Wardle Canal



The Wardle Canal is the shortest canal in the UK, at 154 ft. The canal, in Middlewich, Cheshire, connects the Trent and Mersey Canal to the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union Canal, terminating with a single lock known as Wardle Lock. It was built in 1829 so that the navigation authority of the Trent and Mersey Canal could maintain control over the junction.

Maureen Shaw
Maureen Shaw, a boatwoman who was well known to passing boaters as well as the local and canal community, lived in the Lock Cottage at Wardle Lock for many years, with the result that it was often referred to as "Maureen’s Lock". Following her death in 2012, a memorial panel was placed at the lock in her honour.