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 later that year. By 1954, the Llangollen Canal was in a curious position. Under the terms of the LMSR Act of abandonment, obtained in 1944, navigation had been abandoned, but the right to sell water had been retained. This was to be for a period of ten years, during which those who bought the water were required to make alternative arrangements, which they failed to do. Since the nationalisation of the canals in 1948, the canal had been managed by the British Transport Commission, who had to obtain Parliamentary approval to extend this arrangement. Meanwhile, a number of pleasure boats