21-619: The Walsall Canal is a narrow (7 feet or 2.1 metres) canal, seven miles (11 km) long, forming part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations , and passing around the western side of Walsall , West Midlands , England . The canal runs from Ryders Green Junction where it meets the Wednesbury Old Canal and immediately drops through the eight Ryders Green Locks to the 408-foot (124 m) Walsall Level . At Doe Bank Junction (Tame Valley Junction) it meets
42-682: Is a network of canals connecting Birmingham , Wolverhampton , and the eastern part of the Black Country . The BCN is connected to the rest of the English canal system at several junctions. It was owned and operated by the Birmingham Canal Navigation Company from 1767 to 1948. At its working peak, the BCN contained about 160 miles (257 km) of canals; today just over 100 miles (160 km) are navigable, and
63-675: The Birmingham Canal Navigations Act 1835 ( 5 & 6 Will. 4 . c. xxxiv). From 1839 to 1843 the Tame Valley Canal was built, along with the Bentley, Rushall and Walsall Junction Canals opening up the Cannock Chase and Wyrley coal districts to the town of Birmingham at a cost upwards of £570,000 (equivalent to £70,680,000 in 2023). The Wyrley and Essington Canal was incorporated by
84-873: The Birmingham Canal Navigation Act 1792 which authorized the line from Wolverhampton to Sneyd Junction and Walsall. The extension to Huddlesford and the Lord Hay and Daw End branches were constructed under the Birmingham Canal Navigation Act 1794 ( 34 Geo. 3 . c. 87). This amalgamated with the Birmingham Canal Navigations in 1840. In 1855, the Cannock Extension Canal and the Wyrley Bank Branch were added to
105-740: The Dudley Canal Act 1785 ( 25 Geo. 3 . c. 87), and the extension from Parkhead to Selly Oak Junction with the Oxford and Birmingham Canal, including the Gorsty Hill and Lappal Tunnels under the Selly Oak Canal Act 1793 ( 33 Geo. 3 . c. 121). This canal became part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations in 1846 under the London and Birmingham Railway and Birmingham Canal Arrangement Act 1846 ( 9 & 10 Vict. c. ccxliv). It
126-630: The Patent Shaft factory (these gates have now been resited to a traffic island by the bus station in Wednesbury). It then passes the short Anson Branch (which once led to the Bentley Canal , abandoned 1961) and under the M6 motorway just south of junction 10. The very short Walsall Town Arm at Walsall Junction leads into Walsall itself while the main canal rises through eight locks to meet
147-665: The Tame Valley Canal and the very short Ocker Hill Tunnel Branch, now private moorings, which fed water to the Ocker Hill pumps to replenish the Wolverhampton Level . It passes northwards, past the junction of the derelict Gospel Oak Branch and under the West Midlands Metro line, and passes the short Bradley Branch at Moorcroft Junction. In this area it passes the site of huge iron gates of
168-773: The Wyrley & Essington Canal at Birchills Junction . The canal starts at the Birmingham Level , descends 45 feet (14 m) to the Walsall Level, then rises 65 feet (20 m) to the Wolverhampton Level . The canal was built in four distinct stages. It started life as the Broadwaters Extension to the Wednesbury Canal which opened in 1785 to serve collieries in Moxley . This section
189-737: The Birchills Branch as a stub.) What was by then known as the Birmingham and Birmingham and Fazeley Canal Company (soon to be incorporated as the Birmingham Canal Navigations Company) was authorised by the combined company's sixth Act of Parliament on 17 April 1794 to extend the canal from Broadwaters to Walsall. It allowed the Company to borrow £45,000, with which to construct the canal to Walsall and three branches to serve iron-stone and coal mines in
210-493: The Coseley Tunnel was constructed, which with a length of 1.75 miles (2.82 km), avoided a detour around Tipton Hill of 4 miles (6.4 km). Between 1825 and 1829 the canal was improved by the cutting down by 16 feet (4.9 m) of the summit at Smethwick, which occupied two and a half years, and cost £560,000 (equivalent to £62,250,000 in 2023), and by cutting off bends and erecting steam engines which reduced
231-750: The Wyrley and Essington Canal's Birchills Branch was of concern to businessmen to the north of Walsall, whose access to the south was by a very circuitous route. An independent canal to link the two was planned, but in 1839 the BCN agreed to build a connection. The Walsall Junction Canal was completed in March 1841, its 0.6 miles (0.97 km) containing eight locks and completing the through route. From north to south: Download coordinates as: 52°35′05″N 1°59′34″W / 52.5848°N 1.9928°W / 52.5848; -1.9928 Birmingham Canal Navigations Birmingham Canal Navigations ( BCN )
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#1732791726294252-767: The area was the Birmingham Canal, authorized by the Birmingham Canal Navigation Act 1768 ( 8 Geo. 3 . c. 38) and built from 1768 to 1772 under the supervision of James Brindley from the, then, edge of Birmingham, with termini at Newhall Wharf (since built over) and Paradise Wharf (also known as Old Wharf) near to Gas Street Basin to meet the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal at Aldersley (north of Wolverhampton). It opened for business on 14 September 1772. The Birmingham Canal Navigation Act 1769 ( 9 Geo. 3 . c. 53)
273-620: The cost of haulage by 4d. per ton. Between 1825 and 1837 the navigation was improved between Spon Lane, Deepfield and Wolverhampton, saving a distance of six miles, which reduced the toll on coal by 9d per ton. At the same time the Titford Canal was constructed at a cost upwards of £200,000 (equivalent to £22,960,000 in 2023). The junction with the Warwick and Birmingham Canal was made under powers of an act of 1815 ( 55 Geo. 3 . c. xl). These improvements were all consolidated under
294-477: The locality, all to be completed within three years. Construction began at Broadwaters and reached Darlaston by May 1798. The second phase of construction began in April 1798: excavation was completed in 1799 but the job remained unfinished in 1800. The canal was mapped by John Snape (1737–1816) in 1808 and this was to be his last known map. The small gap between the Birmingham Canal Navigations line to Walsall and
315-631: The majority of traffic is from tourist and residential narrowboats . The earliest mention of the Birmingham Canal Navigation appears in Aris's Birmingham Gazette on 11 April 1768. Here it was reported that on 25 March 1768, the first general assembly of the Company of Proprietors of the Birmingham Canal Navigation was held at the Swann Inn, Birmingham, to raise funds to submit for an act of Parliament. The first canal to be built in
336-602: The network at a cost upwards of £100,000 (equivalent to £11,800,000 in 2023). From 1855 to 1858 the Netherton Tunnel and other improvements cost the company upwards of £350,000 (equivalent to £44,490,000 in 2023). In 1776, the Dudley Canal was authorized from Parkhead to the junction with the Stourbridge Canal. The Parkhead to Tipton Green section including Dudley Tunnel was made under
357-531: The network. There are also stretches on their own levels. The BCN Society is a registered charity (number 1091760) formed in 1968, which exists to conserve, improve and encourage a wide range of interests in the BCN. It publishes a quarterly journal. Boundary Post . From 1983, it erected signposts at most of the canal junctions on the BCN. 52°28′39″N 1°54′32″W / 52.4776°N 1.9088°W / 52.4776; -1.9088 Black Country Too Many Requests If you report this error to
378-463: Was authorised as a detached part of the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal under that canal's original Act. Meanwhile from the other direction, the Birchills Branch of the Wyrley and Essington Canal reached Bloxwich Wharf to the north-west of Walsall by 1798. (Much of this branch from Sneyd Junction was later subsumed into the new mainline of the Wyrley and Essington, when that canal was extended towards Huddlesford, leaving about 700 metres (2,300 ft) of
399-478: Was obtained to construct the canal through a detached portion of the county of Shropshire, near Oldbury, and it included powers to make reservoirs anywhere within 3 miles between Smethwick and Oldbury. The Birmingham and Fazeley Canal , from Birmingham to Tamworth, followed in 1784 with the Birmingham Canal Company merging with the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal Company immediately, to form what
420-579: Was originally called the Birmingham and Birmingham and Fazeley Canal Company . This cumbersome name was short-lived, and the combined company became incorporated as the Birmingham Canal Navigations Company from 1794, as the network was expanded. The Birmingham Canal Navigation Act 1794 ( 34 Geo. 3 . c. 87) authorized the extension from Broadwater to Walsall, and the short cut between Bloomfield and Deepfield, where
441-579: Was re-established as a body corporate on 17 June 1835. It was taken over by the London and Birmingham Railway in 1846, and subsequently owned by the London and North Western Railway , then the London, Midland and Scottish Railway until 1 January 1948 when was it passed to the British Transport Commission . The BCN is built on three main levels, each with its own reservoir . These levels are linked by locks at various places on
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