Why canalside home was a must for Market Drayton author Peter
When Peter Brown and wife Quita were looking around for a new home, they had among their requirements something which is not on every househunter's wish list – a nearby canal.
"We wanted to live near a canal because we wanted to buy a boat," said Peter.
"We also wanted to live in a market town. We looked at places like Stone, Audlem, and Market Drayton, and in Market Drayton found a nice house in a nice position."
As you will have guessed, they are canal enthusiasts who have been boating since 1980, and Peter has now written the "bible" of the Shropshire Union Canal, a magnum opus which has taken 15 years of research.
"It is the first book to be written about it. There have been others which have been essentially photographic books, but there has never before been a history."
Quita has been supportive and done some of the research legwork.
Peter says: "We are very lucky in writing about this particular canal that almost all the minute books still survive. At the Public Records Office at Kew she and I in one week took 12,000 images of minute books."
His book – called simply The Shropshire Union Canal – is not just a history, but looks at the bustling canal network now and various restoration schemes which are at various stages of progress.
"The Llangollen Canal is now the busiest canal in the country and probably has far more boat movements than it ever did in its working days."
Llangollen Canal? The underlines that there is scope for confusion over what is actually meant by "Shropshire Union Canal" which is now an umbrella term for a number of canals also known by different names. In fact only about 39 per cent of the length of the historic Shropshire Union Canal was in Shropshire, with 29 per cent in Cheshire, 13 per cent in Staffordshire, and 19 per cent in Wales.
Peter explains: "The Shropshire Union Canal is what we call now the Shropshire Union main line from Wolverhampton to Ellesmere Port, plus what we now call the Llangollen Canal, plus what we now call the Montgomery Canal, and also the branches from Norbury to Shrewsbury and from near Nantwich to Middlewich. There are 200 miles of canal."
Peter's own background is in local government finance.
"I was borough treasurer of an East Anglia local authority at Great Yarmouth."
Now 72, he has a long love of canal boating.
"It's my hobby and my pleasure in my retirement, and is much more fun than being an accountant."
His passion all started in Dudley.
"I lived in Dudley from 1974 to 1980, and that's what got me interest in canals, as Dudley is full of canals."
He said he had always been interested in transport history and had a growing interest in local history.
The couple moved to Shropshire in 2001.
"Coming here, I did local archive research and also canal research. To me, it isn't just canal history, but an aspect of local history.
"My background is financial and managerial, and they are the bits I'm especially interested in. I'm interested in the Shropshire Union as a business, not as a fun thing for engineers to do."
The book, which is hardback, full colour, and costs £35, has been published by the Railway & Canal Historical Society, of which Peter is secretary.
It can be bought through the society's website rchs.org.uk and also from the Canal Bookshop at Audlem.
Peter says canals have never been as popular as now, judging from the number of television programmes in recent years.
The Llangollen Canal, incidentally, while a popular choice for inexperienced boaters, is one of the most difficult to navigate because unlike most other canals it has a flow, which makes steering downstream more difficult.
As for his own boating, he and Quita have travelled the entire narrowboat network, most of the broad canals and over half of the rivers.
They have had three boats while at Market Drayton, but don't have a boat now, having sold their last one the best part of two years ago - but that hasn't marked the end of their water-borne travels, which will be done through hiring, which has certain advantages.
"The parts we have not done are all a long way away and if you hire you can hire where you want to be, and not spend a lot of time going there," Peter explained.
