There is one flight of six locks which adjust the level by roughly 11 metres so that barges may ascend from Warwick Bar to Aston Junction.

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The Warwick Bar is located at the junction of the Birmingham and Warwick Canal and the Digbeth Branch Canal off Fazeley Street in the Eastside area of central Birmingham.

The Warwick Bar prevented the drainage of water between the canals which were once owned by separate companies. A stop lock enables barges to cross the bar and pass between the canals.

The canopy of a red-brick Victorian warehouse (1840), formerly owned by the Geest banana company, overhangs the bar which is the centrepiece of the Warwick Bar Conservation Area.

From the Warwick Bar, the Digbeth Branch Canal runs north-westwards for barely 50 metres before arriving at Proof House Junction which connects Typhoo Wharf to the Digbeth Branch Canal.

The junction is named after the nearby Birmingham Proof House which tests and certifies firearms and ammunition on a one acre site at the east end of Banbury Street.

Barges tuning southwards at Proof House Junction will arrive at Typhoo Basin in Digbeth within barely 100 metres.

This basin is next to the former Typhoo Works which occupied a 2.5 acre site off Bordesley Street from 1896 until 1978.

The old factory buildings, which date from the 1930's, are being redeveloped as apartments.

Barges turning north at Proof House Junction will travel through Curzon Street Tunnel.

This tunnel carries the canal beneath Curzon Street Railway Junction where the West Coast Mainline and Cross City Railway meet,  roughly one mile east of New Street Station.

Ashted Bottom Lock (6) is on the north side of Curzon Street Tunnel. Locks 4 and 5 are between Curzon Street and this bridge on Belmont Row, 100 metres further north.

Lock 3 is next to Belmont Row Basin by the former site of a co-op furniture factory (1889) which closed in the 1980's and was gutted by fire in 2007.

From Belmont Row, the canal continues northwards for roughly 150 metres before passing through Ashted Tunnel which carries it beneath Jennens Road and into Aston Science Park next to the campus of Aston University.

Lock 2 of the Ashted Flight is on the south side of this tunnel.

From Ashted Tunnel, the canal continues through Aston Science Park, passing through the top lock (1) of the Ashted Flight on the north side of the tunnel.

The route then passes beneath Lister Street before the canal terminates at Aston Junction.

Aston Junction connects the Digbeth Branch Canal to the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal. It features a cast iron elliptical-arch roving bridge (1825) made by the Horseley Ironworks.

At Aston Junction, barges may turn westwards towards Newtown, the Jewellery Quarter and the Westside area of central Birmingham or eastwards towards Aston, Nechells and Salford Junction.