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Who Used The Canal?

Despite the failure to build the canal to Chester, the Aqueduct still proved a major boon to the local economy. Telford noticed the increased industrial activity while the aqueduct was still under construction.

Industries in the Ceiriog Valley used the Glyn Valley Tramway to carry freight to the canal.

Hazeldine's Plas Kynaston foundry in Cefn Mawr was just one of many industries to thrive during the 19th century in the villages north of the aqueduct. The collieries, the New British Iron Works and the pipe works in Acrefair; the limestone quarries above Trevor and the Oernant slate quarries above the Horseshoe Pass, Llangollen; the Plas Kynaston pottery works and Graesser's "oilworks" in Cefn Mawr – all relied on the aqueduct and the canal. A tramway system running from the Trevor basin, near the aqueduct, to north of Rhosllanerchrugog encouraged more industrial development and the growth of communities that survive to today.

The boatmen, the craftsmen at the depots, the lock keepers and lengthsmen, with their families, were a community. The boatmen lived on the canals with their families. It could take up to a week to make a return journey, fully loaded, from Ellesmere Port to the Welsh end of the canal.
Pictures ©The Waterways Trust

"Cefn Mawr is a busy place: Mr Graesser's new oil works and its strange smells, the Plas Kynaston pottery and the New British Iron Works just up the road in Acrefair. There's good work there, but it's the canals for me."