Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal

v t e Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal
Legend
Great Haywood Jn Trent and Mersey Canal River Trent aqueduct 43 Tixall Lock River Sow aqueduct Baswich Lock and weir River Sow Navigation Stafford wharf Railway bridge 98  A34  Radford Bridge Hazlestrine Branch 40-42 locks (3)  M6  39 Longford Lock 38 Penkridge Lock 37 Filance Lock, Penkridge 33-36 locks (4) 79  A5  Gailey Bridge 32 Gailey Top Lock Hatherton Branch (feeder) Railway bridge Coven Village 70  A449  Brinsford Bridge  M54  Autherley Jn Shropshire Union Canal Railway bridge Aldersley Jn BCN Main Line Dunstall Water Bridge 62  A41  Tettenhall New Bridge Summit pound (10 miles) 31 Compton Lock 59  A454  Compton Bridge 29-30 Wightwick locks (2) The Pool resr. and feeder 27-28 Dimmingdale + Ebstree locks (2) 26 Awbridge Lock 23-25 Bratch locks (3) 22 Bumblehole Lock, Wombourne 20-21 Botterham staircase locks (2) 17-19 Marsh/Swindon/Hinksford locks (3) 16 Greenforge Lock Ashwood marina + former Earl of Dudley's Railway 15 Rocky Lock 14 Gothersley Lock Stourton Jn Stourbridge Canal 13 Stewponey Lock 31A  A458  Stewponey New Bridge Dunsley Tunnel (25 yd) 12 Hyde Lock 11 Kinver Lock, Dunsley 10 Whittington Lock Cookley Tunnel (65 yd) 9 Debdale Lock 8 Wolverley Lock 7 Wolverley Court Lock River Stour aqueduct 6 Kidderminster Lock 16  A456  St Marys Ringway 13  A442  Round Hill bridge 5 Caldwall Lock Severn Valley Railway 4 Falling Sands Lock lock to River Stour Wilden Ironworks Railway Basin railway bridge 6  A451  Gilgal bridge 5  A451  Lower Mitton bridge 3 York Street Lock, Stourport Stourport basins 2 Narrow staircase + broad lock Stourport basins 1 Narrow staircase + broad lock River Severn

The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal is a navigable narrow

James Brindley^[1] was the chief engineer of the canal, which was part of his "Grand Cross" plan for waterways connecting the major ports at Hull (via the Trent), Liverpool (via the Mersey), Bristol (via the Severn) and London (via the Thames).

Severn and Trent Canal Act 1766
Act of Parliament
6 Geo. 3. c. 97
Dates
Royal assent	14 May 1766

The

Development

United Kingdom legislation

Severn Navigation Act 1790
Act of Parliament
30 Geo. 3. c. 75
Dates
Royal assent	9 June 1790

The company obtained a second Act of Parliament (

Trade declined when the newer Worcester and Birmingham Canal was opened in 1815, providing a more direct route between Birmingham and Bristol. To remain competitive, the company increased the hours when locks could be used, and by 1830 they were available 24 hours a day. Another setback occurred when the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal opened its new route to Chester and Merseyside, meeting the canal at Autherley Junction. This took much of the traffic from the section to Great Haywood. Faced with a high volume of trade using the 1⁄2-mile (800 m) stretch between Aldersley and Autherley Junctions, the company levied very high tolls.^[1]

In order to resolve the situation the Birmingham Canal Company and the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Company jointly promoted an

Despite the competition, and later competition from the railways, the canal company paid dividends to its shareholders until nationalisation,[4] although profits fell steadily from the 1860s. It remained independent until the Transport Act 1947 nationalised Britain's canals on 1 January 1948.^[1] In its latter years the major trade was in coal from Cannock to a power station at Stourport. The power station closed in 1949, and after that, the only commercial traffic was on the stretch between Autherley and Aldersley Junctions.^[5]

Restoration

In 1959 the British Transport Commission planned to close the canal but it was saved by a volunteer group, the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal Society. In 1968 the canal was reclassified as a cruiseway, and the following year all of it was declared a Conservation Area. This has resulted in historical buildings and structures being retained and improved sympathetically.^[5]

Course

A strategic link

The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal links two of southern Britain's largest river catchments:

• The
  Humber Estuary
  ,
• The Severn catchment, which drains a large area of north and central Wales, as well as much of the West Midlands, and drains ultimately into the Celtic Sea via the Bristol Channel.

The canal was a major north–south route for the west of England, linking other canals to create a network running:

• via the Trent and Mersey Canal, to Stoke-on-Trent, to the northwest of England (Lancashire and Cheshire) and to the East Midlands,
• via the BCN Main Line and the Stourbridge Canal to the Black Country and Birmingham,
• via the Shropshire Union Canal to Chester and north Wales.

The canal essentially follows river valleys, shadowing the course of tributaries, to break through the watershed between the Trent and Severn north-west of Wolverhampton, at the Aldersley Gap, a minor glacial feature turned to advantage by Brindley.

Within the Trent catchment

The northern starting point of the canal at Great Haywood, its junction with the Trent and Mersey Canal, is only about 330 yards (300 m) from the confluence of the River Sow with the Trent. The canal runs west through Tixall Wide and along the Sow valley, closely following the river, to Weeping Cross, on the south east edge of Stafford, the confluence of the River Penk with the Sow. The canal then swings at right angles to the south, taking up the course of the Penk.

It then runs via Acton Trussell and Penkridge to Calf Heath, where it is joined by the now-derelict Hatherton Canal. Continuing south via Coven, it begins to bear away from the Penk, which has its source at Perton, well to the west of the canal. The canal enters north-west Wolverhampton. Here it is joined, in rapid succession, by the Shropshire Union Canal at Autherley Junction and the BCN Main Line at Aldersley Junction.

Within the Severn catchment

South of Aldersley, the canal begins to shadow the

The confluence of Smestow and Stour is paralleled closely by the junction of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire with the Stourbridge Canal, which descends through the Stour valley to Stourton. Southward from this point, the canal is cut through very steep sandstone banks and passes through a tunnel at Dunsley all the way closely following the river while slicing across its many meanders. Running through Kinver, Caunsall, Cookley and Wolverley, it serves a series of wharves in the old industrial town of Kidderminster. Finally it reaches its end in a complex of wharves and basins in the canal town of Stourport-on-Severn, where it descends steeply to the river through two sets of locks.

Map

Gallery

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal.

• 
  Bridge 105: a changeline bridge near Milford.
• 
  Hatherton Junction, the meeting of the Hatherton Canal (behind camera) and the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal (left and right) at Calf Heath, Staffordshire.
• 
  Pendeford Rockin' or 'The Narrows', here the canal is a narrow cutting through an outcrop of

  Keuper Sandstone either side of the Forster Bridge at Pendeford

  .
• 
  Toll houses at Autherley Junction, where the Shropshire Union Canal terminates and meets the canal.
• 
  Aldersley Junction: the bottom lock of the Wolverhampton flight of the BCN Main Line is visible through the roving bridge
• 
  The Dunstall Water Bridge carries the Smestow Brook over the canal.
• 
  The Dunstall water Bridge viewed from the canal side.
• 
  The "Meccano Bridge", a steel truss structure carrying the Wolverhampton Railway Walk (the former

  Wombourne Branch Line

  ) over the canal in Smestow Valley Local Nature Reserve, Wolverhampton.
• 
  Part of the Bratch Locks at Wombourne.
• 
  Toll House

  and upper bridge at the Bratch Locks.
• 
  Hinksford Wharf, one of several important mooring places on this section of the canal.
• 
  Bridge and pumping station at Hinksford.
• 
  Marina in the canal basin at Ashwood, Staffordshire.
• 
  Sandstone aqueduct, carrying the canal over the River Stour, near Prestwood.
• 
  Lake off the canal, near Prestwood, north of Stourton.
• 
  Steep cutting and workings in sandstone, north of Stourton.
• 
  Stourton Junction: the Stourbridge Canal descends through locks to meet the Staffordshire and Worcestershire.
• 
  The old toll house at Stewponey Lock.
• 
  West portal of the 23-yard (21 m) Dunsley Tunnel, between Stourton and Kinver.
• 
  Upper basin at Stourport-on-Severn. The area around the basin underwent major restoration 2007-2009.
• 
  Broad lock connecting the canal with the River Severn at Stourport.
• 
  Narrow staircase locks connecting the canal with the River Severn at Stourport.

Linked canals

The canal is linked (in order, from the Severn) to:

• Stourbridge Canal at Stourton Junction
• BCN Main Line at Aldersley Junction
• Shropshire Union Canal at Autherley Junction
• Hatherton Canal, (currently derelict but with proposals for restoration) at Hatherton Junction

The canal today forms part of the Stourport Ring, which is one of the popular cruising rings for leisure boating. It is also part of the Four Counties Ring.

See also

• Thomas Dadford

References

Further reading

• Langford, J Ian (1974). Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. Towpath Guide. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Goose & Son.
  ISBN 0-900404-22-1
  .

• The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal Society
• Photograph of the River Trent aqueduct near to Great Haywood