Ellesmere Canal from Hurleston to Llangollen was retained as a water feeder for the Shropshire Union Canal main line and for drinking water. In 1955 an agreement with the Mid & South East Cheshire Water Board secured the canal's future. Despite the formal closure, increasing popularity of the canal with pleasure boats led to its acceptance as an important amenity, and the rebranding as the Llangollen Canal. As the canal was never intended to go to Llangollen, this renaming is an ironic twist symbolic of the canal's convoluted development. The Ellesmere Canal south of Frankton Junction (the Llanymynech Branch) nowadays forms part
Wrenbury Marbury, Aston and Audlem. The village is on the Llangollen branch of the Shropshire Union Canal. It has an unmanned railway station on the Welsh Marches Railway. The Cheshire Cycleway runs through the village and the South Cheshire Way long-distance path runs just south of it. In 2006, the total population of the civil parish was estimated as 1,100. In the 2001 census, the recorded population was 1,060. The population has doubled since the beginning of the 20th century; the historical population figures were 404 in 1801, 490 in 1851, 491 in 1901 and 708 in 1951. The red sandstone