Hay Inclined Plane
canal inclined plane in the UK
The Hay Inclined Plane is a canal inclined plane in the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire, with a height of 207 feet (63 m). It was located at the end of the Shropshire Canal, part of a network of canals that linked the industrial region of east Shropshire with the River Severn. The inclined plane was in operation from 1793 to 1894. It can be visited as part of the Blists Hill Victorian Town and is also a waypoint on the South Telford Heritage Trail.
History
The proprietors of the Shropshire Canal held a competition in 1788 to find the best means of raising and lowering heavy weights between the canal and the river Severn. They selected a design by Henry Williams and James Loudon, which was also used at a number of other inclined planes in east Shropshire. Construction of the Hay inclined plane was completed in 1793. By 1820 it was in poor condition and substantial repairs were needed. Further repairs were also carried out in the 1840s.
In 1857 the Hay inclined plane was taken over by the London and North Western Railway.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 4, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q99396. Authority coordinates are 52.621, -2.452. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1793, 1894, 1788 and 1820.
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This entry incorporates text from “Hay Inclined Plane” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.