William Reynolds of Ketley, Ironmaster and son of Richard Reynolds of the Coalbrookdale company, proposed in 1787 to build a short canal from the coal and iron mines of Wombridge, to connect with the Donnington Wood furnaces, and the canal to the Wolverhampton to Newport turnpike road at Pave lane.

The interesting feature of this canal was a tunnel that it passed through close to the church. There seems little geographical need for it and a variety of reasons have been proffered, although the most convincing seems to be that of placating a landowner. This tunnel has given rise to the local myth of a secret passage way between Lilleshall Abbey and Wombridge Priory, but the monks and priors probably had better things to do.

The Wombridge Canal Tunnel.

Below is a map of the area in the late 19th century. Wombridge Priory site can be seen in the bottom left corner, the red buildings are the farm built later. The canal skirts the Priory's Fishpool via the south, passing north through the tunnel to where the Wombridge Iron Works were later built. This map shows the canal extant from here, and it follows round to the Trench incline plane on the top left, gong down to the Shrewsbury canal, and round to the Donnington Wood Canal on the top left. Wombridge collieries are marked in the centre of the map. Apologies are made for the quality of reproduction.

The Bridge Inn at Trench is still on the site of the canal, which runs just to the north of it, and across to  Bullocks Mill.

Dating from at least 1818, it ground wheat using a steam powered mill	Bullock's Mill Today

Wheat for this mill was the last to use the Trench Incline Plane before its closure in 1921.