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 is on the towpath side, with only the towpath separating it from the canal in places. Both are surrounded by woods, and the canal is fringed by oak trees, many planted by the Shropshire Union Company to ensure that they had supplies of timber to replace their fleet of wooden boats as that became necessary. At the far end of Blake Mere is the short Ellesmere Tunnel, just long, and beyond that the market town of Ellesmere. A short branch leads into the town, at the end of which is a three-storey, red brick warehouse, dating from the early 19th