Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal
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How it came to be
The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct was planned as a key link in the Ellesmere Canal, meant to join the Severn at Shrewsbury with the Mersey at Liverpool. The first stone was laid on 25 July 1795. Thomas Telford designed it, and William Jessop, the more experienced canal engineer, oversaw the work.
The canal runs 39 metres above the river in a trough of cast-iron plates bolted together, carried on slender masonry piers. It is 307 metres long with 19 spans. The ironwork came from the Shrewsbury ironfounder William Hazledine, who built a foundry nearby in the hope of winning the contract and cast the trough there.
The aqueduct opened on 26 November 1805 and cost about £47,000. The expected revenue never came and the canal was only partly finished. The site takes in 18 km of canal built without locks. It was inscribed on 27 June 2009.
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