COMMUNICATIONS.
Few roads are likely to
have been made before industry and settlement
expanded in the 17th century, though there was
presumably a way leading north from Watling
Street to Wombridge priory, perhaps on the line
of the later Hadley Road. Priorslee probably grew
up beside the road from Watling Street to Shifnal,
first mentioned in 1335. (fn. 70)
Watling Street and the road via Priorslee to
Shifnal were turnpiked in 1726. The latter,
bounding Snedshill coppice to the west, was
replaced in 1730 by a 'new road', the later Canongate, running across the coppice. (fn. 71) About 1820 it
in turn was replaced by a new road to the
south-west as part of the Holyhead road improvements. The first part of the new road, built c.
1817, left Watling Street at Pottersbank, Ketley,
and rejoined the existing Shifnal road at Snedshill
along the later Church Road; about 1824 the new
road was extended from Snedshill to Priorslee;
and c. 1826 the length to Shifnal was completed. (fn. 72)
Apparently associated with the Holyhead road
improvement was the construction of a road
running south-west from Watling Street at Pain's
Lane to join it at Snedshill, the limit of the
improvement of c. 1817. That road, the later
Stafford Street, was apparently turnpiked by
1831, allowing traffic along Watling Street to
bypass Oakengates to the south. (fn. 73)
At Teague's Bridge a sectional iron bridge was
erected where the road (later Teague's Bridge
Lane) crossed the Wombridge Canal, perhaps not
long after the canal's construction in 1788. (fn. 74)
In 1931-2 the St. George's bypass was built
under a government unemployment relief
scheme. (fn. 75) Several major new roads were built
following the designation of Telford new town in
1968. Queensway, partly built along the former
Coalport branch railway, opened northwards to
the Hollinswood interchange in 1971, to the
Greyhound interchange, Ketley Bank, in 1975-6,
and to the Wombridge interchange north of the
church in 1981. A ring road around the centre of
Oakengates was completed in 1975. The M 54
motorway, opened to the south of Oakengates,
terminated in the east at Priorslee in 1975. Work
to link it eastwards to the M 6 at Essington
(Staffs.) was completed in 1983. (fn. 76)
A network of canals and railways linked mines
and ironworks in the Oakengates area with each
other and with outside markets. They were built
over unsuitable terrain that necessitated the construction of frequent tunnels, bridges, and inclined planes. In 1788 William Reynolds completed the 2½-km. Ketley Canal linking Ketley
ironworks with mines near Oakengates, and c.
1788 he built the 3-km. Wombridge Canal connecting mines near Wombridge church with the
Donnington Wood furnaces and the Donnington
Wood Canal. About 1790 the Shropshire Canal
opened; it ran south from the junction of the
Donnington Wood and Wombridge canals and
linked up with the Ketley Canal before passing
through Oakengates to the Severn. The coalfield
was given access to the county town by the
Shrewsbury Canal, which opened fully in 1797;
a section from Trench Pool to Long Lane, linked
to the existing Wombridge Canal by the 223-yd.
long Trench inclined plane which allowed boats
to descend 75 ft., opened in 1794. (fn. 77)
The section of the Wombridge Canal not incorporated in the Shrewsbury Canal probably
became disused c. 1819. The Ketley Canal was
abandoned in the mid 19th century but the Ketley
inclined plan had closed by 1818, preventing
access past that point. (fn. 78) The Shropshire Canal
required considerable attention in the early 1850s;
leaks were common and the canal was said to have
broken through into the underlying Wellington-
Wolverhampton railway in 1855, draining the
summit level and flooding Oakengates. It was
replaced in 1860 by the Coalport branch railway. (fn. 79)
The Trench inclined plane closed in 1921, effectively marking the end of the Shrewsbury Canal;
latterly the only regular traffic carried by the canal
was flour to the mill at Wrockwardine Wood. (fn. 80)
A horse-drawn railway was built in 1747 on the
Charltons' Oakengates estate from the Horsepasture mines, north-east of the settlement, probably
to a wharf on Watling Street. (fn. 81) Among many
railways of the earlier 19th century was that
running eight miles from Hollinswood to Sutton
wharf on the Severn, (fn. 82) and those to the Shrewsbury Canal west of the Trench inclined plane, (fn. 83)
and from Priorslee to the Wrockwardine Wood
inclined plane. (fn. 84)
In 1849 the Shrewsbury & Birmingham (later
G.W.R.) line from Wellington to Wolverhampton
opened after completion of a tunnel 471 yd. long
south of Oakengates. (fn. 85) In 1857 the Coalport
Branch Railway Co. (later L.N.W.R.) obtained
permission to buy the decaying Shropshire Canal,
and replaced it with the Coalport branch line from
Hadley junction, which opened for freight in 1860
and for passengers in 1861. The G.W.R.'s goods
branch from Hollinswood to Stirchley, known at
first as the Old Park line, opened in 1908 and
closed in 1959. Both companies had stations in
Oakengates: Oakengates Market Street
(L.N.W.R.) closed for passengers in 1952 and for
goods in 1964, while Oakengates (G.W.R.),
known as Oakengates West between 1951 and
1956, closed for goods in 1965. Stops at Hollinswood on the lines of both former companies
closed in 1964, Wombridge halt on the old
L.N.W.R. line also shutting in that year. (fn. 86)
Railways were vital to the local extractive and
manufacturing industries. Between 1851 and 1855
the basis of the Lilleshall Co.'s extensive private
railway system was laid, linking Priorslee and
Snedshill with the company's other enterprises in
the area. (fn. 87) From 1856 Hollinswood, adjacent to
Priorslee furnaces, became an important marshalling yard, linked to the G.W.R. (fn. 88) Many smaller firms also had sidings from the main lines. (fn. 89)