Category: Birmingham Cnl Navs (BCN) Photos

We’re looking at Aldersley Junction from the end of the Main Line of the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN).

The Staffs & Worcester Canal passes across the picture from Stourport on the left to Great Haywood Junction on the right.

Our Waterway Routes narrowboat descending Lock 6 on teh Wolverhampton Flight.

Cutting off the three loops (Oozells Street, Icknield Port, and Soho) the new Main Line is wide and straight with towpaths along both banks. It must have seemed like a motorway to the old boatmen.

We are looking towards Rotton Park Junction where the bridge crosses the canal. Icknield Square Junction is behind the camera.

The main railway line between Birmingham and Wolverhampton follows a very similar route to the canal and they run very close for much or the journey. They swap sides twice along the route, with Avery Rail Bridge being on of those locations.

This is the site of the former Cape Junction which, like Rotton Park Junction, had four routes.

The new route of the Main Line of the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) runs from Birmingham (behind the camera) to Wolverhampton (ahead).

Immediately on the Wolverhampton side of Winson Green Junction is a toll island. Now grass covered the island provides a channel each side just wide enough for a narrowboat to pass through.

As boats passed through the narrows the toll keepers measured their depth in the water and, using information from their records, could calculate the weight of the cargo and the appropriate toll to be paid.

Looking along the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) Main Line towards Wolverhampton, with Birmingham behind the camera.

The finger sign on the left bank point along the Soho Loop which emerges from under the towpath bridge at Winson Green Junction.

The pier of a former railway bridge still stands in the middle of the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) Main Line.

The railway branch linked Harborne to the main railway lines into Birmingham and opened in 1874. Passenger services stopped in 1934, but freight traffic continued until 1963.

Rotton Park Junction is a four-way junction with the waterways meeting at right angles.

We are looking along the main line towards Smethwick Junction and Wolverhampton, with Icknield Port Junction and Birmingham behind the camera.

Monument Road Bridge carries Ladywood Middleway over the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) Main Line.

The towpath bridge on the right crosses the entrance to Monument Lane Basin and this forms a handy winding point. Boats unable to turn or wind at Ladywood Junction, around 500m (¼ mile) nearer Birmingham, can turn here.

At Icknield Square Junction the Icknield Port Loop diverges to the left under the towpath bridge. This loop was the original route of the canal.

The bridge in the distance marks Rotton Park Junction which is at the other end of the Icknield Port Loop.

Looking towards Birmingham on a sunny afternoon. The lovely green corridor leads to St Vincent Street Bridge, with Ladywood Junction just beyond.

The signpost at Smethwick Junction marks the three way junction.

To the left is the main line to Birmingham. Straight on is the New Main Line to Wolverhampton and diverging is the Old Main Line of the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN).

The finger sign at Winson Green Junction identifies the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) Main Line between Birmingham and Wolverhampton.

At Winson Green Junction the Soho Loop, part of the original route of canal, leaves and rejoins at Rotton Park Junction.

Winson Green Bridge strides across the wide route of the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) Main Line, which includes towpaths along both sides.

The name plate on Lee Bridge also shows the date MSDDDXXVI, which is 1826.

The north portal of Coseley Tunnel looks rather bare after clearance of the vegetation shortly before this photo was taken, but it will soon regrown.

Coseley Tunnel is 329m (360 yards) long, with passage taking around four minutes.

The dark coloured edge to the towpath on the outside of the curve marks the site of the former Bloomfield Junction. A large loop once diverged to the right and wandered for more than eight kilometers (five miles) around the landscape before rejoining the current route just over two kilometers (one and a quarter miles) further on at Deepfields Junction.

Emerging from Coseley Tunnel on a bright day the straightened route disappears into the distance, cutting over six kilometers (four miles) from the original route along the Wednesbury Oak Loop.

Approaching Deepfields Junction, looking along the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) Main Line towards Wolverhampton, with Birmingham behind the camera.

Leaving under the towpath bridge on the right is the Bradley Arm, which is the name usually given to the remaining open length of the Wednesbury Oak Loop.

Horseley Fields Junction is where the Wyrley & Essington Canal diverges to the right under the towpath and railway bridge.

The Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) Main Line continues straight ahead through Wolverhampton to Aldersley Junction, with Birmingham behind the camera.

There are several sections of route then there are more industrial than residential buildings but they are frequently surrounded by established natural vegetation and rarely impose on the canal.

Nesting time in the spring when the two swan parents take it in turns to sit on the nest. They are on the offside of the canal and din’t seem bothered in any way by passing boats.

Anchor Bridge is at the Wolverhampton end of the straightened route through Coseley Tunnel, with Deepfields Junction just beyond the bridge.