The Donnington Wood Canal was a 5.5-mile (8.9 km) private canal in East Shropshire, England, which ran from coal pits owned by Earl Gower at Donnington Wood to Pave Lane on the Wolverhampton to Newport Turnpike Road.

Recognising the potential of canals for the carriage of heavy goods, he formed the Earl Gower & Company in 1764, joining forces with two land agents, John and Thomas Gilbert.

Wages varied between 3.5 old pence (1.67p) and 1 shilling (5p) per day, and the 5.5 miles (8.9 km) of the main line of the canal were completed by late 1767,[2] with all construction finished by July 1768.

At this point it was about 42.7 feet (13.0 m) lower, and so a tunnel was built into the hill, with vertical shafts up to the main line.

[3] This system had been replaced by an inclined plane by 1797,[5] which was 123 yards (112 m) long and powered by a steam engine.

[6] The inclined plane was used to transfer tramway waggons loaded with cargo between the two levels, and was never used to carry boats.

There were a number of beam engines at the mines and at Muxton Bridge, which remained in operation until the late 1920s.

[10] The final section of about 1.2 miles (1.9 km) was leased to the Lilleshall Company in the 1880s and continued to be used[11] until it was abandoned in 1904.

[13] The canal ran in an approximate south-west to north-east direction from Donnington Wood to Pave Lane.

After crossing fields, the bridge which carried Pitchcroft Lane over it still exists, with the canal bed and towpath clearly visible beneath.

Part of the bed was used for a carriage drive to Lilleshall Hall, which is now one of five National Sports Centres, and the access road follows the same route.

The route is difficult to follow, as the area was also crossed by a number of railway lines, and has been landscaped to form the park.

[16] However, it is difficult to visualise the arm to the canal, because spoil from the mining has raised the ground level so much.

[15] Download coordinates as: Media related to Donnington Wood Canal at Wikimedia Commons