Birmingham and Fazeley Canal
Birmingham and Fazeley Canal | |
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Specifications | |
Locks | 44 |
Status | Navigable |
Navigation authority | Canal & River Trust |
History | |
Original owner | Birmingham and Fazeley Canal Company |
Principal engineer | John Smeaton |
Date of act | 1784 |
Date completed | 1789 |
Geography | |
Start point | Fazeley Jn, Coventry Canal |
End point | Old Turn Jn, BCN Main Line |
Connects to | BCN Main Line, Coventry Canal, Grand Union Canal, Tame Valley Canal |
The Birmingham and Fazeley Canal is a canal of the Birmingham Canal Navigations in the West Midlands of England. Its purpose was to provide a link between the Coventry Canal and Birmingham and thereby connect Birmingham to London via the Oxford Canal.[1]
History
The story of the Birmingham and Fazeley begins in 1770, when the Birmingham Canal Company was seen as having a monopoly. At the time, the coalfields at Walsall did not have canal access, and a public meeting was held at Lichfield on 18 August to discuss an independent link from Walsall to Fradley Junction on the Trent and Mersey Canal, passing through Lichfield. Opposition from local landowners resulted in the plan being shelved, but a further plan was proposed at a meeting held in Warwick in August 1781, for a canal to run from Wednesbury through Fazeley to Atherstone, which was the end of the Coventry Canal at the time. The plans were changed somewhat in October, but shareholders in the Birmingham Canal saw it as a serious threat.[2][3]
Birmingham and Fazeley Canal Act 1784 | |
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Act of Parliament | |
Dates | |
Royal assent | 16 July 1784 |
Two bills were put before Parliament in 1782, one for the Birmingham and Fazeley, and a rival one from the Birmingham Canal for a branch from Wednesbury to Walsall. Both sides opposed the other's proposal, and both bills were defeated.[4]
The promoters then opened negotiations with other canal companies, to ensure that when the canal was built, it would be part of a larger network. In 1782, they obtained an agreement from the Oxford Canal Company that they would complete the route to the River Thames at Oxford, one from the Coventry Canal that they would extend their canal from Atherstone to Fazeley, and agreed that they would complete the Coventry Canal's route from Fazeley as far as Whittington, as the Coventry Canal company could not finance the whole route. The Trent and Mersey would finish that link by building the remainder of the route to Fradley Junction.
The company stopped paying Pinkerton in late 1788, as the costs were exceeding the original estimates, and the contract was taken away from them in February 1789. There was then a financial dispute over money which had been paid to Pinkerton as "extras", but which the company then claimed were overpayments. Some £2,750 was at issue, and the case rumbled on for a decade, until a court case in 1801 gave him only £436 of the claim. Unhappy with the outcome, Pinkerton justified his position, but his remarks about John Houghton, the Company Clerk, were deemed to be libellous, for which he was fined and spent some time in prison.[8]
The canal was completed in August 1789.[7] The benefits of the co-operation with the other canal companies were that when all the links were completed in 1790, it immediately generated a great deal of freight traffic. This created problems, as the flights of locks at Aston and Farmer's Bridge became congested, and this became worse when the Warwick Canal built a junction onto the Digbeth Branch. The problem was not solved until 1844, when the Birmingham and Warwick Junction Canal to the south east and the Tame Valley Canal to the north west were opened.[5] The name of the Birmingham & Birmingham & Fazeley Canal Company was changed to Birmingham Canal Navigations in 1794.[9]
In 2019, the Canal & River Trust announced that repair works had started on two locks at Farmer's Bridge Locks as part of a wider £2.5 million programme of repairs across the West Midlands.[10]
In 2022, work started on the "Scotland Works" site opposite Lock 1 of Farmer's Bridge Locks, a former glassworks that is being redeveloped into residential apartments named Lockside Wharf by Consortia Developments and Joseph Mews Property Group.[11] Lockside Wharf will comprise 61 apartments and is currently under construction.[12]
Route
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The canal is now regarded as running from the
Below the junction there are another 11 locks, which form the Aston flight. Holborn Hill bridge carries the railway to Aston station over the canal, just before the bottom lock of the flight is reached. At Salford Junction, the
The 5.5-mile (8.9 km) stretch which extends northwards beyond Fazeley Junction to
Historically the canal started at Farmer's Bridge Top Lock (the real Farmer's Bridge Junction), where it met the already existing Birmingham Canal Newhall Branch. That branch has now been built over, with only Cambrian Wharf surviving.
The Birmingham and Fazeley Canal forms part of the Warwickshire ring.
Features
At Common lock 10, on the lower lock tail, an inscription can be found in the stonework. It reads: "Pax Missa Per Orbem, Pax Quaeritur Bello", which translates as "Peace Is Sent Throughout The World, Peace Is Sought Through War". The inscription comes from two coins, the first part from the Queen Ann Farthing, and the second part from the Cromwell Broad.[16]
Gallery
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Part of the Farmer's Bridge flight looking towards theBT tower
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Underneath Brindley House, part of the BT Tower complex
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Farmer's Bridge Lock 9 and extended pound, running through two arches of the Newhall Street bridge in central Birmingham. There is a lock gate on either side of the road.
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The Drayton swing bridge
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The termination of the authorised Birmingham and Fazeley Canal under the Watling Street Bridge at Fazeley
See also
Bibliography
- Hadfield, Charles (1985). The Canals of the West Midlands. David and Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-8644-6.
- ISBN 978-0-00-721111-1.
- Pearson, Michael (1989). Canal Companion – Birmingham Canal Navigations. J. M. Pearson & Associates. ISBN 978-0-907864-49-3.
- Rolt, L.T.C. (1985). Navigable Waterways. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-007622-6.
- Skempton, Sir Alec; et al. (2002). A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland: Vol 1: 1500 to 1830. Thomas Telford. ISBN 978-0-7277-2939-2.
References
- ^ Rolt 1985.
- ^ Hadfield 1985, p. 70.
- ^ Hadfield 1985, pp. 70–73
- ^ Hadfield 1985, p. 71.
- ^ a b Nicholson 2006, p. 35.
- ^ Hadfield 1985, pp. 71–72.
- ^ a b c Hadfield 1985, p. 72.
- ^ a b c Skempton 2002, pp. 527–528.
- ^ Hadfield 1985, p. 73.
- ^ "Works to repair famous Farmer's Bridge Flight locks start in Central Birmingham | Canal & River Trust". canalrivertrust.org.uk. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
- ^ "Property investment group brought on board for Lockside Wharf scheme | TheBusinessDesk.com". West Midlands. 7 February 2022. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
- ^ "Lockside Wharf | Birmingham Investment". Joseph Mews. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
- ^ Nicholson 2006, pp. 36–37.
- ^ Nicholson 2006, pp. 36–41.
- ^ "Coventry Canal". Canal and River Trust. Archived from the original on 18 September 2020. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
- ^ "Legends & Inscriptions on British Coins (Starting with "P")". Chard (1964) Ltd, Jewellers. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011.
External links
Media related to Birmingham and Fazeley Canal at Wikimedia Commons