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Canals of Britain 1-70.indd 1 24/08/2022 15:09
 Canals of Britain

Canals of Britain 1-70.indd 2 24/08/2022 15:09

 Contents
Foreword 4 32 Droitwich Barge Canal 171
Introduction 5 33 Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal 174
1 Birmingham Canal Navigations, 34 Stourbridge Canal 182
Old Main Loop Line 6 35 Shropshire Union Canal 187
2 Birmingham Canal Navigations, 36 Llangollen Canal 199
New Main Line 8 37 Montgomery Canal 207
3 Wyrley & Essington Canal 12 38 Shropshire Union Canal,
4 Walsall Canal 15 Middlewich Branch 214
5 Daw End Branch 17 39 Trent & Mersey Canal 216
6 Tame Valley Canal 19 40 Macclesfield Canal 230
7 Birmingham & Fazeley Canal 22 41 Caldon Canal 233
8 Coventry Canal 26 42 St Helens Canal 237
9 Ashby Canal 31 43 Bridgewater Canal 240
10 Oxford Canal 34 44 Leeds & Liverpool Canal, Leigh Branch 245
11 Grand Union Canal 47 45 Bridgewater Canal, Stretford & Leigh Branch 247
12 Grand Union Canal, Leicester Line 71 46 Rochdale Canal 250
13 Cromford Canal 79 47 Ashton Canal 257
14 Erewash Canal 82 48 Peak Forest Canal 260
15 Grantham Canal 85 49 Huddersfield Narrow Canal 263
16 Grand Union Canal, Aylesbury Arm 88 50 Calder & Hebble Navigation 269
17 Wendover Arm 90 51 Leeds & Liverpool Canal 272
18 Grand Union Canal, Paddington Arm 93 52 Aire & Calder Navigation 291
19 Regent’s Canal 97 53 Aire & Calder Navigation, Wakefield Section 297
20 Royal Military Canal 103 54 Leeds & Liverpool Canal, Rufford Branch 299
21 Basingstoke Canal 108 55 Lancaster Canal 301
22 Kennet & Avon Canal 112 56 Pocklington Canal 308
23 Grand Western Canal 134 57 Driffield Canal 311
24 Bridgwater & Taunton Canal 137 58 Louth Canal 313
25 Gloucester & Sharpness Canal 141 59 Stainforth & Keadby Canal 316
26 Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal 147 60 Chesterfield Canal 318
27 Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal, 61 Fossdyke Navigation 324
Crumlin Branch 153 62 Union Canal 326
28 Neath Canal 156 63 Forth & Clyde Canal 333
29 Tennant Canal 160 64 Crinan Canal 339
30 Stratford-upon-Avon Canal 162 65 Caledonian Canal 342
31 Worcester & Birmingham Canal 167 Index 349

ADLARD COLES All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,
29 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, Ireland or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior
permission in writing from the publishers
BLOOMSBURY, ADLARD COLES and the Adlard Coles logo
are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
First published 2009
Second edition 2012 Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication data
Third edition 2017 has been applied for
This edition published 2023
ISBN: PB: 978-1-4729-9492-9; ePub: 978-1-4729-9491-2;
This electronic edition published in 2022 by Bloomsbury ePDF: 978-1-4729-9490-5
Publishing Plc

Copyright © Stuart Fisher, 2009, 2012, 2017, 2023 Typeset in 9pt Bembo by Stuart Fisher
Stuart Fisher has asserted his right under the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be
identified as Author of this work

For legal purposes the Acknowledgements on p4

constitute an extension of this copyright page

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or

responsibility for, any third-party websites referred to or in this
book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct To find out more about our authors and books visit
at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret www.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our newsletters
any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites
have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any
such changes 3

Canals of Britain 1-70.indd 3 24/08/2022 15:09

 Acknowledgments
P6 from Old Sam by Peter Dodds. P240 from Bolinder Boatman by Ian Woods.
P8 from A Working Boatie Man by Graeme Meek. P247 Anon.
P12 from Working the BCN by Teresa Fuller. P250 from The Rochdale Canal
P15 from The ’Orrible Trip by David Blagrove. by Mair Potter & Brian Green.
P19 from The ’Orrible Trip by David Blagrove. P257 from The New Navigators by Johnny Handle.
P22 by David Bryant, added to The Rosemary by Peter P260 from The Bugsworth Tipplers by Ian H Bruce.
Dodds. P263 by William Pontey.
P26 from The Mystery Load by Dusty Miller. P269 from On Ilkla Moor bah t’At, Anon.
P31 from Paper Tiger by John Burman. P272 Anon.
P34 from Tom Beech’s Last Trip by David Blagrove. P291 from The Trip by Gezz Overington.
P47 from The Greasy Wheel, Anon. P297 Anon.
P71 from Birmingham to London in 41/2 Minutes P301 from The New Canal by Ron Baxter.
by Hilary Rhodes. P313 by Richard Leighton Greene.
P82 from Paddy is Yer Man by Peter Chapman. P316 from It’ll be the Death of Me by Pete Thompson.
P85 Grantham Canal, Anon. P318 from The Foresters by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
P88 from London to Birmingham in 41/2 Minutes P324 from A Very Merry Wherry-Ferry-Voyage
by Buz Collins. by John Taylor.
P90 from The Chilterns by Rupert Brooke. P326 from The Union Canal by Robin Laing.
P93 from The Finest of Them All by Dave Ritchie. P333 from The Canal Cruise by Bob Smith’s Ideal Band.
P97 from The Tilbury, Anon. P339 from The Crinan Canal for Me, Anon.
P103 from The Rolling English Road by GK Chesterton. P342 Anon.
P108 from Gunga Din by Rudyard Kipling.
P112 from Bristol Through to Reading Every effort has been made to trace authors. Bloomsbury
by Foxwell, Bale & Batholomew. are happy to correct any error or omission in future
P134 from Grand Western Canal by Connery & Kerrison. editions.
P137 from Carrying the Load by Barry Goodman.
P141 from Cargoes by Sue Lee & John Meleady. I am extremely grateful to Julie Arnold, Malcolm Bower,
P147 from From Here on the Cropped Grass by WH Graeme Bridge, Caroline Brown, Peter Brown, Ian H
Auden. Bruce, Roger Cansdale, Colin Cohen, Tony Collins, Bob
P156 from The Lock-Keeper’s Daughter Gough, Celia Griffiths, David Guest, Di Harris, Maggie
by Bob Thomas & Huw Pudner. Hartford, Pablo Howarth, Ian Hunter, Peter Keen, Tommy
P160 from The Neath and Swansea Canal Lawton, John Lower, Chris Morgan, Trevor Morgan, Hugh
by Elizabeth Davies. Potter, John Roddis, Peter Stone and Andy Talbot for
P162 from Venus & Adonis by William Shakespeare. advising on content. They sometimes undertook masterly
P167 from Chocolate Charlie by Bill Malkin. studies in considerable detail. On exceptional occasions I
P171 from Upon Excellent Strong Beer,Which He Drank at have not taken all the offered advice. The blame stays with
the Town of Wick, in Worcestershire,Where Salt is Made me for any errors.
by Thomas Nabbes. Generally, I have failed to give adequate credit for the
P174 from The Fray Bentos Tinned Pie by Ian H Bruce. restoration work of the Waterway Recovery Group, whose
P182 from Rosie by Buz Collins. founder, Graham Palmer, was accused of being ‘all do and
P187 from There’s Something in the Cutting no say’, and the many canal societies. I list relevant websites
by Dusty Miller. at the end of each chapter. Do visit these to get a fuller
P199 from Telford’s Bridge by John Warner. picture of what the societies have been and are doing to
P207 from Saturn by Bill Webb. restore the canals to full use.
P214 from A Working Boatie Man by Graeme Meek. Within Adlard Coles I am particularly grateful to my
P216 from The China-Mender by Thomas Hood. initial commissioning editor, Janet Murphy, and current
P230 from Carrying Coal by Ian H Bruce. commissioning editor, Jonathan Eyers.
P233 from Bosley in the Rain by Ian H Bruce. Last but not least, this book would not have happened
P237 from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland without the support of my wife, Becky, and sons, Brendan
by Lewis Carroll. and Ross, who have also toured the canal network widely.

Canals of Britain 1-70.indd 4 24/08/2022 15:09

 Introduction
We are fortunate to have, in this country, a canal network ramblers and boaters are less frequent users, even though it
like no other in the world. It was the first commercial is boaters who are asked to foot the licence bill.
canal system, leading the way for the Industrial Revolution, The sun isn’t always shining, either. Rain, graffiti and
but has remained largely as built.The canals are mostly barbed wire are a few of the less attractive elements that
small and intimate. Restoration in recent years, supported appear in the photos, hopefully presenting an honest
by lottery and other funding, has outstripped the pace of balance of what will be met around the system.
construction even during the Canal Mania years. The intention is that the book should be engaging to
Overseas, where canals have been enlarged to take all who travel the canals. I do not usually give navigation
modern commercial craft, you can look at the distant bank instructions, depths and headrooms, portage routes or
and wonder whether you will be run down by something what to do when the towpath runs out. If the present
the size of an office block or a multi-storey carpark, state of a canal is such that it is limited to one kind of user,
complete with cars. In this country the biggest risk is usually someone able to undertake portages, I may refer
running aground and you could usually wade through the to that category of user, otherwise I talk more generally.
mud to either bank. It is a safe environment with limited I draw attention to features near the canal, especially in
scope for getting into serious trouble. For the walker and heritage cities such as Bath and Chester, because most canal
cyclist, canals provide routes which are mostly flat and travellers will not want to pass through without stopping.
free of vehicles. As far as possible, descriptions are given I raise a couple of concerns for purists.There may
downhill and with the flow for those who have a choice of be some who take issue with the use of metric units.
direction. Metrication was supposed to have been completed in
We have canals with scenery which changes frequently, 1965. It is the system which was taught in school to
open countryside, wildlife, heritage industrial buildings, most people still below retirement age and increasing
canalside public houses, modern city centres, wild numbers who have reached it. Canals are not just for an
moorland and coastal harbours, all mixed up. Anywhere on ageing population. (One canal society moved to new
the system fantastic engineering structures can be found. premises for lectures partly because increasing numbers
Sixty five canals are described, all but the shortest ones. of members could not manage the stairs at the previous
I have excluded the river navigations, by which many venue.) We need to attract young users. Ah, you protest,
people mean joined up waters deep enough to take at the canals were built to imperial units. If this was a book
least a narrowboat, covered in British River Navigations. about the pyramids, would you expect me to give all the
However, for those with suitable boats there are 65,000km measurements in cubits and spans?
of navigable river in England and Wales alone, scope for a I make one concession, small value coinage. This has
whole library of books. Not all the canals described in this no more sense of its contemporary value in post decimal
book are linked to the rest of the system and not all are figures than if left in shillings and pence.
physically passable for many boats or have towpaths you The other confession is that I have often referred to
can or may use.You may need a spirit of adventure, like the bridges by the numbers of the roads they are carrying.
earlier recreational boaters. Canal company bridge numbers (or even just names) are
I have been fortunate enough to have travelled all the less accessible to those without detailed canal maps.
canals in this book with a kayak.That is not to say that I If something is shown on a map it is within 4km of the
was always in it. A 7km portage through Failsworth and featured canal. On the canal or towpath you are going to
Miles Platting on the Rochdale Canal, before the concrete need the listed OS maps or the excellent Waterway Routes
cap was removed during restoration, was memorable for series to support your spirit of adventure.
the wrong reasons. Some of the canals I have also travelled This book has been developed from a series of guides
by narrowboat, by bike or on foot, including a happier run first published in Canoeist. Revisiting canals, it is surprising
down the Rochdale after restoration. how much additional greenery there is, often meaning that
Who uses the canals? If you look at canal magazines you old pictures could not be retaken from previous positions.
will see smiling couples or families busy in the summer At the same time, much canalside grass is now kept much
sunshine. In practice, you may find the picture rather tidier than in the past.The canals are changing constantly. If
different. Often the canals are deserted, except for wildlife you note anything that needs to be updated or pictures of
that finds the canals an ideal environment, without needing views that have changed I would be grateful to be advised
all humans and boats to be banned. My unscientific at [email protected] or via Adlard Coles.
survey suggests that dog walkers might be the commonest Stuart Fisher
humans, followed by cyclists. Joggers, local walkers,

Legend for maps Photographs

Featured canal Paul Caffyn p346
Other canal or river top.
Motorway Becky Fisher p172
Other road centre left, p188
Railway bottom left.
Chris Jones p39
Open water or sea bottom, p40 top
two.
Inter-tidal zone All other photos
by the author.
Built-up area

Woodland

Scale 1:200,000.
North is always at the top.

Canals of Britain 1-70.indd 5 24/08/2022 15:09

 1 Birmingham Canal Navigations,
Old Main Loop Line
Birmingham’s Now Oldbury’s a filthy place – Housing, with gardens behind greater reedmace, gives
oldest canal No trees, no leafy glades – way to old brick factories. The view opens out at Burnt
But you should see Sam’s smiling face, Tree. The Silurian limestone ridge behind is topped by a
couple of masts on Darby’s Hill. The canal is wider here
As he’s locking down the Brades.
as it approaches Dudley Port.
Peter Dodds The canal crosses the Netherton Tunnel Branch Canal
on an aqueduct and it is worth looking over the parapet
Of Britain’s operational canals, only the Fossdyke and the at the imposing cutting leading to the mouth of this 3km
Bridgewater predate the Birmingham. The Birmingham long tunnel.
Canal Company were authorized to build their line At Brades Hall Junction there are two arches on the
in 1768 and it was opened as far as Wednesbury as a left, the first abandoned but the second leading past an
contour canal by Brindley the following year, picking ivy-covered wall to the first of the Brades Locks on the
up many industrial premises in what Thomas Carlyle Gower Branch Canal. This drops down as a midway
called ‘iron Birmingham’ in The French Revolution. The connection to the New Main Line. It is an area of
whole 36km was completed in 1772. The company industry. Factories vent acrid gases over the canal as oil
bought 19 of Boulton and Watt’s first 54 steam engines begins to appear on the surface but this doesn’t last for
for pumping canal water. Because of the minerals and long. The Albright & Wilson chemical site in Oldbury
industry it was immediately highly successful, halving was first used in 1851 for red phosphorous manufacture
The Gower Branch the cost of coal in Birmingham. In 1790 the Smethwick but they refused initially to supply Lundstrom Brothers
Canal drops away summit was lowered from the 150m level to the 144m in Sweden for their match factory because they believed
from Brades Hall Wolverhampton level with the removal of three locks such a large order could only be for purposes of warfare.
Junction through the on each side, saving time and reducing water supply The former Oldbury Loop to the north has been lost.
Brades Locks. problems. Birmingham now has 51km of canal compared The industrial city Stirmingham, central to Richard
with 45km in Venice. Jefferies World’s End, has much in common with
Several loops of the old line have been cut off or filled Birmingham but has a location nearer to Stratford or
in but the section between Tipton and Smethwick Evesham.
remains, a contour canal with more features of interest The character of the canal changes sharply at
than the more efficient New Main Line. Oldbury as the M5 is in close proximity to the canal for
The old line divides from the new at Tipton Factory the next 2km, mostly overhead. As with the River Tame
Junction, just a stone’s throw from the top lock on the in Birmingham, an elevated route over a waterway has
New Main Line. With a westerly wind there is the acrid proved to be the most acceptable line for a motorway to
smell from nearby metalworking industries. At this end be squeezed through the city. Repairs in 2018 were the
the water is not too bad but the quality deteriorates largest ever concrete repair job in the UK and involved
towards Birmingham.The Horseley Coal & Iron Co the largest scaffolding project in Europe with erection of
built the 116t Aaron Manby, named after their owner, 643km of scaffolding.
in Tipton, the first iron steamship to go to sea, a 32m This does not indicate any lessening in canal
paddle steamer, dismantled and reassembled in London’s complexity, however. North Junction and South Junction
Surrey Docks for use on the Seine. of the closed Oldbury Loop Line are still visible and the
The Malthouse Stables have been restored as an Houghton Branch Canal leads away under the motorway.
outdoor activity centre. Once under what can be a useful canopy for a rainy day,
Tipton Green has been pleasantly landscaped to Oldbury Locks Junction accepts the Titford Canal which
make the most of the canal, with assorted new housing descends through six locks from the Crow, a feeder from
standing around the Fountain Inn. This was formerly Edgbaston Reservoir.
the home of 19th century canalman and prize fighter The concrete jungle intensifies as the A457 passes
William Perry, the Tipton Slasher, whose statue stands between canal and motorway and the canal comes out
on the green. In 1795 Tipton was the scene of riots over into the open air for a breather. At one point there is a
corn shortages. traditional brick-arched bridge over the canal, noticeably
The Tipton Green Canal used to lead from Tipton out of place among all the vast concrete columns and
Green Junction. From Tipton Junction there is a spur, walls. The complexity reaches its zenith. The M5 passes
the Dudley Canal No 1 Line, which leads to the Black over the main railway line, which passes over the Old
Country Living Museum and the Dudley Tunnel. Main Loop Line, which passes over the New Main Line

The Malthouse Stables centre at Tipton Factory Junction. Only Contrasting scales of bridge; a footbridge and the M5 viaduct.
the two storey part is original.

Canals of Britain 1-70.indd 6 24/08/2022 15:09

 Birmingham Canal - Old Main Loop Line

Smethwick New Pumping Station.The New Main Line is in Smethwick Lock, formerly duplicated.The chamber on the left
the deeper cut which lies to the right. side has been filled in.

on the Steward Aqueduct. The aqueduct would probably On the left side is a marshy bank with a flight of steps
have been more of an honour to Birmingham Canal leading up to the Night Inn. Tiers on the south side
Navigations committee member Stewart if the name beyond the New Main Line support the railway line, the
had been spelled correctly. Telford’s 2.1m iron-trough A457 with some very gaudily painted buildings and then
aqueduct of 1826–8 is now a listed structure. a slim church spire.
Spon Lane Wharf and Junction are now beneath Smethwick New Pumping Station of 1892 had two
the motorway. Spon Lane Locks Branch provides a steam engines to pump water from the New Main Line
connection down to the New Main Line through Spon to the Old Main Loop Line to replace water lost by
Lane Locks, the remaining bottom three from the six boats locking down at Spon Lane and Smethwick. Built
that descended from the original summit. These three to supersede the Smethwick Engine, it ceased operation
locks are probably the oldest working locks in Britain. in the 1920s although a diesel engine was installed for
Top Lock has a split cantilevered bridge to pass ropes fire fighting during the Second World War. It is a restored
through without unhitching towing horses. listed building used as the Galton Valley Pumping Station
The cutting between Sandwell and Smethwick museum.
has one of Britain’s greatest concentrations of canal Smethwick Brasshouse of 1790, later the District Iron Distance
architecture. & Steelworks, had its own canal wharf at Brasshouse 10km from Tipton
Chance’s glassworks were on the right, founded Lane. The top three locks and the existing summit were Factory Junction to
in 1824 and including a number of listed buildings. discarded by Smeaton in 1790 and the present level used. Smethwick Junction
They pioneered sheet glass, were the leading producers The Engine Arm was a feeder to the summit level
of optical glass for lighthouses after 1838 and made from Edgbaston Reservoir via the Boulton & Watt Navigation
the glass for the Crystal Palace in 1851, going on to engine which operated for 120 years. It leads across Authority
manufacture microscope lenses, rangefinders, telescopes Telford’s magnificent Engine Arm Aqueduct of 1825. Canal & River Trust
and searchlights. They are now in Malvern. The Old Main Loop Line towpath is taken over the
Looking back on the left side the prominent feature Engine Arm Canal on a brick footbridge with indented Canal Society
is the listed small timber belltower of 1847 on the honeycomb stone quoins. Birmingham Canal
seven-storey offices of Archibald Kenrick & Sons, who The three locks down to the lower level are the Navigations Society
have made ironmongery since 1791. George Salter, bottom ones of the original six, all listed structures. In www.bcnsociety.com
manufacturers of such things as spring balances, weighing 1789 Smeaton duplicated these three locks. Brindley’s
equipment and steam locomotive safety valves, sited their originals were filled in during the 1960s. The hexagonal OS 1:50,000 Sheet
foundry beside Top Lock. shape of former toll house between the upper pair is a 139 Birmingham
The motorway was built in 1969 but suffered badly design unique to this area. The layout of Pope’s Bridge, & Wolverhampton
from chloride attack by road de-icing salts to the extent carrying Bridge Street, shows the alignment of the two
that late in 1991 a start was made on replacing complete lock flights.
crosshead beams. A 33m x 1.7m x 1.1m beam was The two main lines meet at Smethwick Junction,
the first to be removed and replaced as the entire six Soho, notable features being two cast-iron footbridges
lanes of motorway plus hard shoulders were jacked up, installed in 1828 after being prefabricated at the
the first time this operation had been undertaken in Horseley Ironworks in Tipton. Once again these are
Britain. Further crossheads followed although there was listed structures. Their semi elliptical shape gives an
considerable delay when deck movements were found to advantage over segmental curves by allowing greater
be four times greater than anticipated. headroom for horses passing below.
Eventually the M5 turns away as the canal enters a
deep cutting below the original summit, lined with
bulrushes. Notable on the left bank were colliery loading
chutes, built about 1930. These were fed by a narrow
tramway from the Sandwell Park and Jubilee collieries,
later replaced by conveyors. While boats were being
loaded, boatmen and horses were able to shelter in a
brick building, the ruins of which still stand on the
opposite bank. The chutes were dismantled in 2006.
A scheduled ancient monument, Summit Bridge
of 1791 is a great brick arch with an unusual sloping
parapet wall. Concentric arches reduce towards Galton
Tunnel, which has a towpath and passes under the A4168
Telford Way. Samuel Galton was a Birmingham Canal
Navigations Committee member, self-educated in the
sciences and the owner of a gun foundry. Galton House
was built on the right before the tunnel, its gardens
continuing beyond.

Canals of Britain 1-70.indd 7 24/08/2022 15:10

 2 Birmingham Canal Navigations,
New Main Line
Telford gets At Wolverhampton town we then and shortening the route by 11km at the lower 138m
straight to Unload and turn her round again. Birmingham level.
business Possibly because Birmingham is the only major city
This trip will earn us five pounds ten
not located on a large river, it has had to rely on its
For a working boatie man.
manmade waterways. The whole canal network spreads
Graeme Meek out from Birmingham and it is to the Birmingham
Canal Navigations that many loose ends connect. It
The major improvement to the Old is, therefore, intensely complex, completely built-up
Main Line came between 1825 and and often industrial. Its past commercial influence is
1838 when Telford engineered the declining but still enough to reduce its attraction as a
New Main Line between Deepfields cruising waterway, resulting in lighter traffic.
and Birmingham. He introduced bold The canal starts from Gas Street Basin at the end
cuttings and embankments, producing of the Worcester & Birmingham Canal in the centre
extra water space to ease traffic congestion of Birmingham, the first street in the city to have
gas lighting. Sadly, Jane Austen’s Emma referred to
‘Birmingham, which is not a place to promise much’
while Benjamin Disraeli’s Sybil claimed ‘They are always
ready for a riot in Birmingham.’ LTC Rolt’s Landscape
with Canals records that ‘it did not endear itself ’ to him.
The Tap & Spile precedes Black Sabbath Bridge, a vast
tunnel with at least two increases in cross section along
its short length and Broad Street’s buildings on top. In
days when it was darker than today it was used by ladies
of the night with their clients. Much of the New Main
Line has twin footpaths, partly because of the complexity
of the system and partly to reduce congestion.
The Pitcher & Piano and the Handmade Burger
Company are among the amenities at the much restored
Brindleyplace opposite the International Convention
Centre and Symphony Hall, a former working
environment where business suits are more at home
these days.
Much of the blue brickwork on towpath bridges has
been renovated to convert the towpaths to attractive
canalside walks, now fully surfaced with brickwork.
Old Turn Junction, earlier Deep Cutting Junction
or Farmer’s Bridge Junction, is at the start of the
Birmingham & Fazeley Canal, opposite Sherborne Wharf
on the Oozells Street Loop. Three of the four corners of
the junction are occupied by the Malt House hostelry
(as visited by Bill Clinton), the National Sea Life Centre
and Utilita Arena Birmingham. The island was a wartime
measure to make it easier to close off the canal in the
event of a breach.
Further west are modern residential buildings. Three
Broad Street crosses Black Sabbath Bridge in a brick panorama. loops show where the contour canal used to run before
being straightened, Oozells Street Loop (rejoining
opposite the large Roundhouse, former canal stables,
accompanied by the Distillery, a new gin producer),
Icknield Port Loop via Rotton Park and Soho Loop
which winds its way past Birmingham Prison at Winson
Green. In Ladywood Frederick Lanchester was the first
Briton to build cars, as distinct from horseless carriages.
The Soho Loop rejoins at Winson Green Junction, the
first of several toll islands on the canal. Opposite are
the remains of the Cape Arm loop, rejoining opposite
the start of the former Soho Foundry Loop, the 1795
foundry of Boulton & Watt having been the first modern
factory. By this stage it has already been joined by the
West Coast Main Line, remaining in close proximity for
most of the distance. Another arrival which is a feature
of this part of the canal system is the presence of purple
lupins growing wild on the embankments. Even less
expected in 1976 was ball lightning which struck a
woman in a local house, causing minor injury.
Bridges over side arms have low lattice parapets,
The International Convention Centre at Brindleyplace. manufactured in the local Horseley works. Metal

Canals of Britain 1-70.indd 8 24/08/2022 15:10

 Birmingham Canal - New Main Line
products factories are a constant feature of the canal with
their attendant odours. The ghost of a boat family nurse
has been seen on the towpath at Black Patch Park as an
elderly woman in a red cape.
At Smethwick the Old Main Line diverges to the
right, rising through three locks from the Birmingham
Level to the Wolverhampton Level. A feeder, Engine
Branch, crosses the New Main Line on Telford Aqueduct.
It is a magnificent cast-iron Horseley Ironworks
structure, highly decorated in Gothic Revival style, its
dark brown paintwork highlighted with red and white
detailing. The feeder name came from the Boulton &
Watt steam pumping engine which fed the Birmingham
Canal Navigations summit level for 120 years.
The New Main Line turns into its boldest cutting at Old Turn Junction with the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal
Sandwell. Earthworks here were some of the greatest leaving to the right under the iron bridge between the Malt
in the world when undertaken. On the north bank House and the Utilita Arena Birmingham.
is Galton Valley Canal Heritage Centre in a former
pumphouse, the pump now being stored and steamed
at Thinktank Birmingham Science Museum. There was
formerly a view straight down the 21m deep cutting to
Telford’s elegant Galton Bridge, named after scientist and
economist Samuel Tertius Galton. A fitting end to the
straight cut, it has a 46m span, the world’s longest canal
span when built in 1829, and is 23m high. In 1974 this
changed with the construction of a 112m long tunnel
next to it with an embankment over the top to carry
the A4168. Galton Tunnel has a towpath. With a railway
bridge just beyond, Galton Bridge can no longer be seen
at its best from either direction.
Again, a long straight leads under another interesting
group of bridges. A brick road bridge has been widened
with a concrete arch which provides a striking facade.
The Old Main Line crosses to the higher ground on
the south on the Steward Aqueduct. The M5 viaduct is
supported on uncompromising nodes in the centre of The New Main Line crosses the picture while the
the canal. Oozells Steet Loop is ahead with Sherborne Wharf
A slip road drops through the three Spon Lane Locks next to a National Sea Life Centre.
to join the New Main Line at Bromford Junction.
Pudding Green Junction leads off northwards to the Two branches which have been lost from the
Walsall Canal in an area of small but bustling works. north side here were Dixon’s Branch and
By now the New Main Line is on a dead straight the Toll End Communication, which
4km run through to Tipton. At Albion linked with the Walsall Canal,
Junction the Gower Branch, with its deep opposite the former Tipton
locks, connects with the Old Main Line. Green Canal. A thrust bored
The New Main Line now runs onto box tunnel on the B4517
an embankment, and the only extensive at Tipton station replaced
views of the route are to be seen in the one of the last level crossings on
form of the hills around Dudley. the West Coast Maine Line in
From Dudley Port Junction the 2009 by Caggy’s Boatyard.
Netherton Tunnel Branch runs parallel to
the Gower Branch and, in the distance, it can
be seen passing under the Old Main Line and
up to the mouth of Netherton Tunnel, the largest
cross section canal tunnel in the country.
Residential properties close in on the south
side of the canal. A canal cottage sits on top of the
embankment near a couple of aqueducts. The Ryland
Aqueduct of 1968 clears the A461 with a single 24m
concrete span.

Beyond the Noah’s Ark

the three Factory Locks bring
the New Main Line up to rejoin the
Smethwick Junction with the Old Main Loop Line leaving to Old Main Line at Tipton Factory Junction.
the right. Noteworthy are a split bridge over the bottom

Canals of Britain 1-70.indd 9 24/08/2022 15:10

 Canals of Britain

Telford’s Engine Arm Aqueduct. Coseley Tunnel.

lock, a boatman’s chapel now converted into a factory, a

large warehouse and a Birmingham Canal Navigations
cast-iron boundary post. The Factory Bridge of 1825
has now been removed to the Black Country Living
Museum in Dudley. The Staffordshire Thick Coal seam
was 15m thick here and near the surface.
Bloomfield Junction formerly took the Ocker Hill
Branch away to connect with the head of the Tame
Valley Canal. What was the Old Main Line still remains
in part as the Wednesbury Oak Loop.
The 329m Coseley Tunnel has twin towpaths with
visible white handrails, its cross section exceeded only by
Lapal.
At Deepfields Junction the Wednesbury Oak Loop
is a remainder of the contour canal, from which the
New Main Line cut 5km on this loop alone. Contours
changed dramatically at Deepfields on one occasion
when subsidence dropped the canal area 1.2m in a few
hours. A nearby tip has been landscaped but factories lie
in various stages of dereliction. Bilston Steelworks was,
until 1981, the last surviving blast furnace in the Black
Country, which was claimed to be the world’s greatest
wealth creating area at the turn of the 20th century.
These days the area seems to be used for storing plant.
Galton Bridge, now less easy to view. It is not all construction plant, though. Water plants are

A striking widened road bridge, the Steward Aqueduct carrying the Old Main Line and the M5 bridge.

Canals of Britain 1-70.indd 10 24/08/2022 15:10

 Birmingham Canal - New Main Line
The flight begins beside a traditional lock keeper’s
cottage. The former M&B Springfield brewery,
Wolverhampton Civic Incinerator, a landscaped
former railway line and a network of existing railways
are other features. The West Coast Main Line leaves
on a viaduct which crosses over a railway bridge as
it, in turn, is crossing the canal with a Pendolino
depot adjacent. The flight drops under Oxley Viaduct
with its skewed navigation arch, this time taking the
Shrewsbury to Wolverhampton line. Beyond the viaduct
the transformation is dramatic. The city is left behind.
Wolverhampton’s horse race course is on the left and
beyond it are only trees and a quiet towpath down
Repair is an ongoing requirement: a collapsed wall at to Aldersley Junction, for the pleasant appearance of
Wolverhampton. which Friends of the Earth claimed the credit. Although
relatively rural in appearance, the Staffordshire &
joined by increasing amounts of algae.Yellow iris is also Worcestershire Canal has been extremely busy here in
present along the banks. the past, being only 900m from Autherley Junction at the
As the canal edges into Wolverhampton or just head of the Shropshire Union Canal.
’Hampton, capital of the Black Country, the atmosphere
deteriorates. In quick succession come factories of
corrugated-iron as often as of brick. The city had
the world’s first automatic traffic lights. In The Lazy
Tour of Two Idle Apprentices Charles Dickens and Wilkie
Collins described Maryport as having a seasoning of
Wolverhampton and Dickens also admired the wonderful
Wolverhampton tinware in A Christmas Tree.
Born here in 1683 was Jonathan Wild, who called
himself the Thief-Taker General of Great Britain
and Ireland, moving to London where he controlled
robbing and receiving, the gangs undertaking these and
punishment of their members. Wolverhampton horse
Horseley Fields Junction is the end of the Wyrley & race course is next to
Essington Canal. the canal.
A large tunnel with twin towpaths supports a
multistorey carpark on top. Beyond it is a Canal & River
Trust depot with barge entry doors in the side on what
little remains of a former loop. The basin beyond it is
the jewel of the canal, an attractively laid out garden area
with benches and narrowboats moored at the top of the
21 lock Wolverhampton Flight. The locks carry on for
over 2km right down to Aldersley Junction, with never
more than 300m between them. Aldersley Junction on the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal.

Distance
24km from Gas
Street Basin to
Aldersley Junction

Navigation
Authority
Canal & River Trust

Canal Society
Birmingham Canal
Navigations Society
www.bcnsociety.com

OS 1:50,000 Sheet
(127 Stafford
& Telford)
139 Birmingham
& Wolverhampton
The approach to Wolverhampton top lock.

11

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 3 Wyrley & Essington Canal

A tortuouis I’ve toiled along the Old Main Line, I’ve toiled on the New
line round Heaved bricks from California ’cross the Dudley Number Two,
the contours
of the I’ve broken me back fetching nutty slack from Cannock through to Brum,
Birmingham But by far my most delicious load was Cadbury’s chocolate crumb
Canal Teresa Fuller
Navigations’
best scenery The Wyrley & Essington Canal connected the It leaves the Birmingham Canal Navigations Main
Birmingham Canal Navigations’ Main Line at Line at Horseley Fields Junction. Light traffic on it means
Wolverhampton with the Coventry Canal at that it is remarkably clear except for the waterweeds.
Huddlesford, forming the most northerly loop of the The West Coast Main Line crosses immediately and
Birmingham Canal Navigations and today displaying its then the canal goes back a couple of centuries as it passes
most attractive scenery. Almost all of the remaining part a constriction caused by what was once a toll island in
is on one level. The canal follows a tortuous line around the centre of the canal for coal barges. Tunnels under the
the contours, earning it the nickname Curly Wyrley, towpath carry former spurs to serve adjacent factories.
with all the locks positioned on the numerous branches, The contrasts come spasmodically, a few cottages backing
which served various coalfields. onto the canal, tower blocks, a plant yard, the blackened
The line was constructed to Wyrley in 1795 and spire at Heath Town and the Jolly Collier.
extended to Brownhills. Wasteland opens up on the right but the left bank

Emerging from the Wyrley & Essington to join the main line at Horseley Fields Junction.

The West Coast Main Line crosses the canal at Horseley Fields Junction.

12

Canals of Britain 1-70.indd 12 24/08/2022 15:10

 A path through the liles at Harden.

is in good order with playing fields and grassed areas, a

modern church with striking green roofs and a hospital.
A 10t stainless steel arch reaches over the canal as a
sculpture. The old brick bridge leading up to the hospital
has been repaired very obviously and carries a nameplate,
as do the other bridges on this canal.
Beyond it, by the Nickelodeon, a substantial lattice
bridge, of a pattern to be seen again later, carries the
towpath at Wednesfield Junction across the Bentley Canal
by a large parking area for such interests as Cineworld
and Nando’s. This was abandoned as a through route to
Bentley in 1961 with the buildings of Willenhall having
spread over it in recent years. Wednesfield Junction also
had an island with one of the octagonal tollbooths.
A red sandstone towered church lends dignity to an
area where the Royal Tiger and Spread Eagle public
houses flank the canal, together with a school. This seems
to be a popular exercise area for dogs.
Houses have their gardens backing onto the left bank,
often managing to make special features out of their Bridges carry the towpath over factory feeders near Horseley
canalside locations. Fields Junction.
Attempts to improve the environment at New
Invention include a picnic table. At Short Heath, the only
wooded area on the whole canal is enfolded in a large
sweep as the route turns northwards.
Gradually, the roar of traffic becomes audible as the
M6, here one of the busiest pieces of road in the country,
pulls alongside and crosses over.
The Sneyd & Wyrley Bank Branch climbs up from
Sneyd Junction towards Great Wyrley but does not
get far before becoming derelict.

The main line doubles

back on itself to cut down the
other side of the valley.
Birchills Junction takes the
Walsall Branch Canal away as the main
line turns north, once again. Ill feeling and rivalry
between companies prevented the connection from being

13

Canals of Britain 1-70.indd 13 24/08/2022 15:10

 Canals of Britain

made until 1840 when the Wyrley & Essington Canal is just one more style to contrast with the many others
and Birmingham Canal Navigations were amalgamated along this canal.
and came under railway control. Unusually, the railway Catshill Junction brings in the Hay Head or Daw End
developed traffic on this canal, building interchange Branch, the most important of all as it linked up with
basins. Consequently, the Wyrley & Essington saw some the Rushall Canal to provide access to the industry of
of the last commercial traffic on the Birmingham Canal Birmingham.
Navigations. The end came suddenly in 1966, when coal As the Wyrley & Essington loops round Brownhills, it
transport ceased. passes the Anchor and then reaches open country on the
Moving away past playing fields and a church with a right, with extensive views in the direction of Shenstone.
strange little square green spire, the canal again returns On the left, however, the houses continue and the local
to residential area. It passes clumps of watercress which youth population is evident.
indicate that the water is fairly clean. At Ogley Junction the Anglesey Branch joins, bringing
Harden is the only place where the canal comes up water supplies down from Chasewater. A lattice bridge
noticeably above the surrounding land, here a large takes the towpath across and the Wyrley & Essington,
grassed field. known as the Lichfield Canal from here, turns right into
The higher level section slips past tree-lined hospital a basin which is now the effective terminus of the canal.
grounds and clears the housing of Little Bloxwich by The canal was extended to Huddlesford in 1797 via the
the Barley Mow. It then breaks out into open country, 30 locks of the Ogley flight but this was abandoned in
the most attractive stretch of the whole canal, between 1954 and now only a garden centre stands on what was
Little Bloxwich and Pelsall. Having come down from once a significant engineering feature.
Wolverhampton, it is immensely satisfying to pause at The canal has lost 10km from here. The route formerly
Fishley, the late afternoon sun shining over one shoulder, ran to the north of the prominent church spire at Wall
and listen to just the distant rumble of traffic and the and past the more famous spires of Lichfield. Restoration
closer cawing of rooks, the only sounds to break the of this is taking place.
silence. Now just 500m remains at the far end, the south-west
The Lord Hay’s Branch to Newtown has now been end of which is a marina with entry barred although a
lost but over 2km of the Cannock Extension can be seen public bridleway crosses the stump near its south-west
running away from Pelsall Junction in a dead straight line, end. The Wyrley & Essington Canal joins the Coventry
earmarked for the Hatherton Canal line. The importance Canal by the Plough at Huddlesford, a small community
of the canal hinged on the branches serving the Cannock cut in two by the railway.
and Brownhills coalfields when the Black Country pits
declined. This branch, which was vital to the exploitation
The Cannock of the Cannock field, was completed in 1858. The
Extension leaves northern end was abandoned in 1963. Pelsall Works
Pelsall Junction. Bridge was one the first from the Horseley works.
The landlord of the Fingerpost was murdered in 2003,
when it was the Royal Oak, and the safe was stolen.
After an estate of recent houses alongside the canal, the
tortuous nature of the canal is emphasized, the bends
now being replaced with corners, tight for narrowboats.
Various spurs remain as pointers to former industrial
activity but now there is little to show, just a car scrapyard,
a pylon bearing floodlights to illuminate a concrete
batching plant and a storage area for portable cabins.
The Swan, which has the ghost of a coal-covered
miner in the bar, stands away behind a house with a
prominent barrel-shaped dovecote alongside the canal.
Brownhills is dominated by several brown tower
Distance blocks. Next to the canal are several supermarkets,
34km from Horseley together with an outdoor market. A hip-roofed church The foot of the Anglesey Branch.
Fields Junction to
Huddlesford Junction

Navigation
Authority
Canal & River Trust

Canal Societies
Birmingham Canal
Navigations Society
www.bcnsociety.com
Lichfield & Hatherton
Canals Restoration
Trust
www.lhcrt.org.uk

OS 1:50,000 Sheets
(127 Stafford
& Telford)
128 Derby &
Burton upon Trent
139 Birmingham
& Wolverhampton
Cast-iron bridge over the canal at Ogley Junction, the current foot of the canal.

14

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 Walsall Canal
4
The weather was fine as we left the main line Heavy metal
And we turned at the Ocker Hill coaler; banned
From Ryders Green to the New Thirteen
The cut runs as straight as a ruler.
David Blagrove

The Walsall Canal links the Wednesbury Old Canal at

West Bromwich with Walsall in the West Midlands.
Construction began in 1786 although the centre of
Walsall was not reached until 1799, after this relatively
short and straightforward canal had curved its way round
Wednesbury.
The canal has eight locks, all of which come
immediately as the Ryders Green Flight. At the southern
end of the canal it leaves the Wednesbury Old Canal
at Ryders Green Junction and passes the Eight Locks
public house by the top lock.
This canal is more free of weeds than are some others.
The marshy area to the right by the bottom lock is
predominantly greater reedmace but toadflax gets a
grip, with its pale yellow flowers, where dry ground is
available. Opposite is the point where the Haines Branch
entered.
The canal is a route of modern and former transport
links. The junction with the former Danks Branch can
be seen. Soon after, the Lower Ocker Hill Branch, or the
remaining 300m of it, leaves on the left next to tennis
courts and other sports facilities.
The Tame Valley Canal leaves on the right between a Unusual cemetery entrance off the towpath.
couple of the lattice cast-iron bridges which are among
the attractive features of the Black Country canals. than inviting colours of water, minnows can be seen
Greasy Ockers were the crews of fly boats operating swimming about in significant numbers.
between Regent’s Dock in London and Birmingham, Powerlines now follow the canal all the way to
frequently carrying soap among their cargoes, their head Darlaston Green. From Bilston to Darlaston Green the
office being at Ocker Hill. Black Country Route flanks the canal.
A canal cross exists at the point where the former The Bradley Branch Canal, now heavily overgrown
Gospel Oak Branch joins. Presumably this must have with reeds, leaves to the left at Moorcroft Junction. The
given some logistical problems with the movement of reeds provide a haven for moorhens, here and elsewhere
horses and towlines at busy times. along the canal. In 1720 William Wood of Wednesbury
The first line of the Midland Metro crosses. The obtained a lease on all mines on Crown land in England
Monway Branch has disappeared under the earth but and control of many furnaces and iron works on the
the banks of the Walsall Canal itself remain untouched basis of a dubious manufacturing claim.
and lupins and orchids may be found. The water is The Moxley Stop was near the red sandstone spire
ochre-coloured but remains relatively clear because it of All Saints’ church in Moxley. Today, a children’s
is only lightly used and, like sections with other less playground is more prominent.

The Nanaksa Gurdwara Sikh temple overlooking the canal at Pleck.

15

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 The Walsall Branch Canal leaves ahead via Walsall Locks beyond Walsall Junction.

As the canal moves on past the lines of the former the canal over a minor road and the fledgling River
Bilston and Willenhall Branches, the countryside is Tame, protected by a stop gate, before the canal passes
one of derelict fields, occasionally occupied by horses. under the busy M6 immediately south of Junction 10.
A notable feature of the Black Country canals is that In this vicinity, the whole area is riddled with old
the people always seem friendly whereas the usual coal mines. Heavy metal pollution from former copper
experience elsewhere is that country people are more refining on the derelict site to the left of the canal has
sociable. Black Country friendliness is experienced on been a major problem. Drainage from polluted ground
this canal and must be counted as one of its assets. went into nearby headwaters of the River Tame. The
After a school and then Bug Hole Wharf in the former factory here was one of two which were said to
vicinity of an electricity substation and more schools, account for 18 per cent of the copper and 17 per cent of
the canal runs through a section with factories but also the nickel in the water at the Tame/Trent confluence.
with newer canalside houses which, from their leaded The canal moves on into Pleck where the Nanaksa
windows, appear to be aimed at the higher end of the Gurdwara Sikh temple stands next to the canal.
market. After Champy’s Bradford Arms by a bridge the canal
The powerlines leave at Darlaston Green Wharf and passes a former canal wharf building with the hoist
the canal curves round to cross an aqueduct over the points and doors at various levels still obvious above
railway, immediately before the weed-choked remains the water. High fences and industrial premises front a
of the Anson Branch. Over the next reach the canal cemetery with an interesting circular entrance gateway.
is on low embankment with a cemetery to the south After some recent housing by the canal, the Walsall
surrounding a church with a small spire. Aqueducts take Branch Canal leaves up Walsall Locks from Walsall
Junction. This important link with the Wyrley &
Essington Canal was not made until 1841 because of
company rivalry but now cuts out a significant detour
via Wolverhampton for boats going north.
Walsall Public Wharf has a Premier Inn, Brewers Fayre
and Costa Coffee with waterside seating facing a canal
terminus building which has been restored. High blocks,
including the New Art Gallery, and glass walls rise
behind. Walsall has changed much since it took its name
from the Old English for Walh’s valley, ‘Walh’ meaning a
Welshman. In the 1890s it saw the activities of the Walsall
anarchists and in 2022, 7km down, was the epicentre of a
A mural by a foundry site at Walsall Junction combines 2.8 magnitude earthquake.
Distance industrial heritage with an outline of Gray’s char, named after A different aspect of boating is featured in the Jerome
11km from local 19th century zoologist John Gray. K Jerome Birthplace Museum.
Wednesbury Old
Canal to Walsall

Navigation
Authority
Canal & River Trust

Canal Society
Birmingham Canal
Navigations Society
www.bcnsociety.com

OS 1:50,000 Sheet
139 Birmingham
& Wolverhampton
Pipi Fino occupies the restored canal terminus building at Walsall while other buidlings are in various states of repair.

16

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 Daw End Branch
5
Also known as the Hay Head Branch, the Daw End yellow lilies, among which coots dabble. Beacon Park A faster line
Branch of the Wyrley & Essington Canal was cut in follows through what had been part of Cannock Forest. southeast
1800 as a narrow contour canal to take out limestone. Black Cock Bridge crosses by the site of Black Cock
The wandering route around Aldridge allowed it to be Wharf, a single lane bridge with uniform slopes up to
lock-free. a sharp summit, a bit like driving over the roof of a
The branch leaves the Wyrley & Essington main line house. It is blind for drivers so there is constant warning
at Catshill Junction on the edge of Brownhills. Narrows hooting.
were a toll control point. The banks have been built up because coal mining
Clayhanger Bridge is a modern structure near the subsidence has affected the surrounding area. Indeed, a
former Clayhanger Wharf. Pools at Clayhanger have pair of 1948 semi detached houses were braced together Comprehensive and
marsh orchids while the canal has yellow irises and after they settled. astonishingly precise
Plenty of anglers are in evidence and there is a large distance post.
rust coloured silhouette of one next to Walsall Wood
Bridge, which takes the A461 over. Also adjacent is the
site of the brickworks that produced Utopia bricks, used
for air raid shelters and building up embankments.
Industrial premises with security fencing frequently
stand by the canal but reedmace and broom soften the
views and clumps of trefoil brighten up the stonework
on the towpath side. Bream, carp, perch, roach and
crayfish are in the water, herons, swans and kingfishers
frequent it and flocks of noisy gulls wheel near the canal.
Minor bridges include the low Hollanders Bridge.
A sharp turn takes the canal westwards, away from
industrial Aldridge, which was occupied in the Stone
Age, as shown by flint finds. Although the church
of St Mary the Virgin is 19th century, it has a 14th
century tower. The commercial sites include Anchor
Brook Industrial Park. Aldridge was chosen as the site
of Duckham’s refinery and also had a cement works,
cement from a sunken barge being retrieved to repair
sunken canal banks.
At Rushall the canal turns south again. The Boathouse
pub with mock lock gates from the towpath and
narrowboat decor inside faces the canal next to the
B4154 crossing at Daw End. Adjacent is the Manor
Arms, which dates from 1104 and has sold beer since
Catshill Junction where the branch leaves the main line. 1248, over the years having been a mill, accommodation

The original canal head line leads from Longwood Junction.

17

Canals of Britain 1-70.indd 17 24/08/2022 15:10

 Canals of Britain

Dog roses, yellow iris and white and yellow lilies on the Rushall Canal.

for monks and a farmhouse, but it has no bar. During VE pound. The remaining seven locks are spread over 900m,
Day celebrations the chimney was struck by lightning, crossed by the A34 and with another golf course to the
which was mistaken for a bomb. west.
Park Lime Pits are designated as a nature reserve. The canal now moves from Walsall to Sandwell and
Beyond the Railway Aqueduct, crossing the Walsall to traffic noise gradually builds up. The Beacon Way and
Water Orton line, Rushall Hall lies to the west. It was sets of powerlines from a substation cross before the canal
attacked in 1643 by Prince Rupert and made a Royalist passes into the triangular junction 8 of the M6 where the
headquarters. M5 joins. The canal had its own junction here first, the
The canal is now out into surprisingly Rushall Canal joining the Tame Valley Canal at Rushall
rural farmland. A spill weir is surrounded or Newton Junction downwind of a large sewage works.
by bird and bat boxes. It is not the best place to linger but bold engineering
Beyond Longwood Bridge, crossed by takes boat traffic away swiftly on straight cuts in each
the A454 and Beacon Way, the head of the direction.
canal lies to the left, now moorings for
Longwood Boat Club. It served Hayhead
limeworks, which mined high grade
Silurian limestone and now has Hay Head
Wood Local Nature Reserve.
Distance Longwood Junction was set 600m from the head of
13km from Wyrley & the canal in 1847 to link the Rushall Canal, an almost
Essington Canal to straight cut to the south, running through the suburbs
Tame Valley Canal of Walsall although the canal provides a green lane
with little indication of the residential development that
Navigation has taken place. This route offered a faster line to carry
Authority Cannock coal away to the southeast. White lilies and
Canal & River Trust dog roses line the canal, there are clumps of elder bushes
and the tranquil setting is occupied by Canada geese,
OS 1:50,000 Sheet moorhens and even the occasional tern.
139 Birmingham A moat and a golf course are located to the west of
& Wolverhampton the first pair of locks, the Moshes two, with only the The Rushall flight on a peaceful summer evening with the M6
B4151 crossing to disturb the following 2km straight traffic barely audible.

18

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 Tame Valley Canal
6
We didn’t get far going down Perry Barr, where it was joined by the Rushall Canal to win the Bypassing
Where the paddle gear just wouldn’t function; coal trade from the Cannock mines. This is now a Birmingham’s
popular cruising link. The water quality in the Tame congestion
And after a while we got under the pile
Valley Canal improves markedly from here with the only
That the locals call ‘Spaghetti Junction’.
visible wild plants being small clumps of watercress along
David Blagrove the edges.

The Tame Valley Canal was one of the last canals to be

built, running eastwards across the West Midlands from
Tame Valley Junction, on the Walsall Canal, to Salford
Junction, on the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal, which
is at the head of the Grand Union Canal. Although
planned earlier, it was not built until 1844, by which
time the Old Turn Junction to Salford Junction section
of the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal was hopelessly
congested with 24 hours a day, 7 days a week working.
The Tame Valley Canal was constructed to bypass this
section and was very sophisticated with long, bold,
straight sections that made use of high embankments
and deep, wide cuttings, twin towpaths and brick-lined
banks. Other than tennis courts and other sports facilities
beyond the Lower Ocker Hill Branch, the Tame Valley
Junction area is inauspicious. Lattice-arched footbridges
are an attractive feature of the Black Country canals. The Midland Metro crosses at Golds Green.
The first reach of the canal is crossed by the Black
Country Spine Road.
Just before Golds Hill Wharf the canal is crossed by
a former railway bridge with a pier on a central island
in the canal. This route was earmarked for a possible
line of the Midland Metro light rail transit system. The
following bridge carries the first line.
There are plenty of flowers to brighten up things.
Birdsfoot trefoil accompanies blackberries and there are
no less than three colours of clover – the usual white, the
less common pink and a much less frequently seen deep
magenta variety – adding a splash of colour in summer.
Algae and other weed in the canal shows it is not used
too often.
A bridge arch carries the towpath over the entrance
to Holloway Bank Wharf after a slight double bend. This The canal is carried over the western spur of the M5 motorway
comes before a 3km straight which is closely followed by on a modern aqueduct.
powerlines. Houses on the outskirts of West Bromwich
are close on the right beyond long grass. More wild The canal passes under the eastern arm of the M5 and
vegetation on the left stands at the top of a high then leaves the noise and traffic behind. It dives into a
embankment with a stream, pond, college and school at deep wooded cutting from where there is little evidence
the foot. The land gradually rises again to Church Hill that the canal is passing between the housing estates of
at Wednesbury. A short aqueduct carries the canal over Grove Vale, the atmosphere being so pleasantly rural. Two
a minor road before the canal runs into a deep cutting. bridges pass high across the cutting. The first carries the
This ends just before the large A4031 bridge. The canal
emerges to cross an aqueduct over a minor road and then
crosses another aqueduct over the railway.
An island divides the canal as it prepares to turn
onto its most dramatic section, the kilometre long
embankment which runs high across the Tame Valley. It is
now accompanied by the Midland Links motorway, the
triangle where the end of the M5 meets the M6, a rare
canal environment. The canal first crosses the western
arm of the M5 on a concrete aqueduct. The height
of the embankment can be judged by looking at the
elevated section of the M6. This runs beside the canal but
can be seen moving away to the north-west on spindly
columns. A stop gate provides protection as the canal
approaches the aqueduct that is to carry it across the
River Tame. It then passes an electricity substation.
At the far side of the valley the motorway climbs away dual carriageway A4041 with a street light
up to Great Barr. The canal divides round another balanced precariously above the centre of the
island as it approaches Rushall or Newton Junction, canal. The other is the slim Chimney footbridge

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 Canals of Britain

An island at Rushall Junction to control traffic using the Rushall Canal.

carried on the piers of what looks like a former railway These are sufficiently soft for them to have needed to
viaduct. Nearby is the boyhood cottage of Francis be reinforced with sections of red brickwork in many
Asbury, America’s first Methodist bishop. The kilometre- places. Meanwhile, the canal is edged with black bricks
long cutting emerges onto a longer embankment, with laid with black mortar which provides a very smart finish
extensive views over the Tame valley and back towards to the canal.
West Bromwich. After another island, one side blocked This is said to be one of the best angling waters in the
off by Hamstead Wharf, there are two aqueducts. Midlands.
Housing estates lie below the canal on both sides The smartness is also present in the Perry Barr First
although there is a deceptive amount of greenery about. Flight of locks, which were refurbished with attractive
Passing TS Leopard Maritime Youth Group with its brickwork. These locks were some of the last built and
anti-aircraft gun, the canal plunges into another deep are technically more advanced than most. In the early
cutting. There are frequent outcrops of red sandstone. 20th century one boatman lost both his horse and his
brother in four years in separate drownings on this
flight. Barr Top Lock Wharf lies beyond the A34 bridge.
The first seven locks come as a 700m flight, on the way
passing the Alexander Stadium in Perry Park, location
for the 2022 Commonwealth Games. It has an artificial
football pitch, running track and full athletics facilities in
a large, modern site.
The M6 crosses on the Thornbridge Viaduct, a viaduct
which was extensively repaired using a very powerful
water lance to cut out deteriorated concrete, a German
tool being used in Britain for the first time. Four more
locks follow, forming Perry Barr Second Flight. Lock 11
is set between a container terminal and a sports ground
lined with poplar trees, which shed their downy white
seed profusely onto the canal in the autumn. The vicinity
of Perry Barr Wharf has several industrial areas. Among
these are two significantly older churches at Upper
Witton, the first near the canal, with a rather short spire,
and the other set amidst a cemetery, although there is
little peace here these days as the M6 crosses back over.
The canal has moved into a heavily industrial area
for the final two locks, Perry Barr Third Flight. Beside
the second of these is an old lock cottage covered with
Roses grow on the lock cottage at Witton. roses, defiantly holding on in its industrial surroundings.

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 Tame Valley Canal

Part of the Gravelly Hill Interchange complex, through which the canal passes.

All is not derelict, however. As well as the lock cottage, canal as roads snake through the air in all directions.
there are various other places where the towpath can It begins gently at first, a pipe bridge, a lattice canal
offer a colourful assortment of vetch, convolvulus and footbridge and an arched cable bridge. Then it develops
purple lupins, the latter thriving in the vicinity of Salford in earnest as slip roads flail through the air, the M6
Junction. crosses, the Birmingham to Lichfield railway passes
The junction lies at the far end of Junction 6 of through and ever more slip roads arc over, until the
the M6 – Gravelly Hill Interchange, better known as canal passes into a large box tunnel with two towpaths
Spaghetti Junction – the most complicated motorway below the A38M Aston Expressway. It emerges into the
interchange in Britain, offering freeflow routes between relative simplicity of Salford Junction below the M6. The
the M6, A38M and A5127, linking various local roads interchange deteriorated badly after its completion and
and also allowing the passage of horse towlines, still in repair work involved jacking up the deck of sections of
use at the time of construction in 1972. Most of this slip road still in use to extract the decaying crosshead
happens in three dimensions and is best seen from this beams for replacement.

Distance
14km from Tame
Valley Junction to
Salford Junction

Navigation
Authority
Canal & River Trust

Canal Society
Birmingham Canal
Navigations Society
www.bcnsociety.com

OS 1:50,000 Sheet
139 Birmingham
& Wolverhampton
The Tame Valley Canal finishes at Salford Junction, meeting the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal crossing the picture beneath the M6.

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 7 Birmingham & Fazeley Canal

Birminfgham’s He was seen up at Curdworth by the old tunnel’s mouth water source. This idea has been mirrored on a couple of
‘Bottom Road’ He motored to Fazeley and then he turned south recent bridges with railings, the railings having opening
He spoke to the keeper at Atherstone Top panels also painted red.
Although Mrs Farmer and her bridge have long gone,
But he never made it to Hawkesbury Stop
the Farmer’s Bridge Flight, the Thirteen, Old Thirteen
Dave Bryant or Birmingham 13, is filled with interest for anyone with
a liking for industrial and canal architecture, the flight
The Birmingham & Fazeley Canal was designed as a descending from the 138m Birmingham level to the
connector linking a number of other canals despite 113m Hospital Pond level. The top lock, the official start
opposition from the rival Birmingham Canal Company, of the canal, is one of a couple with tow rope guide pins.
which later merged its interests. It was known as the The brick towpath is ribbed to allow horses to grip. Side
Bottom Road to distinguish it from the Top Road, the ponds serve wharfs, some of which clank, hiss, whirr or
Grand Union Canal line, also the Old Cut when the echo to the sound of radios as businesses are carried on
Tame Valley Canal became the New Cut. inside the adjacent factories. Overflow weirs are of the
The Birmingham & Fazeley is reached from the New bellmouth type, most discharging into side ponds below.
Main Line of the Birmingham Canal Navigations Strenuous efforts have been made to produce an amenity
at Old Turn Junction. This was one of the most out of the canal corridor. Walkways make a feature of the
overcrowded points on the industrial canal network and, canal and one promenade has been built upon a series of
for this reason, lights were soon installed on the Farmer’s new brick arches. These extend an existing network of
Bridge lock flight which went over to 24-hour working, arches in two planes over a side pond. They are further
rare in Britain. complemented by a series of arches within arches, of
The canal immediately passes Cambrian Wharf, a set different heights and radii, carrying a road over a lock.
of 18th century cottages and a toll office. The Flapper Owing to the lack of space, dividing barriers have been
replaces former wharfs and has one of the two wharf erected between the canal and the towpath below some
Decorative ironwork cranes incorporated into its outside seating area. of the locks. Saturday Bridge, carrying the A457, is near
beneath Snow Hill Bridges in Birmingham generally have red doors in where staff went to receive their weekly wages.
station. parapets to allow firemen to drop hoses through to the All around are tower blocks. The 2013 Library of

The Birmingham & Fazeley Canal leaves Old Turn Junction.

Modern design on a new bridge over the canal.

Farmer’s Bridge Flight drops away from Cambrian Wharf. A subterranean lock – not for the claustrophobic.

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 Birmingham & Fazeley Canal
bottom gates, the canal itself is usually quite wide, no
more so than where one factory completely spans the
canal and towpath for 200m. Light enters from the side
so it does not seem claustrophobic.
Before Fort Dunlop, one pylon of the line on the
right is cylindrical, tapered and silver, more typical
of Continental designs than of British. Aircraft pass
overhead, landing at Birmingham Airport. There is a
Boots warehouse. Tower blocks rise on the right as the
canal reaches the first of the Minworth locks.
Minworth top lock burns or skips away a continual
stream of flotsam. From here the water is covered by
The Farmer’s Bridge flight canyon. A dividing rail gives safety. chopped weed rather than timber and plastic.
Minworth has an industrial park, one shed even being
Birmingham, 31,000m2 with an outside decor of constructed out of concrete pipes. The Minworth sewage
interlocking circles, is the largest public library in Europe. works, the second largest in the UK, are not seen but a
The dominant feature, however, is Birmingham’s 1966 southerly wind makes their presence known.
BT Tower, which stands beside the canal. Accompanying Unusually, the bridges on the Birmingham & Fazeley
blocks tower from a lockside pond and are all around are named rather than numbered. By now they are
and low over the canal. Lock 10 has the balance beam becoming the more traditional rounded arch type. One
of its lower gate on the offside in order not to block the near the Boat Inn displays a peculiarity which is to
narrow towpath, incovenient for those locking through. be seen regularly now, a small arched hole with door
The intricate detail of the locks contrasts with the grey leading back into one side of the bridge. This is for stop-
slabs of concrete, the former well worn and mellow, the logs, to be dropped into the canal in the case of a breach.
latter becoming chipped by passing boats. Recent housing estates front the canal before it passes
The huge brick cavern under Snow Hill station stands a scrapyard with a specialism in military vehicles.
stark and empty but for some decorative ironwork. The Now the canal breaks into open country for the rest
canal, heavily lined with dark brick walls, hemming it of its route, with views over farmland to the left. The
in, was described by Emma Smith in her Maidens’Trip as square tower of the church of St Nicholas & St Pater ad
‘that unholy of all unholies’. Vincula at Curdworth, with its finely carved font, is seen
Beyond the Aston Expressway and Corporation over the hedgerow.Yellow irises become a
Street, where Hall Pycroft was secreted in the Sherlock regular feature, complemented later by
Holmes story The Adventure of the Stockbroker’s Clerk, the pink flowers of arrowhead.
Aston Junction allows the Digbeth Branch to peel Curdworth tunnel is only
off to the right to meet up with the Grand Union 52m long but the trees
Canal. Aston Junction has been renovated in the best that overhang the cutting
canal tradition. Dereliction is then greater and there approaching it add to its
are numerous bricked-up side arms that once served gloom. The towpath goes
thriving industry. HP Sauce moved to Belgium in 2007 through; it carried notices
after over a century of production. Most factories remain asking boats to keep right,
anonymous. The second flight, the Eleven, dropping to a fanciful idea as only the
the 92m Erdington level, is not without its interesting smallest boats would have much
features, such as a recessed alcove in the brickwork of choice in the matter.
one bridge, the radius just large enough to take a lock The top lock of the 11 lock
balance beam and the height just enough for an adult to Curdworth flight has been rebuilt
stand. upstream out of the way of the M6 Toll.
Approaching Gravelly Hill Interchange of the M6, Flowerbeds give colour to the locks. The
plant life begins to increase. Strangely, the most common A446 bridge by the motorway shows three
plant encountered is purple lupin which adds a welcome different sizes of arch. The bridge has been
splash of colour. Blackberry and elder bushes and reeds progressively widened to take the present
also help to bring the canal to life. dual carriageway. Old canal buildings stand
Lupins have a foothold on the aqueduct over the at the end of a track leading up to the Belfry
River Tame, too. The canal now closely follows the river Hotel and its golf course.
for most of its length. As Bodymoor Heath is
Salford Junction, in the middle of Gravelly Hill approached, the M42 moves
Interchange, connects the Birmingham & Fazeley with
the Tame Valley Canal and the northern end of Britain’s
longest canal, the Grand Union. As well as the usual
scrapyards, timberyard and old industrial premises, there
are some newer factory units.
Although the locks are narrow with single top and

The great cavern under Snow Hill station.

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 Canals of Britain

Salford Junction, now below Gravelly Hill interchange of the M6.The Grand Union Canal begins under a traditional bridge.

Canal buildings near Mullensgrove Farm.

alongside the canal before turning away through the

240ha Kingsbury Water Park, a set of former gravel pits.
Brook Marston Farm Hotel may have a helicopter on
the lawn next to the canal while the Dog & Doublet has
a container of flowers over its lock bywash. The adjacent
lane leads to Aston Villa football club’s training ground.
Kingsbury Oil Terminal, the largest inland oil terminal
Daylight is visible through the short Curdworth tunnel. in the UK, is seen with higher land rising behind for

Baylis’s Bridge with a stop plank store. The Curdworth lock flight with its floral arrangements.

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 Birmingham & Fazeley Canal
the first time. Two locks beyond the Dog & Doublet, a the intervening section was completed by the
swing bridge precedes the 38th and final lock on the Birmingham & Fazeley, this section following
canal. The following swing bridge at Drayton Bassett the contours for economy, rather than being
is accompanied by a fixed footbridge quite unique to straight to give speed.
the British canal system. At each end is a Gothic arch Fazeley Junction has a towpath bridge
doorway in a castellated brick tower with spiral staircase, backed by a large crane in a timberyard and
difficult for cyclists. by a double-fronted brick canal cottage.
Drayton Manor Resort is unseen on the left. The Beyond the Three Tuns public house and a
former manor was the home of Sir Robert Peel, who canal shop, a large and venerable tree was
was Prime Minister twice and invented the policeman. rather larger until part of it dropped across
His father used to make him practice making speeches at the canal in a 1984 storm.
home here as a boy, including quoting back the weekly The line of the canal onwards from Fazeley to Fradley
sermon. The 46ha site now has a zoo, Thomas Land, 4D Junction was the setting for Elizabeth Jane Howard’s
cinema, golf course, cafeteria, ballroom, Pirate Ship and ghost story Three Miles Up.
other features designed to pack in the masses. The canal winds away along the left bank of the Tame
Passing mills, including Peel’s cotton mill, the canal valley, past willow-fringed meadows of grazing cows,
arrives at Fazeley Junction. This should have been the heading towards the mast above Hopwas. In this village
canal’s end. John Smeaton completed it in 1789 but it the canal is flanked by the Red Lion and the Tame Otter
had not been started until the owners of the Oxford, on opposite banks.
Coventry and Trent & Mersey Canals had all agreed At Hopwas Hays Wood the canal comes right
to complete their own projects. Unfortunately, the alongside the river for a while, although it is not seen at
Coventry Canal ran out of funds, even though it was to the foot of the hillside. In turn, the river is replaced by
become one of the most profitable canals. The Trent & the railway as a neighbour.
Mersey company built down as far as Whittington Brook, An IWA plaque indicates the change of ownership at
this section being purchased by the Coventry Canal, but Whittington Brook.

The unique bridge crossing the canal at Drayton Bassett. Fazeley Junction with the Coventry Canal on the right.

Distance
33km from Old
Turn Junction to
Whittington Brook

Navigation
Authority
Canal & River Trust

Canal Society
Birmingham Canal
Navigations Society
www.bcnsociety.com

OS 1:50,000 Sheets
128 Derby &
Burton upon Trent
139 Birmingham
& Wolverhampton
Autumn colours in Hopwas Hays Wood near Tamworth.

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 8 Coventry Canal

The canal that So on they sped till rose the dawn, Eliot was at school in the city and it was suggested as a
wasn’t built Atherstone in early morn, meeting place in Christopher Marlowe’s The True Tragedie
fast enough of Richard Duke of Yorke. Local man James Harris was
Up the locks and through the top,
910mm high in 1784.
On again to Sutton’s Stop
The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum is nearby.
Dusty Miller The Coventry Transport Museum houses the largest
collection of British road vehicles with Thrust 2, 150
The Coventry Canal is an early contour canal that cars and commercial vehicles, 75 motorcycles and 200
begins in the West Midlands and heads north-west across bicycles, spanning over 180 years of history, including the
Warwickshire to the east of a ridge of higher land, into first safety cycle, which was built in Coventry in 1885,
Staffordshire. It was promoted by Bedworth mine owners when there were 170 cycle firms here, and followed
who planned to take Bedworth coal to the Trent & the first penny farthing, built here in 1870. This was the
Mersey and Oxford Canals. It was started in 1768 and birthplace of the motor industry.
boats brought out coal from 1769. It took a further 22 The Bishop Street Basin of 1769 has two parallel arms,
years to build the rest, during which time engineer James the western one being obstructed by a low swing bridge.
Brindley was sacked for spending too much of his time The whole complex has been completely restored and
on other canal projects although his statue stands in the is a well signposted asset to the city. At the entrance is
basin at Coventry. Once built, it was one of the most the original triangular weighbridge office, possibly from
prosperous canals, originally carrying heavy coal traffic 1787. It is now a canal society information point. The
from the Warwickshire coalfield but also making much slate-roofed warehouses on the north-west side, which
profit from selling water. It was still making a profit when
nationalized in 1947, although narrowboat traffic ceased
after the Second World War. Boats based here included
the Flower of Gloster, as described by E Temple Thurston.
As far as Lichfield, it is followed by the railway, initially
the Coventry to Nuneaton link and then the West Coast
Main Line. The Coventry Canal Art Trail also follows
to Hawkesbury Junction and the canal was part of the
setting for Three Miles Up.
Coventry, the 2021 UK City of Culture, twinned
with Dresden, takes its name from Cofa’s tree, Cofa
being a tribal leader of c 600–650. Coventry’s most
famous resident, buried here, was Lady Godiva, who
rode naked through the city as part of a challenge by
her husband, Loefric, Earl of Mercia, to lower taxes. The old weighbridge office at Coventry.
This resulted in the repeal of the Heregeld tax in 1051.
While there is a statue of her in the Broadgate, there
are no fewer than three statues of the original Peeping
Tom, the only person to look, an interesting reflection
on priorities. Lucia Marese’s appearances as Lady
Godiva in Richard Jefferies’ World’s End achieved the
attention planned. Coventry blue was a clothing colour.
The 14th century St John the Baptist’s church was
used as a prison when Cromwell defeated the Scots,
hence the expression about being sent to Coventry.
The Coventry Mystery Plays are one of the most
important such collections. Protestants burnt in
Coventry included six for teaching their children parts
of the church service in English rather than Latin.
The church of St Michael was formerly a priory, the The former coal wharfs complete with dovecote holes at Bishop
bishop’s seat of 1095–1129, a parish church from 1373 Street Basin in Coventry.
to about 1450 and a cathedral from 1918. Although the
90m steeple still stands, the rest was reduced to ruins in
the 1940 Blitz which destroyed so much of Coventry in
the longest single air raid on a British city of the Second
World War. The city centre inside the ring road has been
largely rebuilt since then. The new cathedral, completed
in 1962, was designed by Sir Basil Spence and
has a nave with Graham Sutherland’s 23m
tapestry, Christ in Glory, the world’s largest,
John Piper’s glass using traditional stained
glass rather than painted glass, Epstein’s
bronzes and a font from a boulder found near
Bethlehem. The Blitz Experience Museum
is in the crypt. The Coventry Carol presents a
peaceful side of the city. The northern end of Bishop Street Basin with the anti-intruder
Philip Larkin was born here. George Draper’s Field Bridge.

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 Coventry Canal
contained grain, sugar and cement between 1787 and and tiller steering. Second World War bombing rather
1914, were restored in 1986 and converted to workshops reduced the size of the operation.
and art studios. On the east side are wooden awnings A striking footbridge suspended from a diagonal arch
perforated with dovecote entrances in what were coal marks Electric Wharf, formerly a power station site.
wharfs. These were built below water level to allow After Cash’s Lane Bridge, which leads towards
coal to be unloaded easily into carts. On the north side Radford where Philip Larkin was born, are a bank of
were 18m long arched coal vaults. The Canal House was impressive houses. These are Cash’s Hundred Houses,
re-sited in 1852 and housed successive canal managers. although only 48 were actually built, of which 37
A statue of Brindley examines plans and gazes over the remain. They were owned by Joseph Cash of woven
canal. nametapes fame, clearly a forward thinking man. Built in
Draper’s Field Bridge has a small arch and no towpath. 1857, workers’ families lived on the first two floors and
This unusual design was to allow the basin to be kept work was undertaken on the top floor which features
free of unwanted visitors at night. large windows. A lineshaft ran the length of the building
and provided power for 70 years to assist individual
workers to be competitive with factory looms.
The elegance declines. Courtaulds Pridmore Road
produced the world’s first manmade fibre, developing
artificial silk, rayon, Courtelle, carbon fibre, polyester
yarns, acrylics and other plastics. Their factory was set up
before the First World War. Here reedbeds develop in the
canal.
As factory excavations were being dug near Prince
William Henry Bridge in 1979 a breach emptied 58km
of canal with flooding to 2.4m deep.
Priestley’s Bridge precedes the former Coventry
Ordnance Works. When built in 1906 they were the
largest workshop in Europe, 300m x 60m. They had two
huge lathes that made 380mm
guns during the First World

The canal bends round to the

left to face the Daimler Powerhouse.
Originally it was a pair of three-storey Coventry
Cotton Factory mills until a fire in 1891.
Henry Lawson purchased them for the Daimler
Motor Company in 1896 and they became the
Coventry Motor Mills, producing the first British car, the
2 cylinder Daimler, which had tube ignition, solid tyres

War. Two ferries operated

across the canal for workers.
Beyond Stoke Heath Basin
the canal has been covered by what is
more like a tunnel than a bridge. Near
Navigation Bridge is Navigation Wharf.
The Coventry Building Society Arena is
home to Coventry City football club
Cash’s Hundred Houses – a forward-thinking industrial and and Wasps rugby club.
residential development. New Inn Wharf is sited near
Longford Bridge. Longford Wharf
was used for loading coal.
Signs along the towpath from
the Coventry basin indicate that
it forms the Oxford Canal Walk.
Longford Junction is where
the Oxford Canal originally
joined the Coventry Canal,
the woodyard being the
Oxford Canal wharf, with
canal cottages in Hollybush
Lane. From here the two canals
Canal wildlife artwork on a footbridge at Hawkesbury. ran side-by-side for nearly 2km to

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 Canals of Britain
this the canal wall is draped with periwinkle. The Charity
Dock dry dock, boatyard and scrapyard is located in the
former Charity coalmine basin.
Following the disappearance of a 15 year old girl
in 1932, her uncle used the old technique of placing
mercury in a loaf floated on the water. He searched with
police the next morning and, where it was found, the
canal was dragged and the body recovered.
The Ashby Canal joins at Marston Junction, where
there was a stop lock.
Griff has a quarry where unique volcanic rock has
been graded chemically into layers of different colours.
The colliery arm was in use until 1961. The hollows
are said to be the original of the Red Deeps in George
Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss, while the 18th century Grade
I Gothic mansion of Arbury Hall became Cheveral
The tight turn at Hawkesbury Junction with the Coventry Manor. A canal bridge to the north of the quarry has
Canal on the left and the Oxford Canal on the right.The settled as a result of the mining. Boot Wharf follows.
building with the high chimney was a pumping station to feed Nearby places of worship include a mosque and a 1946
the canal. church built by German prisoners of war at Chilvers
Coton, the village appearing as Shepperton in George
Hawkesbury until the dispute was finally settled in 1836 Eliot’s Scenes of Clerical Life, Nuneaton being Milby.
and a more sensible attitude was applied. Nuneaton had a priory and the ‘nun ea tun’ was the
The canal passes under powerlines and the M6, from nun’s river estate. With its redbrick houses it has been a
the West Midlands to Warwickshire and a mine-working mining town for 500 years and a textile producer since
area. the 1800s. The library has a collection of photographs and
Hawkesbury Junction was built in 1802. It is also memorabilia of George Eliot, born at Arbury Hall, and
known as the Sutton Stop after the first lock keeper, the museum also features her, together with local history,
whose family operated the lock from 1807 to 1876. archaeology, geology and mining. ‘Between the clocks’
There is a 150mm rise stop lock where the Oxford referred to the reach from a mill clock here to the one
Canal enters. A southward pointing spur shows the at Hartshill maintenance yard. Joseph Key first published
original proximity of the Oxford to the Coventry down the carol As Shepherds Watched their Fleecy Care here, a
to Longford. Across the junction is a fine 1837 cast-iron variation of While Shepherds Watched.
roving bridge with X-lattice sides, its semi-elliptical A canalside racing pigeon loft seems to fit the
arch spanning 18m. Its 2.3m width is more of a problem environment.
for narrowboats than for horses, blocking sightlines for The Birmingham to Nuneaton railway crosses and
them, most of which have to make a tight 180˚ turn. follows the canal and a battery of telephone lines runs
Between the Second World War and 1970 this was the beside the towpath.
site of a Salvation Army mission for boat people at one The disused Tuttle Hill, Judkins and Boon’s quarries
of the busiest points on the canal network. It was also follow. In 1971 Civilia: the End of Sub Urban Man
the site of Sephton’s boatyard. The Greyhound Inn had proposed that the red wasteheaps could be landscaped
stables and is still popular. Now this is a landscaped into a city incorporating the National Exhibition Centre
conservation area and includes the Sowe Valley Footpath and the National Inland Waterways Museum at the heart
and Centenary Way. of the developing motorway network, the Coventry
The route becomes much busier as it forms part of Canal forming part of the Grand Contour Canal. A brick
a route from the Oxford Canal to the kiln hides in the undergrowth by the canal beyond the
north-west which avoids Birmingham’s B4111 bridge.
built-up areas, part of the Warwickshire Topographical poet Michael Drayton was born in
Ring. The water is more churned up Hartshill. The canal now follows the River Anker to
but there is less floating debris. Tamworth, while a windmill and an aerial stand at the
The tall chimney just beyond top edge of its valley. The ridge, occupied by Hartshill
the junction is on an 1837 steam Hayes Country Park, 55ha of wooded hillside, the
pumphouse that raised water 35m from remains of a castle and red heaps from the Hartshill
a well with one engine and from a quartzite quarries, become progressively more attractive.
stream underneath into the canal with There are extensive views across the river valley.
another. The Earl of Mercia Newcomen The Anchor Inn has not so much a children’s
atmospheric engine, which had worked playhouse as an estate in which to occupy their time.
in Griff Colliery for nearly a century, Oldbury Camp Iron Age hill fort is well preserved
was transferred here to replace the with 2.8ha enclosed in a 1.8m bank. It is the reported
original Lady Godiva engine. site of Boudicca’s defeat by the Romans in 60 AD. The
A series of lakes precede a spur on Romans were heavily outnumbered but killed 80,000
the left before Bedworth which is Britons. Boudicca poisoned herself to avoid capture.
the Newdigate Colliery arm, what One of the gems of the canal system is the Coventry
remains of 10km of private canals built Canal Co’s 1840s Hartshill Wharf with a covered
from 1764 through Sir Roger Newdigate’s Arbury Hall dry dock, restored blacksmith’s shop in a waterways
estate. It included 13 12 x 1.8m locks, one of which was maintenance yard, refined clocktower with weathervane
a unique three-way lock. Boulton & Watt’s Behemoth and a derrick crane. There is an air of Victorian Gothic
steam engine here was not their best and had to be with rounded windows, arches and curved walls to allow
overhauled. Navigation had mostly ceased by 1819. horses to pass with loads of wood for narrowboats. The
Bedworth was a mining town which also established wharf is an oasis in the countryside.
hat and ribbon making industries. It has an 1890 church, Oak trees and gorse cloak the hillside while there is a
by Bodley and Garner, and fine almshouses. The built-up mix of shelducks, magpies, black-headed gulls and terns
area is passed largely unseen in a deep cutting overgrown in the vicinity of the new Mancetter Marina. The cuckoo
with hawthorn bushes, finishing at Coalpit Field. Beyond can be heard in the spring. Across the valley is the site of

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 Coventry Canal

Young cattle enjoy life at Hartshill.

The derrick crane and clocktower with its weathervane are just
two of the features that give Hartshill maintenance yard its
The covered dry dock at Hartshill Wharf. character.

the Manduessedum Roman settlement. Rather nearer Polesworth has St Edith’s Norman church with a
to Mancetter Wharf are a baronial manor house, a 13th 15th century abbey gateway and a Victorian vicarage,
century church with 18th century slate tombstones and incorporating part of an Elizabethan school where
Victorian Gothic almshouses.The Glover brothers lived Drayton and possibly Shakespeare were taught. John
in the manor house, of whom Robert was burned at Donne’s Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward follows a stay
the stake in Coventry after being captured ill in bed here with Sir Henry Goodyer. A mill by the canal later
although his oldest brother, John, probably the main served as a soft drink factory but not until after a term
target, escaped, perhaps in a secret room. as a cinema with back row double seats, the Polesworth
Atherstone, with its Georgian buildings along the hold-me-tights. Pooley was a boatbuilding centre until
main street, claims the distinction of being 100 miles the 1950s especially known for its traditional decoration.
from London, Liverpool and Lincoln. On Shrove Circular pipe firing kilns were also built here. Pooley
Tuesday, hundreds of people play medieval football in the Hall, among the trees, is a Tudor brick mansion of 1509,
streets. There are no rules and the shopkeepers take the possibly the oldest occupied building in Warwickshire.
precaution of boarding their windows. Rather gentler Partly fortified, it has its own chapel inside. The
sport is provided by a golf course on the other side of gatehouse and clerestory are from a 10th century abbey.
the canal, near the canal shop. A millinery centre for 200 Until his death it was owned by Edwin Starr.
years, the town produced large numbers of bowler hats Pooley Fields Heritage Centre is in Pooley Country
and had Britain’s last wool felt hat manufacturer. Three Park.
firms were located by the canal. A nearby memorial is to Pooley Hall Colliery men
The Coventry Canal reaches the end of its long top killed in the First World War. Pooley Hall, Alvecote and
pound. There is a new housing estate on the east side of Amington pits combined to form the North Warwick
the canal. Colliery, closing in 1965. At this time coal was still
Atherstone was the end of the Coventry Canal for a being taken away by narrowboat. There were also five
decade when the promoters ran out of money. In 1778 deaths and 19 seriously injured when a train with 800
the Oxford Canal was opened from Banbury, exerting passengers derailed here in 1947, the track wear resulting
pressure for the Coventry Canal to be completed in increased inspections and other measures.
through to the Trent & Mersey Canal. The expensive Beyond the M42 are slag heaps with motorcycle trails
but necessary flight of 11 locks lowered the canal 25m. up and down them. This area formerly had wharfs where
The locks are close together at first but more widely coal was transferred to the railway.
spaced lower down. They have side ponds, emptying Alvecote Priory Picnic Area is in a ruined dovecote
quickly and filling slowly, including what is probably the and Benedictine priory of 1159, by the Alvecote Colliery
only remaining example of a type of side pond that was site.
formerly used frequently. It is now closed to use. Alongside a golf course the canal passes from
On the offside of the top of the lock flight is a tyre
dump. The towpath side lists local church services for the
benefit of canal users. Back from the canal is Merevale
Hall, a 19th century Tudor mansion, and the remains of
the 12th century Merevale Abbey, where a church has
been based on an Argentinian friary.
After lock 5 there is a bridge on the line of the
Roman Watling Street, followed immediately by the
A5 dual carriageway at the end of its diversion past
Atherstone town centre. After two more locks the Trent
Valley railway crosses by Baddesley Colliery Basin site.
Clear of the lock flight, the canal passes through
yellow sandstone cuttings at Grendon.
The railway crosses back. Next to it is an obelisk to
a chapel destroyed in 1538 in Henry VIII’s dissolution
of the monasteries. Rather nearer are the remains of a The rural canal reaches away from the bottom lock of the flight
swing bridge, set in an area of gorse and bluebells. at Grendon.

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 Canals of Britain
Warwickshire into Staffordshire. On the other side of the of the Marquess of Donegall. The final section had
canal are Alvecote Pools, flooded flashes resulting from been built by the Trent & Mersey Canal, who sold their
mining subsidence. A nature trail has 100 species of bird section to the Coventry Canal as a disconnected piece,
and 250 flower species. the boundary between the two different ownerships
The village church has a weatherboarded bellcote and being marked by a stone at Whittington Brook and
Norman work inside. Amington’s more recent church of bridge 78, 13 bridges after bridge 77 at Fazeley Junction.
1864, by Street, has a Burne-Jones window. Whittington has a 19th century church, the Swan,
Housing follows the south side of the canal, together Whittington Lock (set off the canal in a garden) and a
with the Gate Inn, until the west side also becomes built- heron or two.
up at Bolehall. A canal spur, precedes the final two locks Huddlesford Junction used to bring in the Wyrley
at Glascote, the upper with posts heavily worn by ropes. & Essington Canal, now just a spur as a result of being
They were accompanied by the Reliant car factory. The abandoned in 1954 but with restoration underway.
A5 has been diverted through here. The Burton upon as the Lichfield Canal. The toll island is difficult for
Trent to Birmingham railway passes over and the A51 narrowboats. The junction house is Lichfield Cruising
also crosses. Club’s headquarters.
The first of two aqueducts, protected by a pillbox, takes The Plough is tucked into a corner next to a minor
the canal over the River Tame, giving views down to road at Huddlesford, a small community cut in two by
Tamworth. the Trent Valley Railway, which passes over for the last
Tamworth, formerly Tomtun, was originally Saxon, time.
mostly grey stone. It is built at the confluence of the To the left lies Lichfield. Between 1195 and 1310 the
River Anker with the River Tame. It was razed to the only medieval cathedral with three spires was built, the
ground by the Danes in 874 and again by Olaf in 943. Ladies of the Vale, sited at the shrine of St Chad and built
The 1180s castle has a rare Norman shell keep and in local red sandstone. It has a 7th century manuscript of
tower on a motte, a herringbone curtain wall, a medieval the gospels and a lady chapel with Flemish Herckenrode
gatehouse, a Tudor chapel and a 15th century timber- windows of 1802. It was badly damaged in the Civil War
framed great banqueting hall, Jacobean and Tudor but the Victorian-restored west front has over a hundred
apartments,Victorian suite and a bedroom haunted carved figures.
by the Black Lady, St Editha, the 9th century The city was the birthplace of Shakespearean actor
founder of Polesworth Abbey. The castle has been David Garrick, 18th century lexicographer Samuel
occupied for nearly 800 years. Offa, king of Mercia, Johnson and Elias Ashmole, who left a collection of
had his capital and palace here in 757 and it was antiquities to Oxford University in the world’s oldest
probably the stronghold of Ethelfleda, daughter of museum, the Ashmolean. The city also has associations
Alfred the Great. James I stayed several times. The with Erasmus Darwin, founder of the Lunar Society.
1701 red brick town hall, with Jacobean windows, Down by the canal, life is less erudite. Powerlines cross
was built by Thomas Guy, although it is less well over and a windsock and an aerial stand on a hillside.
known than his hospital in London. St Editha’s A railway line from Lichfield to Burton upon Trent
church has a unique double spiral staircase, in the crosses over and then follows the canal for a while. The
corner of the tower, and monuments and stained glass canal turns by a boatyard to run alongside the A38, built
by William Morris. A train crash in 1870 put the engine by the Romans as Ryknild Street but now a busy dual
and front of the Irish Mail in the river with two deaths, carriageway trunk road.
a serious injury and some early baths. Not least in the For a while the canal moves away from the road,
town’s history is the ginger Tamworth pig, one of the passing a tree with a nesting box the size of a coffin and
oldest pig breeds. opposite a Victorian pumping station, before returning to
The canal runs straight for 800m, to arrive at Fazeley pass under the A38.
Junction where it meets the Birmingham & Fazeley A former airfield stands beside the canal, its large
Canal, the Bottom Road to Birmingham. hangars still dominating. Fradley developed because of
A roving bridge and a mill building are to be found the airfield. Trees and reeds line the canal and pillboxes
near Fazeley Junction. The Coventry Canal reached protect the minor road at the end of the airfield.
here in 1790, by which time the Birmingham & Fazeley The Coventry Canal joins the Trent & Mersey Canal
Canal had already built the next section to Whittington at Fradley Junction, one of the busiest points on the
Distance Brook, a section that remained in their ownership as they canal system, in front of the Swan in the middle of a lock
43km from Coventry refused to sell it. Overflow to the brook had been strictly flight. Before that, there is a swing footbridge across the
to Fazeley Junction controlled to prevent damage to the pleasure gardens Coventry Canal.
and 9km from
Whittington Brook to
Fradley Junction

Navigation
Authority
Canal & River Trust

Canal Society
Coventry Canal
Society www.
covcanalsoc.org.uk

OS 1:50,000 Sheets
128 Derby &
Burton upon Trent
139 Birmingham
& Wolverhampton
140 Leicester,
Coventry & Rugby
The swing footbridge before the Trent & Mersey Canal at Fradley Junction.

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 Ashby Canal
9
Bureaucrat with planning blight, angling club and which undertook commercial carrying The canal they
Blinkered view, myopic sight. as far as Brentford in order to fund it. The closures not couldn’t give
only avoided the cost of repairs but also allowed further away
Such unseemly legal force
extraction of coal from beneath the line of the canal.
To ban the Bosworth towpath horse.
The Ashby Canal Association own the canal bed as
John Burman far as Gilwiskan Aqueduct. Around Moira Furnace in
Donisthorpe Woodland Park 2km has been restored.
The Ashby-de-la-Zouch Canal, Ashby Canal or Moira Farmland is rarely more than gently undulating and
Cut was intended to be a major link in our canal system, views are frequently extensive, hedges often being
extending to the Trent valley to join the Commercial absent beside the canal.Views are better from the water
Canal and then serving Liverpool or Manchester. before the reedmace grows too much in the summer.
Running north across Warwickshire and Leicestershire Bridges across the canal are mostly arches of stone or
from the Coventry Canal, it never got any further blue engineering brick, sometimes clearly distressed by
north than Overseal and never even reached Ashby- mining settlement.
de-la-Zouch itself. To get down to the Trent would These days the canal is almost entirely rural and, being
have required heavy and expensive locking. The canal,
as it remains, has no locks at all except at Moira on the
disconnected section, being part of one of the longest
level pounds in Britain as it follows the 91m contour.
Extensions northwards were as plateways or tramroads
and the canal carried heavy coal traffic although it was
not very profitable. In 1804, the year it was opened,
good quality coal was found at Moira, supplied by canal
to Oxford colleges, among other customers. Medicinal
springs were found at the canal head in the 19th century,
resulting in passenger boat traffic, and the canal company
also tried exporting cheese. Something they have
successfully exported is Measham ware, Church Gresley’s
highly prized decorated brown canal earthenware.
The canal was bought out in 1846 by the LMS railway.
In 1856 there were experiments with the steam-powered
barges Pioneer and Volunteer. Traffic peaked at 153,000t
in 1870. In 1918 there was extensive mining subsidence
in the Measham area and by the 1940s much of the
canal around Donisthorpe was on embankment or low
bridges. The LMS tried to give the canal to the Coventry
Canal Company but they declined the offer. In 1944 the
canal was shortened to Donisthorpe, abandoned north
of Measham in 1957 and shortened again to north of
Snarestone in 1963. The last regular coal carriage from
the North Leicestershire Coalfield took place in 1970 by
the Ashby Canal Association which was founded by an

Looking along the line from the Coventry Canal at Marston Junction.

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 Canals of Britain
a dead end, is not heavily used by canal traffic although century but the Dog & Hedgehog, with its green and
its lack of locks and its rural feel encourage enough boats yellow illuminated signs, looks horribly modern. A
up to keep the water stirred up. narrowboat appears to be parked in a field but there is a
Although the Ashby is mostly on one level, the lock- slot cut at a right angle to the canal just large enough to
free opportunities continue from Coventry or from hold it.
Atherstone. The canal leaves the Coventry Canal at Many other narrowboats are moored along the canal.
Marston Junction on the edge of the old mining town of The canal crosses the line of the Roman road from
Bedworth. A stop lock was built here to control traffic. Mancetter to Leicester before Sutton Wharf Bridge. Tea
The siting of the junction is the result of a late change rooms and trip boats at the wharf make this a busy area.
of plan, the original intention being to join at a Griff To the west of the canal may be one of the turning
Colliery arm to the north. points in British history. In August 1485 32 year old
The first two bridges are of Attleborough sandstone. Richard III was killed in the Battle of Bosworth Field
At Marston Jabbett the canal is also crossed by the Trent and Henry Tudor was crowned on the battlefield as
Valley Railway line. Three groups of powerlines pass Henry VII, the first Tudor king, thus ending 30 years of
over the initial reaches of the canal, diverging from the Wars of the Roses. It was the last time the British
Hawkesbury. crown was to change hands on a battlefield.
After the bridge at Whitestone, a collection of chalet These days there is a visitor centre with battle
buildings stand on top of the steep canal embankment. re-enactments, jousting, Morris and tea dancing and
One of the owners has laid out his section of bank as a falconry among the attractions at various times although
shrine to Liverpool Football Club. the battle site is now thought to be 3km southwest
On the B4114 vehicles are encouraged to slow to the towards Fenny Drayton. There is a birdwatching hide at
point where they don’t become airborne from the canal the edge of the wood, looking down towards the canal,
bridge. which is edged with gorse bushes here.
On the hillside is Burton Hastings, where the font The current terminus of the Battlefield Line is at
of St Botulph’s church dates from 1300. Two limestone Shenton, being restored since 1970. It uses ex-industrial
bridges cross the canal. A distinctive powerline flyover steam and diesel locomotives. The abandoned route of
beside the cut, with lines along and across the canal, is the railway could see future extension following the
hard to ignore. The hillside, where Stretton Baskerville canal. The ticket office was built in Leicester but was
Village was lost to the field enclosures of the 16th moved to Shenton in 1993 as part of a road-widening
century, now serves to eliminate any noise from the scheme.
M69, 900m away. Near the terminus is a very amateur-looking jetty but
Next to the Lime Kilns public house, the A5, built as all its wooden handrail posts are topped with beautifully
the Roman Watling Street, passes overhead and the canal turned wooden knobs. A high brick aqueduct carries
moves from Warwickshire into Leicestershire. the canal over the road from Shenton, which has the
A sewage works at Sketchley cleans the local effluent, Victorian church of St John the Evangelist with a 17th
as indicated by mussel shells beside the canal. The century monument to the Battle of Bosworth Field.
Leicester to Nuneaton railway crosses. The next bridge Shenton Hall dates from 1629 and was much rebuilt in
carries a road that runs beside a canal arm, on the 19th century.
the other side of which is a pool which was Market Bosworth has some fine thatched cottages. It
a quarry and where there were brick and tile was where Dr Johnson taught for a time. A timber yard is
works. located next to a road bridge. Dredging in 1976 brought
The A47 feeds the only built-up part of up a First World War bomb in dangerous condition,
the canal, Hinckley. The centre of the town dropped from an airship and intended for the local
is marked with a transmission mast which gasworks. The canal society members placed mileposts
dwarfs the church spire. Hinckley has some along the canal and one here shows it would be the
fine timber-framed cottages and its industrial midpoint of the canal.
background includes having the stocking Rooks circle above their rookery in a wood in the
frame in 1640, long before Leicester did. It spring. A windsock on the outskirts of the town marks a
was also the home of architect Joseph Hansom, designer landing strip. Beyond is the town with the slender spire
of the Hansom Cab, and of Triumph motorcycles. The of the partly 14th century St Peter’s church.
town is left past the back of a large Tesco centre on the From Carlton Bridge, where it passes over the Sence
edge of an industrial estate. TE Lawrence’s father’s family Brook, the canal dances past Congerstone with its
had property here until being left estates in Ireland. kingfishers, wrens and water voles.
Powerlines cross the canal near Higham Grange, A distinctive brick tower rises above Barton in the
formerly a hospital for rehabilitation of miners and Beans. There is a railway museum at Shackerstone. A
now the Hijaz College, an Islamic university with the viaduct with delicate cast-iron parapets carries a road
UK’s first official Shariah court. Kennels make their over from the station. The canal follows the River Sence,
presence heard. An ancient fishpond site follows a field with its otters, before turning sharply to cross it on a
of Shetland ponies. stone aqueduct.
The line of the branch railway from Hinckley runs A line of narrowboat moorings curves round a
beside the canal. Although the branch was laid with track
and signalled, it never carried traffic and was dismantled
in 1900. It is joined by the route of the railway from
Nuneaton which approaches past the MIRA Technology
Park and test track complex.
From the picnic area at Stoke Golding, signs point
to the George & Dragon, while a striking spire draws
attention to the Saxon church of St Margaret of Antioch
with its decorated arcade, delicate window tracery and
windowsill grooves said to be where soldiers sharpened
their weapons prior to the battle. The village is known
for the Stoke Golding Country Dance, a more complex
version of the Scottish Strip the Willow. The aqueduct and listed bridge over the River Sence at
Dadlington’s St James’ church dates from the 13th Shackerstone station.

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 Ashby Canal

Snarestone tunnel is short and the bends are not obvious. The pumping station beside the canal at Snarestone.

medieval pond in front of the village, which dates from Beginning at Donisthorpe is a 2km section of canal
Saxon times and from which Saxon jewellery has been which is wide, fully restored and in excellent condition,
unearthed. Prominent signing makes the Rising Sun a home to a canal society trip boat and a maintenance
difficult public house to miss. craft.
Some stands of woodland are found alongside Initially it runs between a minor road and woodland
this section of canal, oaks, hawthorns, willows and, planted on colliery spoil. After limekilns it is crossed by
appropriately, ashes, with coltsfoot and butterbur among an arched bridge that feeds directly into Moira Furnace
them along the banks in the spring. The woods hide which is now partially restored as a museum and country
Gopsall Park, the grounds of the former Gopsall House park. It was an 1805 blast furnace producing pig-iron
where Handel may have composed the Messiah. with the compressed air blast produced by beam engine
A picnic table at Gopsall Wharf is one of a number but was closed after two years as uneconomic.
that have been placed along the length of the canal. Beyond a swing bridge the canal passes teasels and a
A rabbit warren has been dug in the embankment coach depot as it swings into the back of Moira, named
between the canal and the line of the former railway, after Moira in Northern Ireland. Moira Lock was
which used to cross to the south of Snarestone. installed because of 3m of subsidence.
The canal’s major structure is the 230m long tunnel Beyond the road crossing there is low ground on
at Snarestone. It is unusual for a canal to end beyond a the right towards Sarah’s Wood. The canal turns under
tunnel rather than before a collapsed bore. The line of the Marquis footbridge, named after the local colliery,
the canal snakes through the tunnel but the full bore of supported by a pyramid of poles, to enter the terminus
the tunnel is visible all the way through. As the tunnel at Bath Yard Basin, also named after a colliery, one of 28
has no towpath, the line of the former horse path leads in the South Derbyshire Coalfield by the canal at various
from near the Globe Inn over the top of the low hill, on times. Conkers has plenty of room for moorings but is
which the 18th century farming village of Snarestone is more appreciated by families using the slides, narrow
built. gauge railway and other facilities. The canal stops just
Beyond the tunnel, two ornate posts lean by the short of the Leicester to Burton upon Trent railway and
landing stage of a former house, a recess in the bank to 8km from its intended target of the River Trent.
store a boat being finished in decorative brickwork. High sides make
A Victorian Gothic pumping station, built in 1892 access difficult for
to supply water to Hinckley, stands beside the canal, wildlife. A frog dries
its chimney conspicuous in the local countryside. out on a tennis ball.
Snarestone Wharf has boating facilities including a Getting up there
slipway and various interesting items including the in the first place
former pump beams from the pumping station. The and then retaining
restored section of canal here has suffered leakage and a balance could not
breach in 2020 and 2021. have been easy.
The present line ends just outside the National Forest
and is mostly in a conservation area which boasts nine Distance
species of dragonfly (including the rare red eyed damsel), 39km from Marston
the flat stalked pondweed (which is rare elsewhere) Junction to Bath Yard
and a fair sample of herons, coots, moorhens, mallards, Basin
kingfishers and a few swans. The plan to restore the line
to Donisthorpe has now been abandoned. Measham Navigation
station has become Measham Museum & History Group. Marquis footbridge at the end of Bath Yard Basin. Authority
Canal & River Trust

Canal Society
Ashby Canal
Association www.
ashbycanal.org.uk.
Ashby Canal Trust
www.ashbycanaltrust.
co.uk

OS 1:50,000 Sheets
128 Derby &
Burton upon Trent
140 Leicester,
Coventry & Rugby
The furnace at Moira – the main reason for the canal being built to this point.

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 10 Oxford Canal

The country’s That night he went to Marston Doles; the wind was blowing shrill.
second most Snow and sleet came howling down from over Napton Hill.
popular canal
also has its He took his horses to the farm to bed them comfortably.
most winding The farmer said ‘You’ll never get to the town of Banbury.’
section David Blagrove

and the city is quickly left behind. Throughout the

length of this canal sheep grazing is the predominant
livestock activity. On the canal the inevitable mallards
and Canada geese patrol the water.
The canal turns away from the M6 but is crossed by
the M69. An 18th century Georgian hall is now a hotel
hidden in the trees next to a small church with a delicate
spire. Also in the vicinity is the Rose & Castle, a public
house with a suitably canal-inspired name. There is a
medieval ridge and furrow system, the first of a number
that have survived along the line of this canal. Between
the golf course and an aerial on the ridge above, the
The stop lock and footbridge at Hawkesbury Junction. West Coast Main Line arrives to follow the canal as far as
Hillmorton.
The canal formed part of the original Grand Cross There are extensive views to the south-east towards
scheme to link the Thames, Mersey, Trent and Severn. Nettle Hill. Where once the canal made a loop up the
From 1769 until the time of his death in 1772, James Hopsford valley, it now crosses on an aqueduct. A riveted
Brindley took the Oxford Canal from Coventry as far as viaduct passes high over the canal and railway, its sides
Brinklow. Samuel Simcock took over, reaching Banbury supported with scrolled stays. The canal heads towards
in 1778, then Robert Whitworth continued to the River the Upper Smite Village site. The M6 also passes over and
Thames by 1790. A contour canal, it had many meanders, heads east, opening up extensive views back across the
especially on the northern section, to the extent that fields to the south-west to the Coventry skyline.
boatmen claimed to be able to travel a whole day within Among moorings at Coombe Fields Farm is a
sound of Brinklow clock. It lost traffic after 1805 when hawthorn bush. From the top of it a heron watches still
the Grand Union Canal provided competition. In as a statue, exactly what it is. The swallows and moorhens
response, it was shortened between 1828 and 1834 by are real enough, though. Mussel shells show the canal to
Marc Brunel and William Cubitt, cutting 22km off its be clean despite the stirred up sediment. Teasels add to
length. From 1840, it lost further traffic to the railways. the plant life.
Even so, it remained profitable and paid a dividend right Stretton Stop lock and toll office are approached by a
up to nationalisation in 1947. The last commercial traffic plank footbridge, often swung across the water but easily
was carried in the 1950s but it is now one of the busiest swung back. The Stretton Wharf Branch goes north and
recreational canals in the country – second only to the is used by Rose Narrowboats, based here beside the
Llangollen Canal – particularly the northern section. Fosse Way Roman road. At Brinklow there is a motte
Thus, it is well churned up. Boatmen on the northern and bailey, built in the time of King Stephen to defend
section were referred to as mud heelers. the road.
The Oxford Canal leaves the Coventry Canal at The canal was barred from entering the park at
Hawkesbury Junction. It is approached under a cast-iron Newbold Revell by the landowner so the 12 Brinklow
bridge, one of a number of these graceful structures, Arches were built over the Smite Brook. Some were
particularly on the northern section. The left bank is used as stables, forge, hay store and dwellings although 11
where working boats waited for orders. were filled in when the canal was widened in 1834. As
Powerlines diverge from an electricity substation, all a result, he avoided the mess when the corroded boiler
that remains of Coventry Power Station, the site having of the Irish Mail engine exploded into tiny fragments
been landscaped in 1979. Powerlines follow the canal to in Easenhall cutting in 1861, spread over a wide area
Newbold on Avon. although only the fireman was killed and others had just
The canal moves from Warwickshire into the West minor injuries.
Midlands as far as Sowe Common. At Tusses Bridge Elliptical cast-iron bridges cross the ends of the
the B4109 crosses and is in turn crossed by the M6, Brinklow Wharf and Brinklow Branches. On the other
which moves alongside for 2km but is surprisingly well side, there are fine views eastwards before the canal
screened. On the other side, however, there are extensive cuts through Brinklow Hill, on top of which is St John
views in the direction of Barnacle, the views being a
feature of this contour canal. Hedges are frequently of
hawthorn and the craft of hedging is shown to be in
good hands with skilled hedging work in evidence.
The Wyken Old Colliery Branch has provided
convenient moorings for the Coventry Canal Society.
At Sowe Common there used to be a cast-iron towpath
bridge but it was removed during construction of the
M6. It now crosses the River Sherbourne at Spon End
in Coventry.
Playing fields at Sowe Common give way to farmland Running through All Oaks Wood.

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 Oxford Canal

The start of the Fennis Field Lime Works Branch.

the Baptist’s church with a sloping floor, at the foot of

Brinklow Castle’s motte and bailey.
At Hall Oaks Corner the canal turns to pass along the
edge of the more appropriately named All Oaks Wood.
Another cast-iron bridge crosses the end of the Fennis
Fields Lime Works branch.
The railway crosses at Cathiron, opening up a view to
All Saints’ church at Harborough Magna, 14th century
with Victorian additions and interesting stained glass.
A branch which served Norman’s and Walker’s
Newbold Lime Works leaves on the right. It is followed
by Newbold Tunnel, 189m long, built with twin converted into a road for the
towpaths, unusual for 1834 when it was constructed Swift Valley Industrial Estate and
as part of the canal straightening. The new alignment joins by the A426. Brownsover
is NW–SE whereas the old tunnel ran N–S, its mouth Hall Hotel was built by Sir
remaining next to the 15th century St George Gilbert Scott, who, in
Botolph’s church. 1877, partly rebuilt the church
of St Michael & All Angels, now
redundant.
Toilets are available before Brownsover
with its wharf and mill. The canal then
crosses the River Avon which
flows westwards, although it
flowed northeastwards from the
vicinity of Warwick before the Ice
Age. A rifle range can make the area noisy
but the three railway lines that used
to cross in the next kilometre

Newbold Wharf at Newbold on

Avon, habitually shortened to Noble,
precedes Newbold Quarry Park. A canal
loop to Cosford was made redundant by the
Cosford Aqueduct, a magnificent structure
with a 7.2m cast-iron trough 4.6m wide x
2m deep with four cast-iron segmental ribs
underneath. Three of these have had to be replaced
by steel ones after being damaged by road traffic. The
Brownsover Arm Feeder, the longest remaining stretch
of loop, has been saved from being

are now silent. One is remembered

by a large brick viaduct over the river.
Where Clifton New Wharf and the
branch to Clifton Mill were once of major
importance, Clifton upon Dunsmore now
relies on a minor road that crosses the canal.
After 600 years as an agricultural town,
Rugby became a railway town then went over

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 Canals of Britain
to heavy electrical engineering and Rugby Portland Rugby disappears behind the railway embankment
Cement. The name was derived from Hroca bury, after with nothing more intrusive than a golf course to the
a Saxon man, via Rokeby. It was the setting for Mugby fore. The railway, one of the busiest mixed passenger and
Junction by Charles Dickens, Charles Collins, Amelia B freight lines in Europe, suffered slippage in 2021.
Edwards, Andrew Halliday and Hesba Stretton, in which Hillmorton has three locks, the busiest in the country,
Dickens poured scorn on the attitude of staff in the to begin the 23m thirteen lock rise to Marston Doles.
railway buffet. The town name has become synonymous In 1840 these three were doubled with connections
with rugby football, first played at Rugby school in between the pairs so that they could act as side ponds
1823. Rupert Brooke was born here, his father being for each other. Unusually, the pairs remain operational
a housemaster. Rupert, Lewis Carroll and another but unconnected and pleasure boat use is so heavy that
poet, Arthur Clough, were pupils, as was Walter Savage they are needed. Eynsham Harry was based here in
Landor until expelled. Ernest Thorburn was here, too, in The ‘Flower of Gloster’. The excellent Hillmorton Wharf
Virginia Woolf ’s Lappin & Lapinova. was reopened in 1998 after restoration, its dry dock
and former Newcomen engine house being among
the attractions. The small village has a medieval cross in
the centre and St John the Baptist’s church from about
1300, with additions to the 18th century. Local residents
included 16–17th century botanist and entomologist
James Petiver.
Dominating the area was the Rugby Radio Station,
established in 1924 on a 3.6km2 site, transmitting around
the world. The tallest masts weighed 200t and were
250m high, the world’s tallest structures when erected.
The last tall mast was demolished in 2007 although a
wind farm has been added.
Suddenly the canal changes from its south-easterly
course to head south-west. The West Coast Main Line
passes over for the last time, together with the line to
Northampton, which has just broken away. The West
Coast line embankment failed here in 2021 following
The twinned Hillmorton locks. heavy rain. Next to the A428 bridge is the Old Royal
Oak with a notice banning mooring because canoes are
in use, apparently a rather old notice that is ignored.
Stables at Kilsby Road Bridge which carries
the B4038 over Rains Brook, the Warwickshire–
Northamptonshire border, have been converted to
houses.
Moorings on the left are accompanied by fenced-off
patches of land, one with a large dovecote similar to one
in the garden of a lock cottage at Hillmorton. A loop of
the old canal goes off on the opposite side, its profile in
the field clearly visible from the present towpath, and
returns at the M45 bridge.
Barby is over the hill to the left. HM Prison Onley
is on the other side. There are long views over the
Rains Brook valley to a water tower on the ridge at the
edge of Rugby. The former railway from Lutterworth
to Woodford Halse followed the canal closely for
3km. There is cutting as the route moves back briefly
into Warwickshire, the canal also being in a cutting
frequented by bats and cowslips.
A keen gardener displays the results of his labours
The restored Hillmorton Yard stands off the lock flight. by the next bridge and the Rose Inn in Willoughby
touts for business from the canal. At Willoughby Wharf
the agricultural associations go back further with more
medieval ridges and furrows.
Braunston is one of the best known village names
on the canal system although most of the activity is
to the east on the Grand Union Canal. The approach
from the north is quiet enough, herons and swans
minding their own businesses below a ridge topped by
a disused windmill and All Saints’ church, the Cathedral
of the Canals. This has a tall Victorian spire and is in
a churchyard which includes many boatmen’s graves.
The Oxford Canal originally continued south-west but
this section was taken over as part of the Grand Union
Canal main line and southbound boats now traverse this
section in the opposite direction from when it was first
built by the Oxford Canal Company.
Incorporation of the Oxford section and the 800m
Braunston Branch saved £50,000 in construction of the
Grand Union Canal route from Birmingham to London.
An idea of the importance of this new transport link can
Former canal stables at the B4038 crossing. be gauged from the fact that goods being conveyed from

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 Braunston Turn, facing the Grand Union Canal.

London to Abingdon were sent via Braunston rather of bricks marks the site of Napton brick and tile yard,
than up the River Thames because of the poor state of which was claimed to have the longest kiln in Europe.
the latter. The Oxford Canal arrives under the A45 at On the other side of the canal, craftsmanship is alive and
a triangular island with two of the Horseley Ironworks well with some quality hedging using the hawthorn so
semi-elliptical 15m span bridges and a brick bridge prevalent on this canal.
carrying the towpath across, the high ends of the arches By Napton Bottom Lock is a farmhouse which
allowing room for passage on foot underneath for users served beer to boat crews, becoming the Bull & Butcher
of the other towpath line. The Braunston Turn formerly and now the Folly Inn, noted for its selection of pies
had a stop lock. although LTC Rolt noted it in Narrow Boat for its
The Oxford Canal reclaims its name at Napton mushrooms, one of which was over 300mm in diameter
Junction or Wigram’s Turn, where a toll bar earned and others were nearly as large. A notice warns that it
the Oxford company £250,000 in two decades. From is the last pub for five hours. There are ten locks to be
here the Grand Union Canal turns north past Napton negotiated in the next 3km up to Marston Doles.
Reservoirs, which are a source of water for the Grand As the canal rises, so the scenery opens up to give
Union Canal and of dragonflies that frequent the reeds extensive views across the open farmland, much of it
in the summer. A Black Prince marina has been added at used for sheep grazing. Towards the top of the flight is
the junction. the Old Engine House Branch which was 820m long
The southern section of the Oxford Canal had and had a steam pump. The pumping house remains are
horsedrawn boats long after other canals had given them still there. The canal company were permitted to use any
up and there can be few long sections of canal better water found within 910m of the canal.
suited to the pace of the horse. Joseph Skinner’s mule- The top lock is by the Welsh Road at Marston Doles.
drawn boat was in use until 1959 and is now in the Picnic tables wait by the lock side and the 16th century
National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port. The rural Holly Bush Inn in Priors Marston offers a transport
feel is complemented by bollards made from roughly service to and from the lock. Horses used to be stabled
hewn tree trunks. The southern section of the canal has here. Farm buildings of 1865 were refurbished as British
many angling contests. Waterways’ offices but are now used by a commercial
Napton on the Hill takes its name from the Anglo- company. In his Anderton for Orders Tom Foxon found the
Saxon cnaepp tun, meaning hilltop homestead, the hill summit ‘more beautiful than ever’.
being over 120m high. On top is a windmill, restored The summit pound runs for 18km and is the most
in the 1800s, although there has been a mill here since extreme example of a contour canal. It is a ruthlessly
at least 1543. Materials for building the 13th century St rural area with very few buildings along its length
Lawrence’s church were left by the green, ready to start but the canal seems to go out of its way to visit all
work, but overnight they reappeared at the top of the hill of them and search for more as well. It suffers from
so it was built up there. water shortages in the summer but a back-pumping
The King’s Head is just up from Napton Wharf, the scheme has been installed to get round the problems
base for Napton Narrowboats. The A425 crosses. A pile and flows have been augmented with mine water from
Wolverhampton. Consideration is also being given to
the enlargement of Boddington Reservoir but, not
unreasonably, the locals insist that they don’t want this to
result in a country park. Where dredging work has been
done on the canal, plastic pipes have been used to extend
water vole burrows.
As the canal twists and turns Charwelton BT
Tower south of Hellidon rotates to and fro around the
traveller. Skylarks lift the mood. Fields of oilseed rape
are sometimes replaced by richly scented fields of broad
beans. There are occasional pillboxes, flimsy prefabricated
structures, not the usual solid blocks more able to
withstand bombardment, as found at the southern end of
The bottom of the Napton flight with the windmill above. the canal.
Parts of St Mary’s stone church in Priors Hardwick
date from the 13th century. The village was badly hit
by the black death and many of the houses were pulled
down by Cistercian monks in the 14th century. In 1872
the local butcher butchered his wife. Along the road,
Stoneton Village has disappeared almost without trace,
Stoneton Moat Farm being one link with the past.
Dandelions, cow parsley, cowslips, white dead nettles
and ground ivy add colour to the canalside in the spring.
There is plenty of time to look as the meandering
is at its best here, the canal progressing just 870m in
Former stables by the top lock at Marston Doles. 3.2km. Rooks watch from their rookery in a wood at

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 Canals of Britain
until opened out in 1868. It is now a steep-sided cutting.
The A423 crosses on a concrete structure, dwarfing a
graceful cast-iron roving bridge.
Mussel shells lie on the bank adjacent to
Wormleighton Reservoir, a canal feeder. The canal then
passes between the blue brick portals of what was once
a bridge carrying a railway line to the former railway
junction of Woodford Halse, now without railway lines
going in any direction.
The boundary between Warwickshire and Oxfordshire
The graceful cast-iron roving bridge in the Tunnel. comes directly after the first of the lifting bridges that
are so distinctive of this canal, built with heavy balance
beams but no superstructures. They are particularly to
be found south of Banbury and are usually left open.
Moving south, the red-brick bridges gradually give way
to those of Cotswold stone.
Five locks at Claydon start the 30-lock fall through
59m to the River Thames with old stables at the second
lock.
St James the Great’s church in Claydon is partly
Norman in brownstone. Its tower has a saddleback roof
and clock with chimes but no face.
To the right are the remains of the Gilbertine
Clattercote Priory, founded in 1209, above which is
Clattercote Reservoir. Unlike its better known namesake,
the village of Farnborough has nothing to do with flying
The first of the distinctive lifting bridges near Claydon. but suffered as the result of enclosures. Chipping Warden
airfield, facing it across the valley, is primarily a road
Wormleighton Grange Farm as the canal completes its transport base these days.
most extreme loop. Three more locks follow,Varney’s with a ridge and
Wormleighton Village, with its extensive ridge and furrow system right to the side of the towpath. Cropredy
furrow system and earthworks, was depopulated in 1498. Marina opened in 2013. Prescote Manor at the approach
Its more recent namesake has a 13th century brownstone to Cropredy Lock belonged to Richard Crossman.
St Peter’s church with Perpendicular screen and Jacobean The lock is the first of several places where poetry has
woodwork, a 16th century Tudor Manor House with been presented along the canal, here on what look
a huge stone gatehouse of 1613 and Victorian mock like corroded metal gravestones. Fairport’s Cropredy
Tudor and thatched cottages. The Earl of Leicester and Convention in August, the largest annual festival of its
Elizabeth I each stayed here but it was burned down by kind, developed from Fairport Convention’s playing here
the Royalists during the Civil War. This is where in 1984 in 1976 for the village fête.
Canada geese first bred on the canal. A bridge across the canal carries the Oxfordshire
The Wharf Inn sits by Sherne Hill Bridge where the Cycle Way past the Bridge Store, which is over two
A423 crosses at the foot of Shirne Hill. On the next centuries old and was a resting place for men and horses
corner is the large Cowroast Fenny Marina. At this point until the 1940s. The River Cherwell is now alongside
the Coventry to Didcot railway comes alongside the and to be followed closely to Thrupp. There was a bridge
canal, following it closely all the rest of the way. Up the across the river by 1314 but it was the bridge in place
hill is Fenny Compton, a brownstone village with the in June 1644 that was the focal point for the Civil War
14th century and Victorian St Peter & St Clare’s church, Battle of Cropredy. Cromwell’s forces, under Waller,
which has Civil War Parliamentarian bullet holes in the attacked a smaller Royalist group in an attempt to force
door, some bellringers feeling they are being watched a passage towards Oxford. They were beaten back and
through them on New Year’s Eve. lost their artillery. Some of the soldiers were buried in
The body of a policeman with an unexplained neck the churchyard of the sandstone church of Grade I St
wound, found in the canal, was the only violent murder Mary the Virgin, which has fine woodwork. It also has
of their staff the Warwickshire Constabulary encountered a mark on the vestry floor that may be the bloodstain
in their first century. from a young messenger killed there after the battle.
The canal uses a gap cut by overflow from an Ice Age The brass eagle lectern spent 50 years in the river after
Poetry at Cropredy glacial lake between Leicester and Stratford-upon-Avon. being hidden there from the troops by the villagers.
Lock. The next 1.1km is called the Tunnel because it was one The footsteps of a man, woman and girl killed by a

Below the lock at Cropredy. The Oxford Canal from a bridge near Great Bourton.

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 Oxford Canal
Roundhead are sometimes heard at the 15th century
Red Lion, where beer and darts were enjoyed with the
locals in The ‘Flower of Gloster’. The Curfew Bell is still
rung. Cropredy has been called the Queen of the Oxford
Canal.
The Old Canal Wharf used to be a toll collection
point. These days people pay for the afternoon teas it
provides.
The canal bends round towards Williamscot House,
where Charles I was supposed to have spent the night
before the battle. It runs peacefully past Great Bourton
and Little Bourton until the arrival of the M40, which
passes over and is to remain in the vicinity until Clifton.
Below Salmon’s Lock the railway passes over by
a junction with another line that used to run from
Woodford Halse. Rudd and perch are more likely fish Tooley’s Boatyard and forge, now surrounded by a modern
today. shopping centre.
Banbury begins with a foundry which takes its
cooling water from the canal. The A423 brings significant Banbury, from the Old English Banna’s stronghold,
traffic noise along the bank by the industrial estate, was a wool town and formerly had the largest cattle
residents of which include Premier Foods. A westerly market in Europe, placed next to the railway station for
wind brings the aromas of cocoa, Bird’s custard and ease of transport. It was used for filming Three Men & a
Maxwell House coffee from Britain’s largest coffee Little Lady.
factory and baking bread from the Fine Lady ovens. After the A4260 Cherwell Street crosses, there is a
Tudor Thomas Cogan’s The Haven of Health and Robert selection of industrial premises on the right.
Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy both claimed cheese Residential housing pulls away from the canal at
made around Banbury was the best. Calthorpe, initially leaving a grass recreational area with
After the A422 crosses there is a spur on the right, picnic tables and a barbecue, backed by a garish blue-
formerly the canal’s line before roadworks caused a caged basketball court.
diversion. This is Spiceball Country Park although there The first of the lifting bridges south of Banbury
are few clues from the water other than a firebeacon by comes as the canal heads out into farmland. A pole used
the canal. by single handed boaters for propping such bridges
On the right is Tooley’s Boatyard, established in 1778 open is known as a Banbury stick. The M40 passes over
and the only surviving one on a narrow canal, next to again, a distant roar for the next 5km.
a traditional forge. It used the principle of building and On the River Cherwell, Twyford Mill now houses
launching narrowboats sideways into the canal, this being industrial units.
one of the first narrow canals. The dry dock is the oldest Twyford Wharf used to be a narrowboat hire centre
one still working on a British canal. Its most important but customers wrecked too many engines to make it
commission was adapting the narrowboat Cressy for profitable. Earlier, it had a brickworks which supplied
residential use for LTC Rolt and they often overwintered bricks for construction of the canal.
here. He then published Narrow Boat in 1944, leading From Twyford Wharf the canal continues southwards
to leisure use of the canals. It is now accompanied by past gorse, dandelions, cow parsley, white dead nettles and
the Castle Quay shopping mall, including the Banbury reeds to Kings Sutton Lock, also known as Tarver’s from
Museum & Gallery, with the Pavement Coffee Co a former lock keeper. One building was the company
opposite. Demolition of non-listed buildings and blacksmith’s forge. Most conspicuous, though, is the
restriction of access to suit shopping hours mean Tooley’s 15th century St Peter & St Paul’s church’s magnificent
is now a working museum. 60m spire which forms a line with Newbottle and
Banbury has a poor record of civic vandalism and The Adderbury’s churches. It is surprising how many spires
‘Flower of Gloster’ comments on the fine line between and towers do line up: Bodicote–Milcombe–Wigginton,
vandalism and religious zeal. The cross of nursery rhyme Wigginton–South Newington–Barford St John–Aynho,
fame was pulled down by the Puritans in 1602, the fine South Newington–Barford St Michael–Deddington,
lady probably being a girl in a May Day procession. Barford St Michael–Barford St John–Overthorpe and
The 16m cross of 1859 celebrated the wedding of the longer lines if more tolerance is permitted.
Princess Royal to Prince Frederick of Prussia. The Brick abutments mark the crossing point of a former
Perpendicular Cathedral of North Oxfordshire needed
renovation; instead it was blown up (a cheaper option),
the ‘unsafe’ portion surviving the explosion. Its Grade
I replacement of 1793 by SP Cockrell is described as
looking like a gaol. Banbury cakes had been made to
a Tudor recipe since 1586 but were changed in 1860
to make them more like Eccles cakes. The original
cakeshop was demolished in 1968 to make way for
offices. Both cross and cakes were mentioned by Dickens
in The Uncommercial Traveller. In his Bartholmew Fayre Ben
Jonson repeatedly notes that Rabbi Zeal-of-the-Land
Busy was from Banbury. The canal basin, the interim
canal terminus from the north, was filled in to create
the bus station in the 1960s. The Germans added their
contribution in September 1940 with a direct bomb hit
on the lock. Clarkes Mill burned down in 1992. At least
the lockside has been well restored, complete with more
poetry gravestones. Arts lovers are advised to look next
door to the Mill, which now operates as a first-rate arts
centre. The misty peace at Grant’s Lock but near the busy M40.

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 Canals of Britain

Looking down the canal with the spire of Kings Sutton church rising out of the mist.

railway branch to Chipping Norton. The M40 crosses the brandy bottle, a name given to the yellow water lily
for one last time before climbing away to the south-east. because of the shape of its seed pods.
The canal makes a rather sharper turn, passing the Old Above Aynho Weir the River Cherwell crosses at canal
Wharf, which stands at the foot of the hill. This leads up level and passes over a long weir on the right, on top of
past Bo Peep Farm to Adderbury, a village which, like which a large viaduct carries the towpath. The lock has
Deddington to the south, is well known in the field of only a 300mm drop to resist flashes but is hexagonal,
Cotswold Morris dancing. wide enough for four narrowboats and able to pass a
The Pig Place at Nell Bridge has a selection of rare normal volume of water without requiring larger gates.
breed pigs. The original narrow bridge of 1787 below For 2km the canal scrapes the heel of Northamptonshire.
the lock has been incorporated into a new structure A traditional Great Western Railway signal box up the
carrying the B4100. Not only does the road have to hill marks the start of a complex railway junction with
be crossed but the towpath changes banks. On the left, flyover and impressive brick viaducts as the Marylebone
angling ponds have been excavated. This is an area for line leaves. In 1852 a trainload of the great and the
good, pulled by the shining Lord of the Isles, fresh from
the Great Exhibition and driven by Daniel Gooch,
were celebrating the start of broad gauge services to
Birmingham when they were in collision with some
trucks shed by a local train which had never run to time
in two years. The dignitaries never did get their planned
dinner but the damage was far less than would have been
the case for a standard gauge engine.
Narrowboat moorings surround Aynho Wharf.
Geese at Souldern’s Wharf Farm make a lot of fuss on
the canal. The field by the viaduct was used for filming a
sequence for comedy High Heels & Low Lifes.
The scenery now opens up and farmland stretches
in all directions by Somerton Deep Lock, one of the
deepest inland locks in the country with a fall of 3.7m.
Approaching Somerton, four sections of balance beam
have been carved, inscribed with poetry and set up by
the towpath. Although still quite new, the lettering has
already become barely legible.
Unusual towpath viaduct passes over as the canal crosses the Decoration is more durable in the crucifixion carved
River Cherwell on the level above Aynho Weir. on the tower of the battlemented 14th century St James

Somerton Deep Lock set in Oxfordshire farmland.

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 Oxford Canal

The church and massive stone barn at Upper Heyford.

the Apostle’s church in Somerton, also noted for its 16th

century tombs and stone carving of the Last Supper
inside. However, the silver chalice was stolen a fortnight
before the Flower of Gloster crew visited the church.
There are excellent views to the south-west, towards the
Astons, across water meadows which flood in winter,
suitable for waterfowl including swans and for growing
interesting flora.
It has not always been as idyllic as it seems, however.
Above the ridge on the left is the Upper Heyford
Airfield, one of the two bases from which the US
Air Force bombed Tripoli. Now closed, it was one of
the three finalists for the national sporting academy Near Middle Aston a kingfisher sits high on a hawthorn branch
venue and the British Olympic Association’s preferred as boats pass.
choice but lost out to Sheffield. It now has houses and
businesses. poor rate and this had an adverse effect on Sir Francis’
Hanging judge Sir Francis Page, who lived from 1661 new home. Middle Aston was later bought by Spillers.
to 1741, sold Middle Aston to Sir Clement Cottrell Although all seems peaceful today, both villages and
Dormer and concentrated on Steeple Aston. Here he North Aston overlie coal.
had graves in the towered St Peter’s church moved to The railway crosses and the canal wanders to Lower
make way for a large one for himself and his wife. The Heyford or Allen’s Lock, at Upper Heyford, where a
1730 Page monument shows the 70-year-old judge magnificent stone tithe barn stands at the top of the
seated in his robes with his 40-year-old wife lying rather canal bank near the church.
less robed at his feet. Meanwhile, Sir Clement pulled Trees line the canal, approaching Lower Heyford,
down some of the houses in Middle Aston to reduce the one of them bearing a crafted tree house with veranda
over the canal. Also over the canal is an aluminium
version of a drawbridge. It may be lighter to operate and
strong enough to take a traction engine but it lacks the
attraction of wood. The 13th century St Mary’s church
has fine stained glass and a sundial in the porch. The
B4030 crosses the canal next to a clapboarded wharf
building that is Oxfordshire Narrowboats’ hire base with
a shop. The village also has an ancient watermill.
The railway runs alongside. In 1992 a Reading to
Banbury train overheated and the driver had to borrow
a bucket from a passing boat to fill the train’s radiator
with canal water.Very few trains now stop at the station,
a recurring problem for intending users of this line. It
was also near here that canoeist William Bliss discovered
white violets and springtime, having his best meal ever, as
he described in The Heart of England by Waterway.
A 12th century church of St Leonard & St James on
the right faces Rousham House. The castellated house
of 1635, in early Tudor style, was a Royalist garrison
owned by Sir Robert Dormer in the Civil War and
has three bullet holes in the front door to prove it. The
Painted Parlour has false archways to make it seem much
larger. It has 17th century panelling, original staircases,
furniture, pictures and bronzes, is set in 8ha of hanging
woods and is the only surviving example of landscaping
by William Kent from 1730, his first. It includes
Rousham Eyecatcher, a sham castle gate on the hilltop.
Dashwood’s Lock is surrounded by primroses.
Tree house over the canal at Lower Heyford. Northbrook Bridge joins a packhorse bridge over the

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 Canals of Britain

Moorings of Oxfordshire Narrowboats in a wide section of canal opposite Heyford station.

River Cherwell. A bridge of red and blue bricks at major canal interchange with the Hampton Gay Canal
Nethercott is chamfered to prevent damage to towropes or London & Western Canal of about 1792, forming
and heads. part of a broad route from London to Exeter, avoiding
Fields of thoroughbred horses surround Manor Farm. the problems of the Thames, but it was rejected by
In Tackley, John Harborne’s manor house has a two- Parliament and the Grand Union Canal as it would have
storey stable block of 1616 and pigeon house of similar added 48km to the journey. The burnt-out ruins of a
size, both magnificent buildings. The Roman Akeman Jacobean manor after a fire of 1887 are another failed
Street crosses at a point that is also on the line of the project. In the 1590s there was a peasant uprising when
Aves Ditch earthwork. Along the line of the Roman the village was cleared to make way for sheep pastures.
road to the east is the Grade I Kirtlington Park, with The railway crosses again at a point where nine
its horse polo pitches. The road then passes the airfield carriages fell before and onto the frozen canal on
at Weston-on-the-Green, from which aircraft will Christmas Eve 1874 in the GWR’s worst accident,
frequently be seen dropping parachutists. killing 34 passengers and injuring 65 more. The
Washford Hill Stone Quarries and cement works have 15-coach Paddington to Birkenhead train was carrying
been disused since the 1920s, when the Oxford Portland 500 passengers behind a pair of single driving wheel
Cement Company had a fleet of 10 narrowboats. The engines when a wheel tyre on the leading coach broke,
quarry is now laid out for public use and leads into a with disastrous consequences. Amazingly, the Oxford
wooded cutting, the steep banks covered with ivy and stationmaster had a rescue train underway just half an
bluebells in the spring. hour after receiving a telegram about the accident.
The Oxfordshire Way footpath crosses at Pigeon or Richard Jefferies, not a fan of railways, wrote in Fraser’s
Enser’s Mill Lock. magazine about the accident, railway safety, private
A bulrush-lined pound passes a golf course and arrives railway companies and the Railway Accidents Bill.
at what was the 1780 Rock of Gibraltar, the Oxford The abutments of another bridge immediately after it
Canal Company’s Brindley Head in Enslow until 1807. used to carry a branch line to Woodstock, passing round
The railway crosses over the next loop twice, Shipton on Cherwell, which has a picturesque Norman
hiding Whitehill Satellite Earth Station with church of the Holy Cross, rebuilt in 1831. Temple
its large dishes. The canal is lined with sedges Thurston expressed a wish to be buried in the shelter of
and reedmace, the haunts of sedge and reed the elms in the churchyard. It was said that King John
warblers. Flowering rush is also to be found. had a garden adjacent. Shipton Manor was occupied by
Below Gibraltar or Baker’s Lock, the canal artist William Turner of Oxford and more recently by
joins the River Cherwell for over 1km,
relatively wide and faster flowing with some
significant twists through water meadows.
The large Bunkers Hill former cement works
makes its presence felt, the chimney being
a local landmark. There are many Jurassic fossils,
especially crocodiles. Sheila Stewart’s Lifting the Latch
described loading cement onto a wagon pulled by
a very nervous horse, one of the minority that
returned from the First World War.
Vertical wooden rollers assisted towlines on
sharp corners. The canal leaves the river at Cherwell
or Shipton Weir Lock, another hexagonal structure.
The Oxford Canal Company proposed this as a Shipton Weir Lock, one of the hexagonal ones.

42

Canals of Britain 1-70.indd 42 24/08/2022 15:11

 Oxford Canal
Richard Branson, who set up a Virgin recording studio and her children in a narrowboat fire. Wolvercote Weir
here, producing Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells and Black has an open bypass channel. A winding hole was used
Sabbath’s Born Again among others. in the 1930s by an eight year old to catch a pike bigger
At Thrupp Wide the canal again uses the course of the than himself.
river but this time the river has been moved to a new Rosamund Clifford, mistress of Henry II, was educated
channel on the east side. The pound has white water lily, (and in 1176 buried) at Godstow Nunnery of 1139, the
water crowfoot, submerged water plants in the clearer ruins of which are near Wolvercote Lock. Henry’s sons,
water and nesting swans among the reeds. There are Richard the Lionheart and John, were both born in
moorings here. Thrupp has been described as the perfect Oxford.
canal village; cottages stand back from the grassed canal The Plough is passed at Upper Wolvercote, beyond
embankment. The Boat Inn provides refreshment, as which The ‘Flower of Gloster’ claimed a conflagration
does the Jolly Boatman. The Boat Inn was the setting was needed to clear the work of jerry builders. The
for The Riddle of the Third Mile Morse murder mystery. Marylebone to Oxford line is the final railway crossing
In 1967 Jack Skinner accompanied Transport Minister at Summertown, where the playing fields of St Edward’s
Barbara Castle on an inspection to see if the canal was School occupy the left bank. Pupils have included
worth restoring. She was unaware that he had opened Kenneth Graham, whose views of the canal may have
the sluices the previous evening to increase the depth been included in The Wind in the Willows. Beyond the
of water visible and agreed to save the canal, which the railway to the right is Port Meadow, the largest open
Treasury wished to close. space in Oxford and the best biologically documented
Light aircraft circle round from CAE Oxford at plot in England. Round Hill is in the middle and it
Oxford Airport, one of only a score of airline pilot occupies 2km2 of the bank of the Thames, given by
training schools throughout the world. King Alfred in thanks for help in defending against the
The canal turns sharply under the A4260 at Danes. Charles I used it for a Civil War camp. It had
Langford Lane Wharf, the lane leading to the airport horse races in the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1910 it
and Campsfield House immigrant detention centre. was used for flight trials of the Grasshopper, a plane
Alderman Frank Wise was a signalman, the adjacent Wise with limited success. It has frequently been used for ice
Alderman being previously the Railway Hotel, before skating when flooded and frozen in winter.
that, the Anchor and now the Highwayman. Kidlington In 1871 a complete carnosaur skeleton was found in
begins here, a dormitory for Oxford, once claimed to be clay pits. A former lift bridge served a factory making
the largest village in England and a producer of apricots radiators for cars and aircraft. In 1644 Charles I and
and other fruit. Residents have included pill magnate 5,000 men slipped out of Oxford by night along
Thomas Beecham. Entry to Oxford seems much Aristotle Lane, now with a bridge over the canal.
more extended than departure from Coventry. Tom Houseboats are moored and a large rudder is
Walkinshaw Racing, produced engines and engineered carefully decorated and installed on the bank. Along
the Aston Martin DB7 in one of the industrial units this pound are Edwardian houses. TE Lawrence’s
by the canal. A recent bridge over the canal serves parents bought one and built a cottage at the end of
more industrial estate. The Coventry to Didcot railway the garden so he could study undisturbed by the rest
line crosses back over for the last time after Round of the family. John Betjeman was at the Dragon prep
Ham Lock and heads past the disused Yarnton sewage school, going on to Magdalen College, which he left
treatment works, which discharged its treated effluent without a degree.
into the canal until 1998. St Bartholomew’s church, Iris Murdoch and Penelope Fitzgerald were at
originally Norman but rebuilt in the 1230s and enlarged Somerville College. George Sherston convalesced
in the 17th century, has good monuments in the Spencer at Somerville in Siegfried Sassoon’s Memoirs of an
chapel, wooden screens, medieval glass and alabaster Infantry Officer but fellow soldiers who had been
carvings. Oxford students, such as Velmore in Sherston’s Progress,
Transport links come in quick succession, beginning were not all as fortunate. Jericho was Beersheba
with crossings by the A44 and a bridge which used to in Jude the Obscure, set in the city Hardy called
carry a railway line from Bicester to Worcester. Below Christminster, St Silas’ church being its Italianate
Shuttleworth’s or Duke’s Lock the Duke’s Cut goes right church of St Barnabas, based on Torcello Cathedral.
as the first of two connections to the River Thames, built The canal here and its boats and crews were central
by the 4th Duke of Marlborough across his land in 1789 to the early part of Northern Lights, the author of
as a source of canal income. Duke’s Cut Lock, on the which, local resident Philip Pullman, was among
branch, opened either way as the river could be above or those demonstrating against a housing development on
below the canal level. The river level is now maintained the Castle Mill boatyard site. Temple Thurston hired the
above canal level. This reach was used for the climax Flower of Gloster, Eynsham Harry and his horse, Fanny,
of Colin Dexter’s The Wench is Dead. The A40 and A34 here. He described Oxford as dull and dusty but the
complete the road arteries, the latter on a dual viaduct canal like a jewel set in lead. Colin Dexter, who lived
rebuilt in 2010, one carriageway being built alongside in Oxford, set The Dead of Jericho here, including a brief
and slid into place. and distracted canal history. Kate Ivory’s early morning
A decorated tiller recalls the death in 1996 of a mother towpath runs feature frequently in Veronica Stallwood’s

43

Canals of Britain 1-70.indd 43 24/08/2022 15:11

 Canals of Britain
Oxford crime stories. The Oxford Girl and Poison in a quality was used as the excuse for closing down this
Glass of Wine are songs both recording Oxford murders. amenity, used by everyone from dons downwards.
PD James, who was born and died in the city, set The This route formed part of the improved Liverpool
Children of Men here, including passing reference to the to London link as the Thames was in poor condition
canal. Susan Hill usually referred to it as ‘the city’ in upstream to the Duke’s Cut. A local improvement was
The Magic Apple Tree. Barton and Somerville had been the decision to fix a swing railway bridge in the open
students here in her Somerville and Francis Croft had position in 1984. Until then, railway crews had to unbolt
been here in The Bird of Night. Logan Mountstuart and the track every time a boat wanted to pass. In 1995 the
Peter Scabius had a pub lunch by the canal after their station, which featured on the opening and closing pages
Oxford interviews in William Boyd’s Any Human Heart. of Zuleika Dobson, had the proud boast that improved
A chain ferry punt used to cross here and there was a security had reduced the number of thefts from its
boatmen’s chapel mounted on a barge hull in the parallel carpark over the year from 46 to a mere 16.
Castle Mill Stream in the 19th century. Oxford is usually taken to be the ford where oxen
Behind is the Oxford University Press. The university crossed but it may be significant that the Old English
has been publishing for over 500 years and is Britain’s for salmon was ehoc. Confusingly, the River Ock is
most prolific imprint but not the most efficient as it downstream at Abingdon.
took them 35 years to get back the corrected proofs for Over 2,000 years ago Lud had the realm of southern
Coventry Constable’s Presentments. The canal here has a England measured and discovered that Oxford was at
large number of residential boats moored. The Hythe the exact centre. St Frideswide built a monastery in 727
Bridge Arm used to terminate at Worcester Street Wharf, and began the walled town. In 912 Oxford was used by
infilled in 1949 for Nuffield College and a carpark. The Edward the Elder as a buffer between Wessex and the
arm now ends abruptly in the Pocket Park at Hythe invading Danes but was burned down by them in 1009.
Bridge Street with a sculpture of lock balance beams It was the sixth largest town in England in 1066 and it
behind the gardens of Worcester College. There are plans was still the fifth largest in 1781. Oxford Castle was built
to re-excavate the terminal basin, originally built with in 1071 for William the Conqueror by Robert d’Oilly
prison labour, a forward-thinking and more cost-effective and includes a Saxon stone tower. Empress Matilda
idea than transportation.Victor Plarr was presented by escaped from the castle and King Stephen’s seige by
Ezra Pound as M Verog at Worcester College in Hugh crossing the frozen Thames dressed in white one snowy
Selwyn Mauberley. night in 1142. The 1258 Provisions of Oxford served
The canal drops down through Louse or Isis Lock, as the world’s first constitution, between Henry III and
originally built wide beam but now narrowed, below an the English barons. By Simon de Montfort and the
ornate iron roving bridge of 1796. At a brick nobles, it led to Magna Carta and Parliament yet the
headwall there was a further lock to the river, city was Royalist in the Civil War. Oxford was Charles
Armchair Weir, but it had only a single gate I’s headquarters and Cromwell and Hitler both planned
and was wasteful of water. Crossing Castle to make it their capitals. It was the last city to fall to
Mill Stream, it is possible to proceed up the Cromwell. The students cheered 13 year old Princess
Sheepwash Channel to the River Thames or Victoria and her party here. In 1996 the prison was
Isis at Four Rivers opposite the Tumbling Bay converted to a more welcoming hotel and shopping
bathing place, which could be restored. It was centre. In the 19th century a young woman hanged here
a male-only bathing place which, of course, for child murder survived the experience.
did not involve bathing costumes. Water The university was in existence by 1096, the oldest
in the English speaking world. The oldest of the 35
colleges dates from 1249. The colleges were heated by
Moira coal, brought via the Ashby Canal. In his English
Hours Henry James was invited to a Commemoration in
the Sheldonian and thought Oxford the finest thing in
England but noted the students were only there for half
the year. Designed by Christopher Wren for Chancellor
Gilbert Sheldon, the 1669 Sheldonian Theatre can seat
2,000 and has been used by Parliament.
Dr Arnold was less enthusiastic and ‘would rather send
a boy to Van Dieman’s Land, where he must work for his
The Sheepwash Channel with the railway bridge fixed open. bread, than send him to Oxford to live in luxury, without
any desire in his mind to avail himself of his advantages.’
Oxford aesthetes were referred to as sewers by Uncle
Matthew in Nancy Mitford’s partly autobiographical The
Pursuit of Love, which makes frequent reference to the
city. Oxford has the second youngest population in the
UK, average age 34.4.
Balliol College, founded in 1263 by John Balliol as

Central Oxford with its colleges.

44

Canals of Britain 1-70.indd 44 24/08/2022 15:11

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