BRITISH WATERWAYS BOARD CANAL MAINTENANCE DEPOT, SHROPSHIRE UNION CANAL (SOUTH EAST SIDE) (LLANGOLLEN BRANCH) BRITISH WATERWAYS BOARD OFFICES AND DRY DOCK, BRITISH WATERWAYS BOARD CANAL MAINTENANCE DEPOT

BRITISH WATERWAYS BOARD CANAL MAINTENANCE DEPOT, SHROPSHIRE UNION CANAL (SOUTH EAST SIDE) (LLANGOLLEN BRANCH), SHROPSHIRE UNION CANAL

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1366122
Date first listed:: 25-Apr-1988
List Entry Name:: BRITISH WATERWAYS BOARD CANAL MAINTENANCE DEPOT, SHROPSHIRE UNION CANAL (SOUTH EAST SIDE) (LLANGOLLEN BRANCH) BRITISH WATERWAYS BOARD OFFICES AND DRY DOCK, BRITISH WATERWAYS BOARD CANAL MAINTENANCE DEPOT
Statutory Address:: BRITISH WATERWAYS BOARD CANAL MAINTENANCE DEPOT, SHROPSHIRE UNION CANAL (SOUTH EAST SIDE) (LLANGOLLEN BRANCH), SHROPSHIRE UNION CANAL

User submitted image — Uploaded by Mark Somerfield This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
View all

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

There is a problem

Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Images of England Project

To view this image please use Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Edge.

Archive image, may not represent current condition of site.

Date:: 2003-02-24
Reference:: IOE01/10015/32
Rights:: © Mr Les White. Source: Historic England Archive

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1366122
Date first listed:: 25-Apr-1988
List Entry Name:: BRITISH WATERWAYS BOARD CANAL MAINTENANCE DEPOT, SHROPSHIRE UNION CANAL (SOUTH EAST SIDE) (LLANGOLLEN BRANCH) BRITISH WATERWAYS BOARD OFFICES AND DRY DOCK, BRITISH WATERWAYS BOARD CANAL MAINTENANCE DEPOT
Statutory Address 1:: BRITISH WATERWAYS BOARD CANAL MAINTENANCE DEPOT, SHROPSHIRE UNION CANAL (SOUTH EAST SIDE) (LLANGOLLEN BRANCH), SHROPSHIRE UNION CANAL
Statutory Address 2:: BRITISH WATERWAYS BOARD OFFICES AND DRY DOCK, BRITISH WATERWAYS BOARD CANAL MAINTENANCE DEPOT

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: BRITISH WATERWAYS BOARD CANAL MAINTENANCE DEPOT, SHROPSHIRE UNION CANAL (SOUTH EAST SIDE) (LLANGOLLEN BRANCH), SHROPSHIRE UNION CANAL
Statutory Address:: BRITISH WATERWAYS BOARD OFFICES AND DRY DOCK, BRITISH WATERWAYS BOARD CANAL MAINTENANCE DEPOT

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Shropshire (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Ellesmere Rural
National Grid Reference:: SJ 40057 34227

Details

1585/18/95; ELLESMERE RURAL, BIRCH, BRITISH WATERWAYS BOARD OFFICES AND DRY DOCK, BRITISH WATERWAYS BOARD CANAL MAINTENANCE DEPOT, SHROPSHIRE UNION CANAL

BIRCH, BRITISH WATERWAYS BOARD CANAL MAINTENANCE DEPOT, SHROPSHIRE UNION CANAL (SOUTH-EAST SIDE) (LLANGOLLEN BRANCH)

17-SEP-02

GV

II*

Stables and stores, now offices, and dry dock. Circa 1806 adjoining William Jessop's and Thomas Telford's Ellesmere Canal with minor later additions and alterations. Roughly coursed sandstone rubble with sandstone dressings; hipped slate roof. Long building on canal side of canal depot with dry dock at south- west end. Two storeys. Six horizontal sliding sashes directly below eaves and four with segmental heads to ground floor. Segmental-headed boarded doors to left and right with three wide segmental-headed double doors to right of centre. Round-headed arch to south-west end gives access to dry dock. Open lean-to supported on wooden posts to canal side. Rectangular ventilated louvre to ridge has weathervane in shape of narrow boat.

INTERIOR: Dry dock has king-post roof with raking struts from walls to tie beams on canal side. Stone sett floor with mooring rings surrounding dock. In the dock boats were formerly built, repaired and 'indexed'. To empty the dock of water a temporary dam was built across the entrance by dropping 'stop-planks' into iron-shod grooves. The water was then drained out, the boat coming to nest on baulks of timber in the now-dry dock.

This range, with its attached covered dry dock for the manufacture and repair of canal barges, is of great significance in relationship to the canal industry, for it comprises one of the key functional buildings in what is now acknowledged to be the best-preserved canal workshop site in Britain. The dry dock, which has access direct to the canal, comprises an exceptionally early example of such a structure. Dry docks were first employed in the naval dockyards, the introduction (based on Swedish precedent) of the first wide-span roofs to enable the protection of ships under construction not taking place until the first decade of the 19th century. This covered dry dock predates the grade I and II* covered slips at Devonport and Chatham, partly no doubt on account of the fact that its much narrower span did not present a major engineering challenge.

It was very probably built to the designs of Telford and Jessop, canal engineers being traditionally responsible for a wide range of structures from the trim (lettering and mileposts) to locks and keepers' houses. All canal companies had maintenance yards for work on boats, locks, paddle gearing and other aspects of the working fabric of inland waterways.

(Edward Wilson, The Ellesmere and Llangollen Canal (1975), pp. 53-7).

SJ4005734225

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 260795
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Wilson, E, The Ellesmere and Llangollen Canal, (1975), 53-7

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.