101st - and final - slab laid in canal basin restoration
A major canal restoration project has taken a significant step forward thanks to months of work from a group of dedicated volunteers.
The team from Shrewsbury & Newport Canal Trust have laid the 101st – and final – concrete slab in their restoration of the East Basin at Wappenshall Wharf.
The wharf, just north of Telford, has been the subject of a huge project to ultimately re-fill the basin with water, so that it can eventually be reconnected to the canal network.
With the final slab now laid on the base, Bernie Jones, chairman of the trust, said they hoped to take the milestone step of adding water to the basin later this year.
The volunteers began the concreting work at the end of September 2020 and have worked almost every Friday and Saturday since then – except for pandemic restrictions.
The modern technique of laying concrete on a polythene liner has replaced the original puddling clay that Thomas Telford would have used when the wharf was originally built and opened in 1835.
The volunteers worked almost every weekend for two years to prepare the basin, which involved removing more than 1,400 cubic metres of infill to expose the original clay lining.
The basin was filled in 1967 by the coal merchant who bought the wharf from British Waterways.
Work at the wharf will now concentrate on the restoration of the small warehouse, which will become a café and bistro and local community meeting place.
The trust said it is planned to open by the end of 2023.
Mr Jones said they were delighted at the progress made on the project, and offered his thanks to all the volunteers, and Pez Concreting for their help.
He said: "After 15 months of the volunteer team working on completing the 101 slabs through some of the most awful weather conditions imaginable they have done a significant job to move the project forward and I cannot thank them enough."
Currently disconnected from the canal network the ultimate ambition is to see the basin reattached to a working waterway.
Progress on the work can be followed on the trust’s Facebook page – The Shrewsbury and Newport Canals Trust, and its website – sncanal.org.uk.
