Category: Photos

Our Waterway Routes narrowboat is passing through Worcester Bar as it leaves the Worcester & Birmingham Canal and enters the Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line at Gas Street Basin.

When first built the act of Parliament which authorised their construction required them to be separated by a bar and all good had to be transhipped across the bar. Eventually permission was granted for the channel to be constructed through the bar that we use today.

Having left Worcester Bar and Gas Street Basin, our Waterway Routes narrowboat is now leaving Broad Street Tunnel in Birmingham. Today this is more a large bridge than the tunnel it was in the past.

Cruising from Worcester Bar and Gas Street Basin through the centre of Birmingham towards Deep Cutting Junction and Old Turn Junction.

Euphrates, the Sherborne Wharf Trip Boat is moored between Broad Street Tunnel and Deep Cutting Junction in between trips .

Our Waterway Routes narrowboat is turning onto the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal which is generally considered to start at Deep Cutting Junction these days.

Historically, the section from Deep Cutting Junction to Farmers Bridge Junction (at the top of Farmers Bridge Locks) was built as the Newhall Branch of the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN).

Deep Cutting Junction and Old Turn Junction are often considered as one junction where you can go four ways.

This side of the footbridge, with the signpost on the island, is Deep Cutting Junction where the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal to Fazeley Junction leaves behind the camera. The Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) Main Line runs to Gas Street Basin and Worcester Bar to the left.

Moored between Old Turn Junction and Ladywood Junction, with Sheepcote Street Bridge in the background, are President and Kildare.

President is an historic steam powered narrowboat, with Kildare being the unpowered butty it usually pulls.

Cruising along the Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line towards Sheepcote Street Bridge.

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

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.

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.

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.

The four-way signpost marks Rotton Park Junction.

The Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) Main Line runs from Birmingham to Wolverhampton. The original route of the canal now forms the Icknield Port Loop and the Soho Loop which diverge at this 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.

The large Lee Bridge spans the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) Main Line at an angle.

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

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

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 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.

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.

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).

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.

Between Birmingham and Wolverhampton the canal passes through a great variety of scenery, including modern residential developments and historical industrial settings.

At Smethwick Junction the Old and New Main Lines diverge. They rejoin into a single route at Factory Junction.

To the right is the original route of the canal, now known as the Old Main Line. It climbs almost immediately through three locks, then runs on that level to Wolverhampton.

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 photo is taken on the Main Line of the Birmingham Canal Navigations with Wolverhampton behind the camera.

Straight ahead is the New Main Line towards Birmingham and diverging to the right is the Old Main Line to Birmingham.

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.

Travelling through the Black Country the wonderful green landscapes may surprise some people.

As the canal approaches Coseley Tunnel the land level gradually rises each side of the route and the bridge linking the two sides is rather taller than usual.

South Coseley Bridge has a pipe bridge over the top as the canal enters the gradually deepening cutting towards Coseley Tunnel.

The gradually deepening cutting leads to Coseley Tunnel. It was the construction of this tunnel that provided a more direct route between Bloomfield Junction and Deepfields Junction than the former Wednesbury Oak Loop.

Coseley Tunnel was built wide enough for two narrowboats to pass with towpaths along both sides.

The steps lead up to a good vantage point from above the tunnel mouth. Unfortunately the brick wall there provides great hiding place for stone throwing vandals.

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.