IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Teagues Crescent, TELFORD, TF2 6RQ

High on the hill top and long after the insides had been removed this engine house was a notable landmark in the area. The beam engine it had once contained provided power to operate the Trench Inclined Plane, on which tub-boats were lowered from and raised to the high-level canal system connecting with Donnington Wood and other collieries. The engine house survived the initial building of the Newfield Garden Village housing development, but its days were numbered, and now it has passed into the land of memories.

This photograph shows the remains of one of the original bridges over the Shropshire High Level canal system that once existed in this area. The lane passing over the bridge was called Teagues Bridge Lane, but is now a motor road and renamed Wombridge Road in about 1965. The boats using this canal were tub boats, about 20ft x 6ft 3ins in dimension, and they worked in 'gangs' of four, carrying coal. Travelling west, the loaded boats would then work down the Trench inclined plane, at the foot of which the coal was trans-shipped into narrow boats. The area of this photograph is now completely built over with modern housing.

The Bridge Inn, Wombridge Rd, Wrockwardine Wood, named after the Teagues Bridge that used to cross the canal that existed in this area.

Named for the Teagues Bridge which formerly crossed the canal here Image An extensive history of the canals (& railways) of the area is available at http://www.telford.org.uk/ and neatly maps the route of the canals throughout the district.

These cottages, probably originally intended for canal workers, stood close to the bridge carrying Teagues Bridge Lane (now renamed Wombridge Road) over the tub-boat canal from the top of Trench Inclined Plane to the collieries at Donnington Wood and other places. They were demolished soon after this photograph was taken in 1967.

A lot of change has taken place here since this 1963 photograph. All the buildings in the foreground have gone, (also the old Bridge Inn which was just out of shot to the left) to be replaced by modern houses. And the road, which had just been widened here, is now called Wombridge Road. Note the complete absence of traffic.

An OS cutmark on the boundary wall of no 253, Wombridge Road; originally levelled at 92.708m above Ordnance Datum Newlyn.

These cottages, known as Trench Pool Bank, did not long survive this photograph. Out of shot just to the left is the Shropshire Arms pub, now called the Blue Pig, and further round is Trench Pool itself.