Restoration feature You may not even have heard of the restoration that’s hosting our October Canal Burslem Port? Where’s that then? Those not intimately acquainted with the canal network might be forgiven for not immediately being able to pinpoint the Burslem Port Project, the canal restoration scheme which (if you’re lucky and this issue comes out on time) will be about to host its first full week-long WRG Canal Camp as this Navvies drops through your letterbox. Or which (if you’re not so lucky) you’ll still be able to read about in the camp report in the next issue. After all, it’s not quite up there with the Montgomery or the Cotswold Canals when it comes to high profile schemes. But after quite a lot of the inevitable behind-the-scenes negotiating, campaigning and talking, it appears that practical work is gathering pace on this short (and therefore potentially ‘quick-win’) canal reopening project.
Several wharves were built on the canal to cater for the local pottery industry, bringing in raw materials – clay and coal – and taking out finished ware for export via the Mersey. But in 1963 a major breach closed the Branch, and rather than it being repaired, the Branch was shut and dammed off where it met the main line. It was later filled in (burying an unfortunate working boat that
Trent & Mersey Canal Burslem Branch
So where is it, then? Well, Burslem is one of the lesser-known of the ‘five towns’ of the north Staffordshire Potteries (formerly) industrial area – the others are Stoke, Tunstall, Hanley, Fenton and Longton (yes, I know!) And the Burslem Port Project aims to reopen a short arm of the Trent & Mersey Canal which linked the industrial areas of Burslem to the canal’s main line. The history: The Trent & Mersey Canal’s main line was opened in 1777. Its summit level passed within a mile of Burslem on its way south from the top of the Cheshire Locks and Harecastle Tunnel towards Etruria Top Lock and the start of the long descent down the Trent Valley to Stone and eventually to join the River Trent near Shardlow. But Burslem had to wait almost 30 years before it acquired a direct connection to the waterways, when the half-mile Burslem Branch opened in 1805. It linked the canal’s main line to a basin on the edge of the town, with a horse tramway continuing into the town centre.
page 20
(and Uttoxeter one day)
