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
Trent and Mersey Canal and two smaller tunnels at Saltersford (since 2008 also one-way operation, alternating each half-hour), and Barnton to the "junction" with the River Weaver at Anderton Boat Lift near Northwich. After Anderton, the next major destination is Middlewich, where a junction with the 50 yard long Wardle Canal leads to the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union Canal which gives access to Chester, Llangollen and (south on the 'Shroppie') a parallel route to Birmingham/Wolverhampton. South of Middlewich, having passed through Wheelock, the T & M climbs out of the Cheshire Plain via the 'Heartbreak Hill' locks (more traditionally known as the