three cheers for chester

Jim Forkin, chair of IWA Chester & Merseyside Branch, celebrates Chester’s success at being named the first Inland Waterways Heritage Port

Members of IWA Chester & Merseyside Branch were delighted to be informed in June that Chester had been designated the first Heritage Port on the UK’s inland canal and river system.

The scheme, run jointly by the Maritime Heritage Trust and National Historic Ships in the UK, aims to properly recognise long-established but often-forgotten ports that played an important role in the maritime and industrial history of the country. Chester, a port since Roman times and possibly earlier, was put forward by IWA, Chester Civic Trust and Cheshire West & Cheshire Council. They outlined the area’s unique historical development, catalogued its surviving buildings, and evaluated the environmental and heritage features in relation to the criteria laid down in the Heritage Port designation process.

Interconnected system

The 21-page application stressed that Chester’s waterways were part of an interconnected system linking the open sea, Dee estuary and non-tidal River Dee with the national canal network and River Mersey via the Shropshire Union Canal.

Heritage assets covered both maritime and inland waterway features with a focus on Tower Wharf, Northgate Locks, the Dee Branch of the Shropshire

AlISOn SmEdlEy

Union Canal and the adjacent tidal Dee frontage of the old port of Chester. Downstream anchorages on the Wirral side of the estuary were also included.

A great deal of the application naturally focussed on the Shropshire Union Canal as it threads its way through the city but the early history of the waterways in Chester, as a result of its position as the highest navigable point for seagoing vessels, was strongly emphasised.

Roman beginnings

During Roman times Chester was the busiest port in north-west England, and an old quay wall still remains on the Roodee racecourse today. As a port it grew until around 1700 when silting in the river prevented vessels above 20 tons reaching its wharves. Even the creation of a 16ft-deep navigable channel with associated new warehouses after the 1730s could not prevent the port’s ultimate demise as Liverpool finally grew to be the dominant port in the region.

In the 1770s the Chester Canal aimed to boost the port’s importance but the route initially terminated in a dead end at Nantwich and was deemed a failure. In 1795 the Wirral Line of the Ellesmere Canal, which linked to the River Mersey, served to boost Chester’s status, and by 1833 the city was fully linked to the national canal network by the Shropshire Union Canal, which brought trade from the Midlands, the Potteries and Wales.

Other ports of call

IWA has been in discussion with the Maritime Heritage Trust and National Historic Ships, which run the UK scheme together, to identify more sites for future Inland Waterways Heritage Port status. Among the potential locations are Brentford on the Grand Union Canal, Stourport on the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal, Warwick Bar on the Digbeth Branch of the Grand Union, and Shardlow on the Trent & Mersey Canal.

Shardlow Inland Port Festival, which took place in September and drew an estimated 4,000 visitors, aimed to raise the profile of the canal and kickstart the campaign for Heritage Port status. The IWA Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire Branch joined in the festivities and had a tent on the bank, while David Pullen provided ‘harbourmaster’ support for the historic and roving trader boats that attended the event. The village features over 50 Grade IIlisted buildings and many surviving public houses within the designated Shardlow Wharf Conservation Area.

Elsewhere, Exeter basin on the Exeter Ship Canal and Maldon & Heybridge on the Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation (see Spring 2021 issue of Waterways) were granted Heritage Harbour status in November 2020 and early 2021 respectively.

IWA Branches or members interested in pursuing Heritage Port status for other inland waterways locations can contact campaigns@waterways.org.uk for more information. You can also watch the IWA webinar The UK’s Heritage Ports and Harbours Initiative online at waterways.org.uk/iwa-tv.

It was as a result of these connections that Chester acquired warehousing and a graving dock at Tower Wharf, the core of the Heritage Port. Trade continued on the waterway through the 19th century but it declined steeply after World War I and by 1957 regular cargo carrying had left the canal.

Shardlow Inland Port Festival organiser Sue Hampson with Paul Dunn, vicechair of South Derbyshire District Council at the event in September.

opposite: Chester Canal Basin, showing Graving Dock to the left of the cast

iron roving bridge, as well as modern development on the right.

right: This is one of the best-surviving buildings in the Old Port of Chester. The three-storey warehouse and two-storey cottages were built in the mid-16th century, although the north-west end was rebuilt in the 19th century after a fire.

below right: Northgate Locks raise the canal by 33ft and originally

date from the late 18th century.

Recognition and regeneration

The waterways of Chester decayed in the 20th century but the city’s port facilities remain assets of great historical importance, unique survivals from the waterway age. This has been increasingly recognised since the 1970s but Chester’s waterways still suffer from neglect and unfulfilled potential. Some of the late 20th-century regeneration was of questionable quality and the connection between the Dee and the Shropshire Union Canal is effectively unusable.

Chester is embraced by its waterways but the Cestrians need to fully embrace them too. Designation as a Heritage Port aims to maximise the potential of the city’s valuable urban and waterway environment, and encourage stakeholders to come together with initiatives to conserve and develop the city’s waterway assets. IWA will continue to campaign for better access to the River Dee, especially the non-tidal section, and will encourage other towns with equally good prospects to apply for Heritage Port status.