Llangollen Canal not completed until 1805. To join the two halves up, a heavily engineered route from Trevor Basin via Ruabon and Brymbo to the River Dee at Chester was planned, but very little of it was built. Instead, the present route from Frankton to Hurleston Junction on the Chester Canal was constructed, and opened in 1805. To supply the system with water, a navigable feeder was built to Llantisilio, just beyond Llangollen, where the Horseshoe Falls weir was constructed on the River Dee to allow the water to be abstracted. As part of the Shropshire Union system, the canal from Hurleston
Llangollen Canal appeal against closure, and gave the first hints that such canals could be retained because of their social value for recreation. Hugh McKnight, the editor of the Inland Waterways Association's "Bulletin", wrote an optimistic report in 1966, pointing to the achievements of the first 20 years of the organisation's existence, mentioning the changes in public opinion concerning the canals, and pointing particularly to the growth in leisure use on the Llangollen Canal and the Oxford Canal. Official attitudes changed, and the provisions of the Transport Act 1968 placed the canals under the control of the British Waterways Board, who were