20214

 

II  

Designated  

29/07/1998  

29/07/1998  

Irishman's Bridge on the Llangollen Canal  

 

Wrexham  

Chirk  

Wrexham  

Pentre  

328602  

340766  

 

The bridge carries the Chirk to Newbridge road over the Llangollen Canal.  

Transport  

 

The 6 mile long Llangollen canal had been proposed as feeder to the main Ellesmere Canal that was to link the Rivers Mersey and Dee with the River Severn. The Act was passed in 1793 and this section was constructed under the direction of Thomas Telford: work on the extension to headwaters at Llantysilio, W of Llangollen, was begun in 1804 and completed in 1808. The canal also provided transport to the slate quarries and limestone works. In 1846 it became part of the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company but the following year was taken over by the LNWR. Transport on the canal diminished in the later C19 with the arrival of the railways and ceased by 2nd World War. The canal was only kept open because of its importance as a supplier of water.  

Coursed sandstone rubble. A single tall 3-centred arch composed of a single ring of cut voussoirs, set flush with the battered spandrel walls. Square plat band and rubble parapet. A later C20 moulded concrete beam carries a widening of the parapet on the SW side of the S portal. The bridge spans the canal and the towpath on its E side.  

 

Included as a well formed bridge, characteristic of the series of such bridges on the Llangollen canal where it passed through low cuttings.