The Tern Valley Trail - Longdon

All The Way From Ketley

Inside the Iron Trough

The idea of utilising a cast iron aqueduct is credited to Thomas Eyton, Chairman of the Shrewsbury Canal Company, although Telford would certainly have been aware of developments at Derby through his acquaintance with Outram's business partner William Jessop. The two men had previously worked together on the Ellesmere Canal, where they had apparently already considered using iron. Another of the project's promoters, the Ketley ironmaster William Reynolds, co-designed the aqueduct with Telford and supplied the iron plates for the frame of the structure.

Part of the original masonry

Using the surviving ends of Josiah Clowes' water ravaged edifice, a trough and separate towing path measuring 62 yards in length were slotted into place on knee-braced supports just 16 feet above the Tern Valley. Although Longdon Aqueduct is now a scheduled ancient monument, its principal value lies in the influence it had on Telford's later work. The experience he gained from using iron at Longdon was to prove invaluable in the construction of the Pontcysylite Aqueduct on the Llangollen Canal, one of the great engineering triumphs of the canal age.