The National Waterways Museum is housed on an attractive seven acre site, that was previously a thriving canal docks.
The handsome Victorian buildings that house the Museum's displays sit amidst a scene of locks and moorings vibrant with historic and visiting narrow boats and rich with canal wildlife.
Designed by Thomas Telford under the direction of William Jessop, the docks at Ellesmere Port were still in use as late as the 1950s. They were a marvellously self-contained world and when you visit the museum today you can still walk round its locks, docks and warehouses and visit its forge, stables and workers cottages.
Canals are havens for wildlife. Look and listen out for the many birds that live here or travel through - pied wagtails, swans, coots, ducks, cormorants, moor hens - you may even catch sight of a king fisher or even hear a sky lark!
