Together we are giving our historic 220-year-old Ellesmere yard an exciting future – that could transform it into a canal maintenance and community space that keeps our canals alive and enriches lives.
Beech House at Ellesmere Yard, was an office for famed canal engineers Thomas Telford and William Jessop
An historic past
Established in 1806, the yard was originally built as a base for the renowned civil engineers William Jessop and Thomas Telford, who built what became the Llangollen, Montgomery and Shropshire Union Canals. It’s thought that from here, plans for waterway wonders such as Pontcysyllte and Chirk Aqueducts were delivered.
It’s of great importance, not just because of its connection with these legends of canal engineering, but also because it remains one of the few working canal yards still in existence. To this day, it continues to be a vital base for our local Canal & River Trust colleagues, who work to maintain, repair, and protect the local canals every day of the year.
Yet what makes Ellesmere Yard so very special is that the dry dock, workshops and blacksmith's forge, are a living museum. They are one of those rare places where you can literally reach out and touch the history. As Canal & River Trust project manager, Laura Hodgetts, explains:
“When you go back 100 years ago, Ellesmere Yard would have been a hustling and bustling working canal yard. The original tools are still in the blacksmith’s forge. The pattern room is still full of moulds for casting iron cogs for lock paddles. There is a foreman’s desk full of original documents, and job sheets with pencil notes on.
Ellesmere Yard was home to a lock gate carpentry shop and a blacksmith's forge
But the ageing and deteriorating buildings, many of which are Grade II and Grade II* listed, urgently need care, and as a working yard, it’s no longer fit for purpose. So, in 2023 we began a plan to protect these historic structures, give the yard the modern facilities it needs, and offer the remaining buildings a sustainable future. It’s a great example of how our charity keeps historic canal structures open, and alive, while transforming a community space to enrich lives.”
A restored present
We’re so grateful for all your generous donations, they have played such a vital role in helping Canal & River Trust secure additional contributions from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic England, Shropshire Council’s Shared Prosperity Fund and the Architectural Heritage Fund.
As you can see from this video, Laura and her team have spent the last three years delivering the vital repairs needed to some of the most at risk buildings on the site helping to make them safe, secure and water-tight whilst developing a wider project to secure its long-term future.
An exciting future
The full transformation of Ellesmere Yard has only just begun. This month our plans for the full delivery phase of the project will be submitted to the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
An architect’s visualisation of Ellesmere Yard in 2030
By 2031 Ellesmere Yard will be a modern working canal yard with up-to-date workshops, toilets, showers and offices. The dry dock would also be updated to provide essential services for boaters. Meanwhile, the rest of the site would become a destination where visitors can explore its history, the local community can hold public events, and where craftspeople, artisans, makers, and entrepreneurs can create, trade, and earn a living.
The site is already home to a blacksmith, joiner, and stained-glass maker. In future, more spaces could be let to heritage craftspeople such as upholsterers, boat painters, or potters and ceramicists. Encouragingly, interest already exceeds the number of available units, offering real promise that the site can become self-sustaining.
There are wider benefits too. The Yard is home to the much-loved heritage fly boat Saturn and is used for activities such as paddleboarding and canoeing. The project will also deliver biodiversity benefits by protecting existing bat and swallow populations and creating new habitats for wildlife in the surrounding area.
There is still a great deal of time, money, and hard work that needs to go into the site to bring this exciting vision to life. We look forward to sharing more updates in the future as the project progresses. However, it shouldn’t be long before our Friends and supporters can enjoy Ellesmere Yard as a place where the past meets the present and your gifts help preserve it for generations to come.
