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 CITIES
such as Chester which have walls, have "city gates" across the roads
which lead into them. Our equivalent is the Nantwich Aqueduct which
carries the Shropshire Union Canal over the A534 Chester Road,
leading to Chester, North Wales and - via a turn-off - Wrexham.
Actually, the views of the
town's "gateway" above and right are as seen by motorists leaving
Nantwich. The other side of it - the side which greets motorists -
is not so attractive, somehow, and not just because on the day I
took the pictures the winter sun was not shining on that side.
In fact, members of
Nantwich Town Council feel that the aqueduct (or "ackerdock" as some
Nantwich people have been known to call it) is hitting tourism. Back
in September, as quoted in the Nantwich Chronicle, they said it was
giving "a negative image of the town." They asked British Waterways
to clean it up, citing:
They missed out that water
was trickling through the brickwork.
Strangely, after being approached by The Chronicle for a comment, a
British Waterways spokesman seemed to concentrate on the paintwork
aspect. Pointing out that their grants had been cut in the previous
12 months, they said "The aqueduct is structurally sound and,
unfortunately, a painting scheme is not a high priority for us." The
spokesman said British Waterways had "offered to assist the council
in finding grant funds."
Cllr Steve Hope called that
response "cheeky". "All we want is a tidy up. Nothing fancy and I'm
sure it won't cost the earth to get it done," he said, adding
that British Waterways owned the bridge, not the town.
As far as I know, that is
where the matter rests. But the Council has not given up. As I
discovered when I contacted Cllr Arthur Moran and Nantwich Town
Clerk (Riddell Graham) about a website I had found
which might help them in their quest. The site, Save our Waterways (www.saveourwaterways.org.uk/structures/nantwich.htm), contained some excellent pictures
of the aqueduct and its defects and comments from people who know
about waterways - at the time of writing this letter. As far as I
can see (December 2011) those pictures and details have been
removed.
According to that website, British Waterways said, on December 18,
2007,
"Our asset management team recently took another look at Nantwich
Aqueduct and confirmed its C-rating on our principal asset list.
This does not mean that the structure is in "good" condition or that
no works are needed on it, but it does mean that it has been
assessed by qualified engineers as structurally sound.
"We have a
long list of works needed across the network but have to prioritise
those structures (Ds and Es) in urgent need of repair due to
likelihood of failure. As ever there are no easy decisions about how
we allocate finite funds, which is why we have to prioritise urgent
works."
Ds and Es? They
are British Waterways' grades of structures, apparently: A = very
good, B = good, C = fair, D = poor, and E = bad. And it seems that
20% of their "principal assets" are graded as in either D or E
condition. So our "gateway" isn't in those categories. Yet.
. . It
clearly has to become worse before
 anything can be done.
Cllr
Moran said: "The Town Council has been pressing British
Waterways to do something about the aqueduct. Also,
as a County Councillor, I have tried to get them
involved in the Welsh Row scheme, with, for instance, a gateway
into Nantwich." And the Town Clerk told me: "We
are currently trying to get British Waterways to refurbish the
bridge, so any background of this type is useful."
Back in September, Cllr
Hope said: "Welsh Row is a major street in our tourism efforts
and people driving under the aqueduct must be thinking: 'What
have we come
to?"
Well, yes, they might
think that if they have a chance to study the structure. The
aqueduct stands at the point where they are looking out where to go next (see
this Letter from Nantwich). Maybe
that is why drivers miss the inner ring road turning on the left
just after the aqueduct and head straight on into charming, but
narrow and winding, Welsh Row!
lApart
from the small stone showing the Shropshire Union Canal
Company's existence (pictured above), I spotted a rusting metal
post (right) marking the boundary between the former Nantwich Urban
District Council's territory (it just says "Nantwich D C" with a
smoothed area where the U used to be) and that of Cheshire County
Council. This is just on the town side of the aqueduct -
although within the bridge parapet area) which puts the
main aqueduct structure firmly on county council land. A possible source of
revenue?
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