It was opened in February 1797, as was suitable for tub-boats, which were 6.5 feet (2.0 m) wide, and nearly all the traffic through Wappenshall was coal towards Shrewsbury, with empty boats passing in the reverse direction.

However, they experienced severe engineering difficulties in building their main line, and no further action was taken until 1831, when Henry Williams, who was superintendent and engineer for the Shrewsbury Canal and also worked for the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction company, costed a project to make the Shrewsbury Canal suitable for standard 7-foot (2.1 m) narrow boats.

The canal, along with Wappenshall junction, was closed in 1944 under an Act of Parliament obtained by the London Midland and Scottish Railway, who owned it by then.

In 2007, the canalside buildings at Wappenshall, including a trans-shipment warehouse which has been little altered since it ceased to be used in the 1930s, and retains many original features, were put up for sale.

The first floor includes trap doors, which allowed goods to be hoisted up from the canal boats into the warehouse.

[10] A small community developed around the junction, as several cottages and the Sutherland Arms public house were built close by.