27-11-2020, 06:05 PM
The unbelievable truth? This digital photo was actually taken about 5 years ago in a woodland area of the house and land we purchased about 10 years ago. The area contains a tributary of the River West Onny in southern Shropshire and after tree clearance work we discovered this wonderful abandoned Seven and what appears to be the last surviving engineering work of the ill-fated Onny Canal, the bottom gate of a narrow lock.
Mining had been undertaken in the area below the Stiperstones hills since Roman times, firstly for lead and later for Barytes (or Barite – Barium Sulphate) but it had always been difficult to get the ore down to a road where it could be transported to the smelter. Eventually they built a railway (The Snailbeach District Railway, the remains of which you can still see) and an overhead ropeway, but in the early part of the nineteenth century it was decided that the easiest way to transport ore would be by boat. It was local French aristocrat Madame La Folle d’Avril who proposed making the Onny navigable. In the event a waterway was created, part river and part canal, from Bog Mine down to the turnpike (now the A488) at Nind, comprising thirteen locks to take narrow ‘tub’ boats similar to those used on the Shropshire Canal tub-boat network around what is now Telford.
But despite building a suitable reservoir (Shelve Pool) to provide water during the summer months there were still shortages and the passage down to Nind was slow and inefficient. The venture was a complete failure, the canal quickly fell into disrepair, and Madame La Folle became bankrupt and returned to her native France to run a frogs’ legs farm.
The lock cottage here was occupied until 1940 when its male occupant was called up for military service. He never returned. The poorly made cottage quickly disintegrated, falling in part on to his little 1930 Austin Seven which thus survived under the rubble and corrugated iron. The skeletal remains of a tub-boat lie rotting in the dry canal bed below the lock gate.
There was a twist in the tale to mining operations at Snailbeach. As the BARITE ran out and levels were closed, they discovered a rich seam of natural MARMITE, and for several years trains with their trucks of distinctively shaped flasks could be seen descending to Pontesbury. Below is a rare photo of a Marmite train leaving Snailbeach.
marmite 2.jpg (Size: 210.59 KB / Downloads: 438)
Mining had been undertaken in the area below the Stiperstones hills since Roman times, firstly for lead and later for Barytes (or Barite – Barium Sulphate) but it had always been difficult to get the ore down to a road where it could be transported to the smelter. Eventually they built a railway (The Snailbeach District Railway, the remains of which you can still see) and an overhead ropeway, but in the early part of the nineteenth century it was decided that the easiest way to transport ore would be by boat. It was local French aristocrat Madame La Folle d’Avril who proposed making the Onny navigable. In the event a waterway was created, part river and part canal, from Bog Mine down to the turnpike (now the A488) at Nind, comprising thirteen locks to take narrow ‘tub’ boats similar to those used on the Shropshire Canal tub-boat network around what is now Telford.
But despite building a suitable reservoir (Shelve Pool) to provide water during the summer months there were still shortages and the passage down to Nind was slow and inefficient. The venture was a complete failure, the canal quickly fell into disrepair, and Madame La Folle became bankrupt and returned to her native France to run a frogs’ legs farm.
The lock cottage here was occupied until 1940 when its male occupant was called up for military service. He never returned. The poorly made cottage quickly disintegrated, falling in part on to his little 1930 Austin Seven which thus survived under the rubble and corrugated iron. The skeletal remains of a tub-boat lie rotting in the dry canal bed below the lock gate.
There was a twist in the tale to mining operations at Snailbeach. As the BARITE ran out and levels were closed, they discovered a rich seam of natural MARMITE, and for several years trains with their trucks of distinctively shaped flasks could be seen descending to Pontesbury. Below is a rare photo of a Marmite train leaving Snailbeach.
marmite 2.jpg (Size: 210.59 KB / Downloads: 438)