Traffic at Market Drayton

Christopher M. Jones Collection

Looking north from Newcastle Road Bridge 62 towards Betton Road Bridge 63, FMC's Gosport is seen passing Market Drayton Wharf and basin on a breezy summer’s day. This image was taken around the 1920s with the main set of wharf buildings visible known as Canal Mills and used by John Henry Jones, miller and corn dealer. The large warehouse next to the road-bridge was built about 1906 and was later turned into a mill.

The wharf area known as Old Wharf had been occupied by many different traders over the years, such as George Lee, who sold coal, coke, lime, salt and breeze, although the largest was the Shropshire Union Railways & Canal Co through its local agent. Some railway traders also used the canal and took advantage of both modes of transport. Samuel Woodcock & Sons supplied coal, coke, breeze, lime and agricultural salt from Market Drayton station, but also advertised deliveries by canal, as did coal, lime and builders’ merchant Thomas Charles Skidmore supplying materials in boatloads from the wharf.

Old Wharf was also the base for Lilleshall Co, which traded as coal merchants there. This company could trace its inception back to 1802 when five businessmen came together in partnership to exploit the coal, lime and ironstone in Shropshire. But its lineage goes back even further to 1764, when Earl Gower created a company to build the Donnington Wood Canal.

Lilleshall Co also started trading as coal merchants at Market Drayton by taking over the business of John Hazledine & Co of Shrewsbury and Market Drayton. The company’s two boats, Nightingale and Perseverance, passed to Lilleshall Co with George Mason as captain in August 1891. At the same time Defiance, steered by William Corbett, was bought, then in December 1897 Edith, steered by John Roberts, joined the small fleet. They carried coal from the company’s collieries loaded at Lubstree Wharf at the terminus of the Humber Arm off the Newport Branch of the SUR&CC, to Wappenshall, Shrewsbury, Newport and Market Drayton. It seems as if all the company’s boats had finished trading before October 1914.

This image shows Fellows, Morton & Clayton boat Gosport heading south from Newcastle Road Bridge 62. Gosport was built in July 1912 and was one of 24 iron-composite, unpowered craft supplied by Braithwaite & Kirk of West Bromwich to FMC. After years of service it was sold to carrier Ernest Thomas of Walsall in August 1948. 

This scene could have been taken at any time during the working history of this Telford-built canal, when thousands of single horse-drawn boats passed the town.

One pair of boats based at Market Drayton were that of flour miller William Rogers, whose Victoria Mill was based on the River Tern on the other side of the town at Little Drayton. This mill was water powered and taken over by Rogers in 1880, then later, when the business became William Rogers & Son, it had a steam-powered flour mill at Station Road, Market Drayton, with an easy road connection to Victoria Wharf, which became the company’s own private wharf with a weighing machine and office against Bridge 65.

Rogers’ first boat was Mafeking, built by William Nurser & Sons at Braunston Wharf in August 1900, followed by Nellie bought second-hand and registered in March 1906, and finally George bought new in January 1911. Nellie was disposed of shortly after George’s arrival, leaving two boats to carry corn and flour to and from Market Drayton, Ellesmere Port, Manchester and London. Rogers had given up its boats by March 1924, George being sold to coal, lime and salt merchant, John Liversage of Gnosall.

The most prolific fleet was of course the SUR&CC’s, but it had ceased carrying in 1921 and at the time this image was taken it had been replaced by Midlands & Coast Canal Carriers Ltd of Wolverhampton, the Chester & Liverpool Lighterage & Warehousing Co Ltd of Chester and, of course, Fellows, Morton & Clayton.

Outside of towns and villages were numerous small wharves serving local urban and agricultural communities, such as Goldstone Wharf. Separated from Market Drayton by Tyrley Locks, it was just over 3½ miles away. In the background is Wharf Tavern, a local beerhouse, with an adjacent wharf for coal, bricks and roadstone.

The small building at the back of the wharf was an office for the weighbridge, while beyond Goldstone Bridge, off the picture to the right, was a timberyard, also facing onto the canal.

Coal was not just for domestic use but also for farm machinery, such as steam-powered stationary engines, ploughing engines, and road locomotives used for timber haulage. Coal was transported in two-wheeled carts like that shown, with a horse patiently waiting with a blanket thrown over it.

This image was taken around the turn of the century, but by the 1920s several more small buildings had been erected on the wharf for storage. It was quite common for farmers to bring sacks of grain, barley, oats etc to a wharf like this to be stored in a warehouse until the next passing general cargo boat with space to load it arrived, while they would load their farm carts with coal for the return journey. Unfortunately, the boat cannot be identified but it is typical of that older type used on the BCN with a short box cabin. However, it’s interesting to note that Lilleshall Co had a boat named Edith working to the Market Drayton area with coal at the time, and its cabin was registered for just one person in December 1897, measuring only 5ft 3in long.