Independent. Built from Canal & River Trust's own published notices, with no affiliation to or endorsement by the Trust.
The archive / Shropshire Union Canal
Shropshire Union Canal
3.5 closure-days per kilometre (95% range 3.1–3.8) — 376 days across 36 closures of this 108km canal.
Lengths from CRT's ArcGIS open data, published under the strictest reading of its licence. A notice is attributed to the whole named waterway, not to a point.
Something was shut here on 8% of this cruising season — 19 of its 231 days — across 6 separate closures.
That means a closure somewhere on the canal, not that the whole canal was impassable. Every closure below names the locks or bridges it sat between.
Nothing is shut on this canal today.
- Regions
- North West, West Midlands
- On record
- 43 closures
The season, closure by closure
Each row is one closure. A bar starts and ends where the closure did, and its length is how long it ran; dashed bars have not started yet.
Every closure on record
Showing all 36 closures on the Shropshire Union Canal.
36
closures
376
closure-days
135
in cruising season
0
no reopening date
What these figures mean
- Population
- Which closures a figure counts. All closures is everything; Unplanned, in season drops CRT's scheduled winter programme and any day outside the 15 March to 31 October cruising season; CRT winter programme is that maintenance alone.
- Defensible duration
- The days between a closure's start and its reopening date, counted only where the dates allow it. A cancelled notice, or one whose reopening precedes its start, has no defensible duration and is in no total.
- Closure-days
- One day on which one closure was in force. Two closures on the same day are two closure-days; where the question is how long a canal was actually disrupted, overlapping notices are unioned into single intervals.
May 25Jun 25Jul 25Aug 25Sep 25Oct 25Nov 25Dec 25Jan 26Feb 26Mar 26Apr 26May 26Jun 26Jul 26Aug 26Sep 26
| Notice | Extent | Started | Days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bridge 131, Knolles Bridge to Bridge 133, Backford Bridge | Bridge 133, Backford to Bridge 131, Knolles | 2025-07-17 | 127 |
| Lock 4, Adderley | Adderley Lock 5 to Adderley Lock 1 | 2026-01-12 | 60 |
| Lock 13, Tilstone | Lock 13 Tilstone Lock | 2025-11-03 | 46 |
| Lock 10, Audlem | Lock 10 Audlem | 2026-01-26 | 32 |
| Iron Lock 11 in Beeston, Cheshire | Lock 10, Wharton's Lock to Lock 12, Beeston Stone Lock | 2026-03-02 | 25 |
| Lock 2, Hack Green | Lock 2, Hack Green Lock | 2026-02-09 | 22 |
| Various trees down from Wheaton Aston to Autherley Junction | Bridge 17, Lapley Wood Bridge to Stretton Aqueduct | 2026-01-14 | 7 |
| Wheaton Aston Stop Gate near Bridge 21, Shushions Bridge | Bridge 22, Rye Hill Bridge to Bridge 21, Shushions Bridge | 2026-03-09 | 4 |
| Between Bridge 13 & Bridge 14, Brewood | Bridge 13, School Bridge to Brewood (Between Br 13 - 14) | 2026-01-09 | 4 |
| Between Bridge 39 & Bridge 41 | Bridge 41, Grub Street Bridge to Bridge 39, High Bridge | 2026-01-09 | 4 |
| Between Bridge 29 (Wood Eaton Bridge) & Bridge 30 (Castle Cutting Bridge) Cowley | Bridge 29, Wood Eaton Bridge to Bridge 30, Castle Cutting Bridge | 2026-01-09 | 4 |
| Close to Bridge 16 Broom Hall Bridge, Brewood | Bridge 16, Broom Hall Bridge | 2026-01-11 | 4 |
| Audlem Lock 1, Head Gates | Audlem Lock 1 | 2025-10-03 | 3 |
| Cowley Tunnel | Cowley Tunnel | 2025-11-15 | 3 |
| Shropshire Union Canal | Foxey Wood Winding Hole to Winding Hole - Bunbury Bottom Lock | 2025-12-27 | 3 |
| Woodseaves cutting | Bridge 56, Cheswardine Bridge to Bridge 55, Goldstone Bridge | 2026-01-12 | 3 |
| Between Lock 2 and Lock 3 | Lock 2, Wide Lock to Top Wide Lock | 2026-03-10 | 3 |
| Fallen Tree - Bridge 39, High Bridge, Norbury | Bridge 39, High Bridge | 2025-05-27 | 2 |
| Lock 11 Beeston Iron | Lock 11, Beeston Iron Lock to Lock 12, Beeston Stone Lock | 2025-06-15 | 2 |
| Bridge 134 Caughall, Backford, Chester | Bridge 134, Caughall | 2025-10-05 | 2 |
| Between Bridge 39, High Bridge and Bridge 41, Grub Street Bridge | Bridge 41, Grub Street Bridge to Bridge 39, High Bridge | 2026-01-13 | 2 |
| South of Bridge 66 (Betton Wood Bridge) Market Drayton | Bridge 66, Betton Wood Bridge | 2026-01-27 | 2 |
| 100 yards from Bridge 40, Water Bridge | Bridge 40, Water Bridge | 2026-01-31 | 2 |
| North of Bridge 56 (Cheswardine Bridge) Market Drayton | Bridge 56, Cheswardine Bridge | 2026-02-09 | 2 |
| Lock 12, Beeston Stone Lock, SU-033-006 | Lock 11, Beeston Iron Lock to Lock 13 Tilstone Lock | 2026-04-05 | 2 |
| Navigation Closure: Between Bridge 120, Rowton Bridge and Bridge 121, Quarry Bridge, Christleton, Shopshire Union Canal | Bridge 121, Quarry Bridge to Bridge 120, Rowton Bridge | 2025-06-05 | 1 |
| Bridge 91,Marsh Lane to Bridge 92, Nantwich Junction Bridge | Bridge 92, Nantwich Junction Bridge to Bridge 91, Marsh Lane | 2025-08-01 | 1 |
| Lock 11 Audlem | Shropshire Union Canal - 057 | 2025-08-13 | 1 |
| Northgate Locks, Chester | Lock 1, Northgate Bottom Lock to Lock 3, Northgate Top Lock | 2025-09-04 | 1 |
| Audlem Lock 5 | Bridge 78, Audlem Town Bridge to Bridge 76, Bagley Lane Bridge | 2026-03-09 | 1 |
| Autherley Junction Stop Lock | Autherley Junction Stop Lock | 2026-03-23 | 1 |
| Canal between Bridge 13, School Bridge and Bridge 12, Deans Hall Bridge, Brewood, Stafford ST19 9DS | Bridge 13, School Bridge to Bridge 12, Deans Hall Bridge | 2025-06-29 | same day |
| Bridge 30, Cowley | Bridge 30, Castle Cutting Bridge | 2025-11-06 | same day |
| Autherley Junction Stop Lock | Autherley Junction Stop Lock | 2026-05-01 | same day |
| Wheaton Aston lock | Wheaton Aston Lock | 2026-06-03 | same day |
| Between Bridge 72 and 73, Adderley | Bridge 73, Kemps Bridge to Bridge 72, Hawksmoor Bridge | 2026-06-08 | same day |
Showing the 36 longest of 36. Every row links to the notice CRT published.
Coming up
Scheduled but not yet started, so in no figure above.
| Closure | From | Planned |
|---|---|---|
| Lock 13. Audlem Lock Flight | 4 January 2027 | 46 days |
| Lock 7. Audlem Lock Flight | 4 January 2027 | 46 days |
| Culvert 49, near Bridge 92, Nantwich Junction Bridge | 4 January 2027 | 67 days |
| Autherley Junction Stop Lock , Wolverhampton | 4 January 2027 | 67 days |
| Lock 12, Beeston Stone lock | 6 January 2027 | 16 days |
| Lock 5. Audlem Lock Flight | 22 February 2027 | 11 days |
| Sluice 5, downstream of Bridge 99, Stoke Hall Bridge. Barbridge | 1 March 2027 | 11 days |
Not counted
Cancelled notices and ones whose dates cannot be right are in no figure on this page. They are kept here because CRT published them.
| Notice | State | Started |
|---|---|---|
| Lock 5. Audlem Lock Flight | Published | 22 February 2027 |
| Lock 12, Beeston Stone lock | Published | 6 January 2027 |
| Lock 13. Audlem Lock Flight | Published | 4 January 2027 |
| Lock 7. Audlem Lock Flight | Published | 4 January 2027 |
| Sluice 5, downstream of Bridge 99, Stoke Hall Bridge. Barbridge | Published | 1 March 2027 |
| Culvert 49, near Bridge 92, Nantwich Junction Bridge | Published | 4 January 2027 |
| Autherley Junction Stop Lock , Wolverhampton | Published | 4 January 2027 |