Due to the constraints placed on the canal by its incomplete design, the Ellesmere Canal struggled financially throughout its operating life as an industrial waterway. In 1813, the Ellesmere Canal company merged with the Chester Canal to form the Ellesmere and Chester Canal Company. This business was then merged with the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal in 1845. A year later the canal was taken over again by the formation of the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company.
