Aqueduct glory is down to two men

But in blowing his own trumpet did Telford, who was famously Shropshire's first ever county surveyor, unfairly elbow from the limelight another engineer deserving of an equal share of the glory for the dramatic Pontcysyllte Aqueduct?

It is a question raised by writer and historian Dr Peter Wakelin, who has written the newly-published official guide for the aqueduct and canal which became a World Heritage Site in 2009. Telford was the project engineer, while William Jessop was the consulting engineer, who approved the designs.

"It's quite likely that this radical idea of building a cast iron aqueduct 120ft in the air to cross a whole valley was as much the idea of Jessop as Telford's," Peter said. "Telford did almost certainly do the detailed designs, while Jessop took responsibility for the project as a whole."

So how come Jessop is forgotten?

"I think because Telford was a very good PR man he rather claimed responsibility for it when it was opened. Jessop was away doing other projects. Telford, because he was based in Shropshire, was much more on the scene, and also Jessop was a very quiet man."

Peter lives in Aberystwyth but spent some years living in Ironbridge, and was one of the first students in the Masters degree in industrial heritage run at the Ironbridge Institute in Coalbrookdale in the 1980s.

The guidebook was sparked by the World Heritage Site designation of Pontcysyllte, which carries the Llangollen Canal over the River Dee valley near Chirk.

"The steering group that nominated this amazing section of canal felt it was really important to have a good guidebook which would help people understand what was significant about the whole of this 11-mile section of canal and would take them to all the significant parts of it.

"I was especially keen in the guidebook to make sure we explain the context of the canal better, so people could understand the industries it served and the way the landscape and community has changed as a result of the canal.

"I wanted to encourage people to go and see things away from the canal. There are half a million visitors a year who come to the canal but they don't necessarily go to see the limestone quarries, Chirk, or Cefn Mawr."

Of the aqueduct, he said: "It's one of the great engineering achievements of the industrial revolution. I think it's important to appreciate in Britain that Britain was very much a heartland of the industrial revolution, a process that completely changed lives around the world." Shropshire was to play a key part in the story of the canal and aqueduct, both because the canal passed through the county and also because the county was a great centre for technological improvement in the use of iron.

"Both John Wilkinson of Broseley and William Reynolds of Coalbrookdale played a significant role in the building of the canal."

* Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal costs £9.99 and available from a number of Canal & River Trust sites, including at Pontcysyllte or by post, add £2.50 postage, from Jacqueline Humphries, of The Canal & River Trust in Wales, The Wharf, Govilon, Abergavenny, NP7 9NY.

Visit canalrivertrust.org.uk