Birmingham and Worcester Canal
The Birmingham & Worcester
Canal was cut between 1792 and 1815. It connects the River Severn at
Worcester to Gas Street Basin in Birmingham.
The canal is 30 miles long. A seven mile section, between Wast Hill Tunnel in Kings Norton and Gas Street Basin, runs through Birmingham.
If you were to travel northwards along the Birmingham and Worcester Canal from Wast Hill Tunnel to Gas Street Basin, you would pass the following landmarks:
The Birmingham and Worcester Canal enters Birmingham from Wast Hill Tunnel which was completed in 1797. At 1.55 miles, it is the 12th longest tunnel in the UK.
The tunnel carries the Birmingham and Worcester Canal beneath a hilly ridge from rural Worcestershire to Primrose Hill in the Three Estates area of Kings Norton.
The tunnel contains several ventilation shafts drilled through the surrounding landscape which has been distorted by excavation mounds.
The northern portal at Primrose Hill features an elliptical brick wall with a voussoir arch and keystone beneath a stone band and tablet. The tablet contains a badly-weathered, and now illegible, inscription.
From Wast Hill Tunnel, the canal continues northwards for half a mile before arriving at Kings Norton Junction in Lifford
where it is joined by the Birmingham and Stratford Canal.
Kings Norton Junction features a roving bridge (circa 1800) with a broad elliptical arch that was built in brick with stone-coped parapets. The bridge enabled barge horses to cross between towpaths.
Kings Norton Toll House
Kings Norton Junction also possesses a red-brick two-storey tollhouse with stone dressings (circa 1802). The main entrance, which faces the Birmingham and Worcester Canal, features a Doric column entablature.
A reproduction of a freight charge notice (circa 1793) is attached to the tollhouse wall. The charge for lime was one halfpenny per ton per mile and for finished goods, one penny and three farthings per ton per mile.
More about the Birmingham and Stratford Canal
The Stratford Canal connects the River Avon at Bancroft Basin in Stratford with the Birmingham and Worcester Canal at Kings Norton Junction in Birmingham.
The canal was constructed between 1793 and 1816; it is 29.3 miles long; 4 miles runs through south Birmingham.
Travelling westwards, the canal enters Birmingham in Yardley Wood and passes beneath Yardley Wood Road and Warstock Lane; it then skirts Cocks Moors Woods Golf Club and the Limekiln Road Industrial Estate, passes Monyhull Hospital and enters Brandwood Tunnel.
Brandwood
Tunnel is 0.8 miles east
of Kings Norton Junction. The tunnel, which is 0.2 miles long, was built
by Josiah Clowes in 1791. It carries the
Birmingham and Stratford Canal beneath Shelfield Road and Brandwood Road.
The west portal features a voussoir elliptical arch and weathered bust of William Shakespeare flanked by two empty niches. It is broad enough for two narrowboats to pass side-by-side. There is no towpath.
After emerging from the Brandwood Tunnel, the canal meanders westwards for three-quarters of a mile before reaching the Lifford Lane Guillotine Stop Lock.
Links: Guide Brandwood
Lifford Lane Guillotine Stop Lock
The Lifford Lane Guillotine Stop Lock is by Lifford Lane bridge on the Birmingham and Stratford Canal, 200 metres west of Kings Norton Junction. The lock consists of a pound between two vertical (guillotine) gates that are raised and lowered by an overhead winch.
The stop lock was installed in 1815 to prevent the drainage of valuable water between the Birmingham and Stratford Canal and the Birmingham and Worcester Canal.
Links: Guide Lifford
Back to the Birmingham and Worcester Canal
Lifford Reservoir (1815) was dug next to Kings Norton Junction by the Birmingham and Worcester Canal Company to compensate Lifford Mill, powered by the River Rea, for the loss of valuable water that drained into the canal.
Links:
Guide LiffordAfter passing Kings Norton Junction, the canal continues northwards.
It crosses beneath Camp Hill Railway and the Pershore Road (A441) and then follows the Cross-City Railway into Bournville.
In Bournville, the canal runs alongside Bournville Railway Station, which is painted in dairy milk purple, and travels past the Cadbury chocolate factory.
Links:
BournvilleFrom Cadbury's, the canal continues northwards under Bournville Lane and then runs alongside the cross-city railway into Selly Oak where it passes under Raddlebarn Lane next to Selly Oak Hospital.
It then passes beneath a railway bridge, switching from the east to the west side of the tracks, before reaching the Bristol Road (A38).
The canal travels under the Bristol Road near Selly Oak Railway Station and then continues northwards towards the Battery Works.
Links:
Selly OakThere was once a canal junction next to the Battery Works at Selly Oak, where the Lapal Canal (aka Dudley No.2 canal) joined the Birmingham and Worcester Canal.
This junction allowed Black Country freight to reach south-west England without passing through central Birmingham.
The Lapal Canal was backfilled in 1917. Nothing remains of the junction and the site is now part of the Battery Retail Park.
Links: Selly Oak
More about the Lapal Canal
The Lapal Canal was completed in 1798. The 11 mile route connected the Dudley Canal at Netherton to the Birmingham and Worcester Canal at Selly Oak.
This route had to negotiate an elevated plateau at Woodgate and rather than install locks, the engineers drilled a 2.2-mile tunnel: the fourth longest in the UK.
This tunnel, however, was structurally unsound and continually collapsed. It was eventually closed in 1917. Parts of the canal have been restored, but restoration of the entire route is problematical because of the tunnel.
Links: Guide Woodgate Lapal Canal Project Website
Back to the Birmingham and Worcester Canal
Heading north-eastwards from the former site of Selly Oak Junction, the Birmingham and Worcester Canal passes beneath the Cross-City Railway (yet again) at the Battery Retail Park, switching back from the west to the eastern side of the tracks.
From the Battery Retail Park, the canal skirts the western side of the Edgbaston campus of Birmingham University before reaching Birmingham Research Park. It then passes under Pritchatts Road and travels along the western boundary of the Vale Student Village.
Links: University & Environs
After the Vale Student Village, the canal continues in a northerly direction through the 96-metre Edgbaston Tunnel which carries it beneath Church Road in Calthorpe.
There are in fact two tunnels: one for the railway and one for the canal.
The canal tunnel has a towpath with handrail and sodium lights; it is famous for eerie echoes and winter icicles.
Links: Calthorpe
The canal then continues on the eastern side of the cross-city line to Five Ways Railway Station; it then passes beneath Islington Row Middleway (A4540) and Bath Row before entering the Convention Quarter.
The canal runs through the Convention Quarter on the east side of the cross city railway.
It passes the shops, offices, apartments and eateries of Granville Wharf and then travels beneath Granville Street before reaching the Cube and making a sharp ninety degree turn at the Mailbox.
Links: Guide Convention Quarter
The Cube is on the Birmingham and Worcester Canal next to the Mailbox; its main entrance faces Commercial Street.
The Cube is a 70-metre cuboid tower clad in golden anodised aluminium with a central atrium and low-level restaurants, shops & cafes. The upper floors contain offices and 135 residential apartments.
The roof features a two-storey angular crown with a restaurant and boutique hotel.
Links: Guide Convention Quarter
The Mailbox stands next to the Cube on the Birmingham and Worcester Canal at the point where the canal makes a sharp ninety degree turn towards Gas Street Basin. The main entrance is a public square off Suffolk Street Queensway.
The site was previously occupied by the largest sorting office in the UK with a floor area of twenty acres and a private tunnel to New Street Station.
This sorting office was demolished in the 1990's and a new development built on its steel substructure which includes boutiques, bars, offices, restaurants, apartments, art galleries, two hotels, radio and television studios.
The retail and leisure units are mainly on Wharfside Street alongside the canal.
Links: Guide Convention Quarter Mailbox Website
After making a sharp ninety degree turn at the Mailbox, the canal travels through an aqueduct above the cross city railway before reaching Holliday Street.
This aqueduct carries the Birmingham and Worcester Canal above Holliday Street. From Holliday Street, the canal continues westwards into Gas Street Basin.
The two canals meet at the Worcester Bar which is 75 metres long and 2.25 metres wide.
The bar was built to prevent water transference between the Birmingham and Worcester Canal on its east side and the Birmingham and Wolverhampton Canal on its west side.
Freight had to be physically carried across the bar until a lock was inserted in 1815.
The bar is now a mooring for houseboats; it is linked to Gas Street by a replica of an iron footbridge (1793) cast by the Horseley Ironworks. The brick wall and ramps that lead from Gas Street to the canal basin date from 1802; they are grade 2 listed.
Gas Street Basin contains a traditional canalside pub: the Tap and Spile. It is barely 200 metres along the towpaths from the Mailbox in one direction and Broad Street, Brindleyplace and the ICC in the other.
Links: Birmingham and Wolverhampton Canal Birmingham and Worcester Canal
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