Last month, work began to restore the Grade II Listed pumphouse at Ellesmere Port. Once the heartbeat of a thriving transshipment hub, this imposing structure will be part of our National Waterways Museum.
Nestled at the junction of the Manchester Ship Canal and Shropshire Union Canal, Ellesmere Port in Cheshire was once part of the ill-fated Ellesmere Canal. Designed by engineering luminary Thomas Telford, the waterway was originally conceived as a lucrative transport route between the River Mersey and the River Severn, connecting the bustling port of Liverpool with burgeoning industries in Wales and the West Midlands.
However, due to spiralling costs, this bold vision was never realised. Instead, when the first section of the canal opened in 1795 (known as the Wirral Line), it was used principally as a travel link, carrying passengers from Chester to Ellesmere Port, where they could hop on a ferry to Liverpool.
This all changed in 1835, when the canal was finally connected to the rest of the network. As commercial traffic grew, Telford was called upon once more, this time to draft plans for an expansion to the existing dock. He worked fast, and by 1843, the new Lower Basin Dock and surrounding warehouses, which now form part of our National Waterways Museum, were up and running.
During the latter half of the 19th century, Ellesmere Port was transformed into a vibrant transhipment point, with cargoes flooding in from Liverpool being carried on barges and narrowboats across the country’s inland waterways, fuelling British industry. By the 1890s, it was the foremost fly boat centre in the North of England, so busy that vessels would often be waiting at the dockside for several days to unload.
At the heart of this flourishing enterprise was Ellesmere Port’s imposing pumphouse. Opened in 1873, it was part of an extensive hydraulic system, its two steam-driven engines supplying high-pressure water to power the cranes, capstans, and jiggers used to load and unload cargo from the boats and barges.
Today, it dominates the skyline at our National Waterways Museum, overlooking historic warehouses, perfectly preserved workers’ cottages, colourful narrowboats, and of course, the canal itself. Sadly, time has not been kind to this ageing structure, with rot setting in to its timbers, the roof sagging, and brickwork crumbling.
Thanks to The Heritage at Risk Capital Fund, led by Historic England and funded by the Department for Culture, Media & Sport, the pumphouse and its adjoining bridge are now receiving a complete renovation. Work got underway in September, with plans to fix the roof, repoint the bricks, remove wet and dry rot from the timbers, and replace the guttering.
We hope to open the pumphouse and access bridge to the public once more in the spring, so local communities and visitors from far and wide, can come along and marvel at this magnificent building – a timeless emblem of our industrial past, which, for the best part of a century, was at the epicentre of global trade.
