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The Worcester and Birmingham Canal

The Worcester and Birmingham Canal was built in stages between 1791 and 1815 to connect the River Severn in Worcester to the Birmingham Canal System using a quicker route than the earlier Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. Opposition from other canal companies meant that for twenty years there was no direct connection in Birmingham, the last two and a bit metres of canal there being left uncompleted in 1795. LinkExternal link

This lunacy was eventually resolved by an Act of Parliament in 1815 and a stop-lock constructed.

Grain, timber and agricultural produce were carried to the Midlands. Industrial goods and coal were carried down towards Worcester, often for onward transport to Bristol. Later, salt carrying was added as a regular cargo. Pairs of donkeys were often used in preference to horses, maybe because they could easily be put onto the boats which had to be legged (or pulled by tug) through the tunnels.

The canal has five tunnels. The longest at Kings Norton is just under two miles long. Steam tugs were used from the 1870s to haul strings of narrowboats through Wasts Hill, Shortwood and Tardebigge tunnels. The Worcester and Birmingham Canal has locks, 58 of them, climbing 428 feet (130 metres) from the level of the River Severn in Worcester up to Birmingham.

In the twenty-first century the ring now formed by the two canals and the river makes a popular two weeks holiday route, albeit partly a strenuous one, lockwise, but there are plenty of pubs, though some are now merely restaurants with a bar. The Worcester and Birmingham Canal travels through some very pleasant countryside, climbing from the Severn through rolling fields and wooded cuttings and slicing through a hilly ridge south of Birmingham.

LinkExternal link
by Roger D Kidd

Created: Sat, 18 Dec 2010, Updated: Sat, 5 Mar 2011


805 images use this description. Preview sample shown below:

SP0483 : The Worcester and Birmingham Canal seen from Pritchatts Road, Birmingham by habiloid
2025
SP0580 : Bournville railway station by Mat Fascione
2021
SO8554 : Cottage at Blockhouse Lock No 4 by Mat Fascione
2021
SO8555 : Landsdowne Road Bridge No 11 by Mat Fascione
2021
SO9161 : Worcester and Birmingham Canal at Shernal Green by Mat Fascione
2021
SO9160 : Steps down to the south portal of Dunhampstead Tunnel by Mat Fascione
2021
SO8958 : Offerton Farm along the Worcester and Birmingham Canal by Mat Fascione
2021
SO9667 : Tardebigge Flight, Worcester & Birmingham Canal by Stephen McKay
2016
SO9868 : Lock 53, Tardebigge Flight by Stephen McKay
2016
SP0686 : Worcester & Birmingham Canal, Birmingham by Stephen McKay
2016
SO8453 : Diglis Top Lock by Oast House Archive
2014
SO8554 : The Worcester and Birmingham Canal by Oast House Archive
2014
SP0579 : Junction of two canals by Philip Halling
2013
SO9465 : Bridge 41, Worcester and Birmingham Canal by Philip Halling
2013
SP0580 : Bridge 74, Worcester and Birmingham Canal by Philip Halling
2013
SO9567 : Bridge 46, Worcester and Birmingham Canal by Philip Halling
2013
SP0482 : The Worcester and Birmingham Canal, Selly Oak by Philip Halling
2013
SO9868 : Lock 57, Worcester and Birmingham Canal by Philip Halling
2013
SP0375 : Light at the end of the tunnel... by Philip Halling
2013
SO9466 : The Boat and Railway, Stoke Prior by Philip Halling
2013
SP0585 : The Edgbaston Tunnel, south portal by N Chadwick
2011
SP0483 : Worcester and Birmingham Canal, bridge 82 by N Chadwick
2011
SO8958 : Offerton Locks west of Tibberton in Worcestershire by Roger  D Kidd
2010
SO8557 : Canal at Bilford Top Lock near Astwood, Worcester by Roger  D Kidd
2010
SO8958 : Offerton Top Lock near Tibberton, Worcestershire by Roger  D Kidd
2010

... and 780 more images.

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