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
Llangollen Canal Llangollen Marina and the final section is used only by horse drawn trip boats. The current boats maintain a long tradition, which was first offered to visitors in 1884. The towpath beside the feeder is in good condition, and walkers can reach the weir at Horseshoe Falls. British Waterways maintains a gravel shoal immediately upstream of the marina entrance past Llangollen Wharf. This maintains a draught which most narrowboats cannot pass, but which is passable by the shallow draughted trip boats. In 2005, a marina was constructed by British Waterways, just upstream from Llangollen Wharf, to relieve the acute shortage