Conservation Area: Chester Canal Conservation Area (East) (N/A)

The Shropshire Union Canal from Ellesmere Port to Nantwich has been designated a Conservation Area, a total length of approximately 27 miles. This includes the Wirral Line of the Ellesmere Canal (opened 1795) and the Chester Canal (opened 1775-79). For ease of reference the conservation area is called The Chester Canal Conservation Area. This canal has many fine features which make it so special, including: • It is one of the earliest main-line canals built as a broad canal with locks (for boats up to 14 foot wide) • It has some of the first built broad staircase locks: In Chester there is a staircase of 3 locks At Bunbury there is a staircase of 2 locks • The arrival of the canal at Netherpool/Whitby, which was responsible for the founding of Ellesmere Port – the port for Ellesmere in Shropshire • Tower Wharf in Chester, an important canal interchange with a large boat building yard which is still operational • The North Basin in Chester, once a thriving wharf • The link to the River Dee, which was very important historically and remains a vital and unusual stretch of canal • Beeston Iron Lock, a Scheduled Monument, unique in its construction • Bunbury Locks, also a Scheduled Monument. It also has a large stable block and warehouse close by. It was originally a busy place, exchanging horses to pull the boats. • Calveley, important for transhipment of cargoes, such as cheese, between canal, railway and road until the 1960s. Pleasure boats of up to 5 tons could be transhipped here. • Barbridge Junction. With the Middlewich Branch it had a significant transhipment warehouse and was a very busy place in the Canal Age. • Hurleston Junction, where the old Ellesmere Canal (now known as the Llangollen Canal) joins the Chester Canal in a very picturesque setting. • Nantwich Basin, the terminus of the Chester Canal. It had many warehouses at one time. • An unusually large remaining number of the original buildings and structures associated with the canal. This includes bridges and associated traditional hard landscaping, such as paving to the towpaths, under bridges, stones with rope markings etc • Many rural mills, which probably milled flour and used the canal for transport, for example at Christleton and Waverton. • Five round lengthsmen’s huts with brick domed roofs, a design unique to this canal. • Spectacular views from the canal, such as: - St Lawrence’s Church, Stoak Delamere Forest The Cheshire Sandstone Ridge – Frodsham and Helsby Hills The Clwydian Hills from the top of Northgate Locks Chester City Walls and Towers St Peter’s Church, Waverton Beeston Castle • Industrial heritage along the canal, where boats were used to take raw materials in and finished goods out: Ellesmere Port –the remains of wharves, for example, the Billet Arm, that served local industry Chester –evidence of the lead works, many mills and other canal side activities Above Bunbury Locks –evidence of the brick kilns There is a richness of preserved history and heritage, and the contribution that groups of trees and the wider landscape make to the setting of the canal, makes the Chester Canal worthy of preserving for current and future generations to enjoy.