A heritage note shared in the Fund Britain’s Waterways Facebook group turns up one of the network’s odder footnotes: Britain’s shortest independent canal, tucked into Middlewich in Cheshire.
The post
On 28 July, Shirley Sefton posted about Bridge 168 at Wardle Lock in Middlewich, which carries a stone inscription reading “WARDLE CANAL 1829”. That marks the start of the Wardle Canal — at 154 feet (47 m), the shortest independent canal in Britain. It was built by the Trent and Mersey Canal company for a practical, if slightly cynical, reason: to charge extra tolls on boats passing through onto the connecting Shropshire Union route. You can see the original post in the Fund Britain’s Waterways Facebook group.
Why it matters
These small pieces of canal history are a reminder of how much heritage is bound up in the working network, and how much of it depends on the canals staying open and maintained. Fund Britain’s Waterways is a coalition of more than 160 organisations speaking up for the hundreds of thousands of people who use and love Britain’s canals and rivers. Its case is straightforward: the network needs sustainable, long-term government funding, or places like Wardle Lock become harder to keep in good order for the boats and visitors who still use them.
If you would like to help, sign the petition at change.org and share it using #FundBritainsWaterways.
