended to, he hastened back to his responsible
duties in connection with the Ellesmere Canal. When at Langholm,
he called upon his former friends to recount with them the incidents
of their youth. He was declared to be the same "canty" fellow as
ever, and, though he had risen greatly in the world, he was "not a
bit set up." He found one of his old fellow workmen, Frank Beattie,
become the principal innkeeper of the place. "What have you made of
your mell and chisels?" asked Telford. "Oh!" replied Beattie,
"they are all dispersed--perhaps lost." "I have taken better care
of mine," said Telford; "I have them all locked up in a room at
Shrewsbury, as well as my old working clothes and leather apron:
you know one can never tell what may happen."
He was surprised, as most people are who visit the scenes of their
youth after a long absence, to see into what small dimensions
Langholm had shrunk. That High Street, which before had seemed so
big, and that frowning gaol and court-house in the Market Place,
were now comparatively paltry to eyes that had been familiar with
Shrewsbury, Portsmouth, and London. But he was charmed, as ever,
with the sight of the heather hills and the narrow winding valley--
"Where deep and low the hamlets lie
Beneath their little patch of sky,
And little lot of stars."
On his return southward, he was again delighted by the sight of old
Gilnockie Castle and the surrounding scenery. As he afterwards
wrote to his friend Little, "Broomholm was in all his glory."
Probably one of the results of this visit was the revision of the
poem of 'Eskdale,' which he undertook in the course of the
following spring, putting in some fresh touches and adding many new
lines, whereby the effect of the whole was considerably improved.
He had the poem printed privately, merely for distribution amongst
friends; being careful," as he said, that "no copies should be
smuggled and sold."
Later in the year we find him, on his way to London on business,
sparing a day or two for the purpose of visiting the Duke of
Buckingham's palace and treasures of art at Stowe; afterwards
writing out an eight-page description of it for the perusal of his
friends at Langholm. At another time, when engaged upon the viaduct
at Pont-Cysylltau, he snatched a few day's leisure to run through
North Wales, of which he afterwards gave a glowing account to his
correspondent. He passed by Cader Idris, Snowdon, and Penmaen Mawr.
"Parts of the country we passed through," he says, "very much
resemble the lofty green hills and woody vales of Eskdale. In other
parts the magnificent boldness of the mountains, the torrents,
lakes, and waterfalls, give a special character to the scenery,
unlike everything of the kind I had before seen. The vale of
Llanrwst is peculiarly beautiful and fertile. In this vale is the
celebrated bridge of Inigo Jones; but what is a much more
delightful circumstance, the inhabitants of the vale are the most
beautiful race of people I have ever beheld; and I am much
astonished that this never seems to have struck the Welsh tourists.
The vale of Llangollen is very fine, and not the least interesting
object in it, I can assure you, is Davidson's famous aqueduct
[Pont-Cysylltau], which is already reckoned among the wonders of
Wales. Your old acquaintance thinks nothing of having three or
four carriages at his door at a time."*[9] It seems that, besides
attending to the construction of the works, Telford had to
organise the conduct of the navigation at those points at which the
canal was open for traffic. By the middle of 1797 he states that
twenty miles were in working condition, along which coal and lime
were conveyed in considerable quantifies, to the profit of the
Company and the benefit of the public; the price of these articles
having already in some places been reduced twenty-five, and in
others as much as fifty, per cent. "The canal affairs," he says in
one of his letters, "have required a good deal of exertion, though
we are on the whole doing well. But, besides carrying on the
works, it is now necessary to bestow considerable attention on the
creating and guiding of a trade upon those portions which are
executed. This involves various considerations, and many
contending and sometimes clashing interests. In short, it is the
working of a great machine: in the first place, to draw money out
of the pockets of a numerous proprietary to make an expensive
canal, and then to make the money return into their pockets by the
creation of a business upon that canal." But, as if all this
business were not enough, he was occupied at the same time in
writing a book upon the subject of Mills. In the year 1796 he had
undertaken to draw up a paper on this topic for the Board of
Agriculture, and by degrees it had grown into a large quarto
volume, illustrated by upwards of thirty plates. He was also
reading extensively in his few leisure moments; and among the solid
works which he perused we find him mentioning Robertson's
'Disquisitions on Ancient India,' Stewart's 'Philosophy of the
Human Mind,' and Alison's 'Principles of Taste.' As a relief from
these graver studies, he seems, above all things, to have taken
peculiar pleasure" In occasionally throwing off a bit of
poetry. Thus, when laid up at an hotel in Chester by a blow on his
leg, which disabled him for some weeks, he employed part of his
time in writing his 'Verses on hearing of the Death of Robert
Burns.' On another occasion, when on his way to London, and
detained for a night at Stratford-on-Avon, he occupied the evening
at his inn in composing some stanzas, entitled 'An Address to the
River Avon.' And when on his way back to Shrewsbury, while resting
for the night at Bridgenorth, he amused himself with revising and
copying out the verses for the perusal of Andrew Little.
"There are worse employments," he said,"when one has an hour to
spare from business;" and he asked his friend's opinion of the
composition. It seems to have been no more favourable than the
verses deserved; for, in his next letter, Telford says, "I think
your observation respecting the verses to the Avon are correct.
It is but seldom I have time to versify; but it is to me something
like what a fiddle is to others, I apply to it in order to relieve
my mind, after being much fatigued with close attention to
business."
It is very pleasant to see the engineer relaxing himself in this
way, and submitting cheerfully to unfavourable criticism, which is
so trying to even the best of tempers. The time, however, thus
taken from his regular work was not loss, but gain. Taking the
character of his occupation into account, it was probably the best
kind of relaxation he could have indulged in. With his head full of
bridges and viaducts, he thus kept his heart open to the influences
of beauty in life and nature; and, at all events, the writing of
verses, indifferent though they might have been, proved of this
value to him--that it cultivated in him the art of writing better
prose.
Footnotes for Chapter VI.
*[1] The Ellesmere Canal now pays about 4 per cent. dividend.
*[2] 'A General History of Inland Navigation, Foreign and
Domestic,' &c. By J. Phillips. Fourth edition. London, 1803.
*[3] [Image] Section of Pier
Telford himself thus modestly describes the merit of this original
contrivance: "Previously to this time such canal aqueducts had been
uniformly made to retain the water necessary for navigation by
means of puddled earth retained by masonry; and in order to obtain
sufficient breadth for this superstructure, the masonry of the
piers, abutments, and arches was of massive strength; and after all
this expense, and every imaginable precaution, the frosts, by
swelling the moist puddle, frequently created fissures, which burst
the masonry, and suffered the water to escape--nay, sometimes
actually threw down the aqueducts; instances of this kind having
occurred even in the works of the justly celebrated Brindley.
It was evident that the increased pressure of the puddled earth was
the chief cause of such failures: I therefore had recourse to the
following scheme in order to a void using it. The spandrels of the
stone arches were constructed with longitudinal walls, instead of
being filled in with earth (as at Kirkcudbright Bridge), and across
these the canal bottom was formed by cast iron plates at each side,
infixed in square stone masonry. These bottom plates had flanches
on their edges, and were secured by nuts and screws at every
juncture. The sides of the canal were made water-proof by ashlar
masonry, backed with hard burnt bricks laid in Parker's cement, on
the outside of which was rubble stone work, like the rest of the
aqueduct. The towing path had a thin bed of clay under the gravel,
and its outer edge was protected by an iron railing. The width of
the water-way is 11 feet; of the masonry on each side, 5 feet 6
inches; and the depth of the water in the canal, 5 feet. By this
mode of construction the quantity of masonry is much diminished,
and the iron bottom plate forms a continuous tie, preventing the
side-walls from separation by lateral pressure of the contained
water."--'Life of Telford,' p. 40.
*[4] Letter to Mr. Andrew Little, Langholm, dated Shrewsbury,
13th March, 1795.
*[5] Matthew Davidson had been Telford's fellow workman at Langholm,
and was reckoned an excellent mason. He died at Inverness,
where he had a situation on the Caledonian Canal.
*[6] Mr. Hughes, C.E., in his 'Memoir of William Jessop,' published
in 'Weale's Quarterly Papers on Engineering,' points out the bold
and original idea here adopted, of constructing a water-tight
trough of cast iron, in which the water of the canal was to be
carried over the valleys, instead of an immense puddled trough,
in accordance with the practice until that time in use; and he adds,
"the immense importance of this improvement on the old practice is
apt to be lost sight of at the present day by those who overlook
the enormous size and strength of masonry which would have been
required to support a puddled channel at the height of 120 feet."
Mr. Hughes, however, claims for Mr. Jessop the merit of having
suggested the employment of iron, though, in our opinion, without
sufficient reason.
Mr. Jessop was, no doubt, consulted by Mr. Telford on the subject;
but the whole details of the design, as well as the suggestion of
the use of iron (as admitted by Mr. Hughes himself), and the
execution of the entire works, rested with the acting engineer.
This is borne out by the report published by the Company
immediately after the formal opening of the Canal in 1805, in which
they state: "Having now detailed the particulars relative to the
Canal, and the circumstances of the concern, the committee, in
concluding their report, think it but justice due to Mr. Telford to
state that the works have been planned with great skill and
science, and executed with much economy and stability, doing him,
as well as those employed by him, infinite credit. (Signed)
Bridgewater."
*[7] Letter to Mr. Andrew Little, Langholm, dated Shrewsbury,
16th Sept., 1794.
*[8] lbid.
*[9] Letter to Mr. Andrew Little, Langholm, dated Salop, 20th Aug.,
1797.