Chirk Aqueduct

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Looking at Wales over the Aqueduct

Chirk Aqueduct and the Railway viaduct behind it

Chirk Aqueduct is a 70ft high and 710ft long aqueduct near Chirk that carries the Llangollen Canal across the Ceiriog Valley.

It was designed by Thomas Telford and completed in 1801.^[1] It possesses a cast trough within which the water is contained. The masonry walls effectively hide the cast iron interior. The aqueduct followed Telford's innovative Longdon-on-Tern Aqueduct on the Shrewsbury Canal, and was a forerunner of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.^[2]

Telford pioneered the use of cast iron in bridges as well as aqueducts, and cast iron troughs were widely used elsewhere on the British canal network, especially where a secure and watertight crossing or bridge was needed. Another famous example is the Cosgrove Aqueduct on the Grand Junction Canal at Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire.

The aqueduct consists of ten arches, each with a span of 40 feet. The water level is 65 feet above the ground and 70 feet above the River Ceiriog. The first stone was laid on June 17, 1796.^[1] William Hazledine provided the ironwork for the aqueduct.^[3] Side plates were added to the aqueduct in 1870.^[4]

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b Samuel Smiles (2004). The Life of Thomas Telford. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 1419169912.
^ Samuel Smiles (1861). Lives of the Engineers, with an Account of Their Principal Works. J. Murray.
^ A. W. Skempton (2002). A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland. Thomas Telford. ISBN 072772939X.
^ Roger Cragg (1997). Wales and West Central England: Wales and West Central England, 2nd Edition. Thomas Telford. ISBN 0727725769.