I was quite young, but I remember feeling quite sad when they drained the Old Canal.

I recall a sunken coal barge was revealed near the Old Yard.

The canal was at the top of the old incline near the Trench Lock and went all the way to Lilleshall Abbey without a lock.

At Teagues Bridge there was a single track iron bridge similar to three others along our stretch.

From there it went into a sort of ox-bow called the Mot and then past the Old Mill and over Church Road.

Incidentally this was referred to by everybody as Stoney Lane, and was indeed shown as such on early 20th century Ordnance Survey Maps. Then the canal went along past Holy Trinity Church and Glasshouse Row on the site of the old glassworks.

The next stretch is still actually designated as Canal Side and so on to Furnace Lane and another bridge. Here the canal skirted “Lemuel” Jones’ small holding near to the place where the Old Incline by the Methodist Chapel came down, at the back of what is now Smiths Crescent. Here there is a brick bridge still intact.

And so we go on to the Old Yard and Muxton Bridge and across the Fields to Lilleshall.

If anyone has any memories of the area from their childhood, or any old photographs, we would be very pleased to include them in our local history page.