Shropshire Union Canal
The Shropshire Union Railway and Canal Company, to give it its full name, was created following the take over, in 1845, of the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal by the Ellesmere and Chester Canal (itself formed by the merger of the Chester and Ellesmere Canals in 1813). A year later the company changed its name and passed acts to build railways and convert most of the canals to railways. By 1850 they had bought the Shrewsbury Canal and Montgomeryshire Canals and leased the Shropshire. Before these schemes were completed, they had leased themselves in perpetuity to the LNWR. As the SU Canals were mainly in the areas of rival railway companies, the LNWR entusiastically promoted their canals, although there was some early rationalisation; in particular the closure of the Shropshire. Shortly before railway grouping in 1922 the LNWR bought the SU outright, and things rapidly declined under the LMS, with the closure of the Montgomeryshire and Shrewsbury Canals. At nationalisation in 1944 all but the main line and the Middlewich Branch were abandoned for navigation, although the Llangollen line was kept open for water supply.
The navigational authority for this waterway is Canal & River TrustRelevant publications — Waterway Maps:
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Wikipedia has a page about Shropshire Union Canal
The Shropshire Union Canal, nicknamed the "Shroppie", is a navigable canal in England. The Llangollen and Montgomery canals are the modern names of branches of the Shropshire Union (SU) system and lie partially in Wales.
The canal lies in the counties of Staffordshire, Shropshire and Cheshire in the north-west English Midlands. It links the canal system of the West Midlands, at Wolverhampton, with the River Mersey and Manchester Ship Canal at Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, 66 miles (106 km) distant.
The "SU main line" runs southeast from Ellesmere Port on the River Mersey to the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal at Autherley Junction in Wolverhampton. Other links are to the Llangollen Canal (at Hurleston Junction), the Middlewich Branch (at Barbridge Junction), which itself connects via the Wardle Canal with the Trent and Mersey Canal, and the River Dee (in Chester). With two connections to the Trent and Mersey (via the Middlewich Branch and the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal) the SU is part of an important circular and rural holiday route called the Four Counties Ring.
The SU main line was the last trunk narrow canal route to be built in England. It was not completed until 1835 and was the last major civil engineering accomplishment of Thomas Telford.
The name "Shropshire Union" comes from the amalgamation of the various component companies (Ellesmere Canal, Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal, Montgomeryshire Canal) that came together to form the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company. The main line between Nantwich and Autherley Junction was almost built as a railway although eventually it was decided to construct it as a waterway.