WHITCHURCH & PREES ARM

The Whitchurch arm is about double the length you see in the picture and about a mile walk into town mostly along the old canal route as some has been built over with housing.
The Whitchurch waterways trust was formed in the 1980`s with the aim to open up the arm almost into the town with plans including Lakes, moorings and a boat lift or inclined plane.
So far what you see is the start with this part having been restored in the 1990`s.
After coming through the lift bridge from the left i reversed down and spent a couple of days chilling out in the sunshine reading and watching boats go by on the mainline, it`s a hard life. That`s NB Valerie the first boat in.




Whitchurch is home to Joyce & Co. est. 1690 makers of clocks for churches and public buildings.
On the left i have dug out a picture taken in Chester on a 2006 cruise.
The mechanism of this clock was the work of Joyce & Co.











One of the old timber framed buildings in Whitchurch.







Below is the entrance to the Prees branch, the main Llangollen canal goes from where i am standing to the left under the footbridge. The Prees branch built in the 1800`s is now just about a mile long and has 2 lift bridges. At the end is a marina constructed on the site of an old clay pit the rest of the arm is now a nature reserve. The arm never did reach Prees only the hamlet of Quina Brook.



Above lift bridge No. 1 on the arm is grade ll listed and the only bridge operated by pulling on the chain. I did a very short video of myself operating this bridge and will blog it when i can get a good enough net signal to download it.

The end of the arm

The shallow canal now forms part of the nature reserve

I walked as far as the first bridge and found it had been filled in where the fence is under the bridge probably by a farmer as the infill is wide enough for tractors etc, beyond this the shallow water continues.