The Canals of and From Birmingham

Success of JAMES BRINDLEY's Bridgewater Canal 1761, carrying coal from Worsley mines to Manchester, Manufacturers of Birmingham saw two-fold function of proposed canal - to bring coal more cheaply from the Black Country, and to provide a water route for their products via an extension to the Staffs. and Worcs. Canal. Act passed in 1768, Brindley as surveyor and engineer, Birmingham Canal Navigation Co. formed with offices opposite Paradise Street. First boat-load of Wednesbury coal arrived Cambrian Wharf, Nov.1769, price of coal halved.

BIRMINGHAM CANAL NAVIGATION. A contour canal, winding round valley heads, soon built, no proper towpath. Small cuts and banks, 6 locks each side of Smethwick summit level fed by lake opposite Victoria Park. Narrow locks to save water, sharp bends, 22 miles to S. & W. Junction at Aldersley. Indirect access to Severn, Mersey and Trent via Brindley's 'Silver Cross', not complete until 1790. STAFFS & WORCS. from new port, Stourport on Severn, to TRENT & MERSEY at Great Haywood: T. & M. to Junction at Fradley, COVENTRY CANAL to Junction at Braunston, OXFORD CANAL to Thames. More direct waterways to Severn and Thames: WORCESTER CANAL, 1791-1815, WARWICK CANAL 1793-99, STRATFORD CANAL 1793-1816.

Much opposition to Worcester Canal from mill-owners, packhorse carriers, S. & W. Canal Co. No direct link with B.C.N. - Worcester Bar. No wharves or access in Edgbaston. Wychall Reservoir, compensation water. Upper Rea crossing. West Hill tunnel, Bittell Reservoirs, 56 locks to Severn. Rural route, small income, never profitable. Warwick Canal a client of B.C.N., junction with its Digbeth Branch near Fazeley Street Basin. Cost 4 times estimate due to Napoleonic War, but had a through route to London, links with other waterways, so was successful. Lock flight from Rea valley, summit level to Knowle. Stratford Canal, obliged to be a client of the Worc. and Wark. Canals which it joined. Junctions at Kings Norton and Kingswood Gap. Long delays in completion, branches never made. Bancroft Basins at Stratford, links with Moreton-In-Marsh (Horse) Railway and Avon Navigation. Rural route, some transit traffic but never profitable. Coal, stone, lime, corn. Flyboat services on summit levels. Warwick Canal Reservoir at Olton, Stratford Canal Reservoirs at Earlswood and Kingswood.

32.1. Map 20a

FAZELEY CANAL begun 1783, linking Birmingham to Coventry Canal, Junction at Fazeley: Newhall Brook valley, Hockley Brook valley, Tame aqueduct at Salford. Separate Co., joined B.C.N. Digbeth Branch Canal 1790, basin in Rea valley, all parts of town within ½ mile of a waterway. Brindley Cut always short of water: Titford Pools and feeder, c.1775. Boulton & Watt pumping engine at foot of Smethwick locks, '78. John Smeaton lowered the Brindley summit level 18 feet, 3 locks only on each side, double channel provided on B'ham side 1790. Ever growing traffic and delays - slumping banks, no towpath, shallows. Thomas Telford called in, 1824, to improve the 'crooked ditch': new 40 feet- wide waterway, two shored towpaths, cutting across Brindley's loops, keeping level by great banks and cuts, removing Smethwick summit altogether. Galton Bridge 70 feet above water at deepest point of cutting. Distance to S. & W. Junction reduced to 14 direct lock-free miles, 1838. Rotton Park Reservoir, 80 acres, made 1825-7 to supply B.C.N. Earthen dam below confluence of three brooks, Roach Pool drowned. New pools at Titford 1835-7 to replenish Reservoir by feeder. B.C.N. very successful, 550 wharves, many branches to mines and works. Amalgamation with Walsall and Dudley Companies, co-operation with L. to B. Railway Co. in building Stour Valley Line: canals as short-haul feeder lines to railside wharves from 1852. Continued success until Black Country coal and ore exhausted, 1890's Drastic decline since, many loops and branches filled in. Soho Loop, Soho Branch, Hockley Port derelict.

DUDLEY CANAL BRANCH to Worcester Canal at Selly Oak via Lappal Tunnel 1798. B.C.N. bypassed, Worcester Bar opened as counter-measure: Tunnel closed 1926, branch infilled. Stratford Canal south of Kingswood Junction derelict postwar, restored by National Trust early 1960's. Grand Union Canal Co. formed 1929, including Warwick Canal. Improvements, new lock flights, wartime revival, slump since. Worcester Canal long insolvent, some pleasure traffic postwar.

Last Canals. BIRMINGHAM & WARWICK JUNCTION CANAL 1844, Bordesley to Salford, bypassing town locks and congestion. TAME VALLEY CANAL 1846, Salford to Wednesbury. Central Birmingham wharves: Old Wharves between Broad Street and Holliday Street 1771. Newhall Wharves on Newhall Branch 1772. Crescent Wharf on Fazeley Canal, New Wharves on site of Hall of Memory Gardens - branch from Crescent Wharf, 1812-21.