Category: Bradley Canal Photos (BCN)

The Bradley Canal starts at Moorcroft Junction with the Walsall Canal, shown above. We are standing on the towpath looking across the Walsall Canal and into the Bradley Canal. Head left along the Walsall Canal for Tame Valley Junction and right for Walsall Junction

Looking along the Bradley Canal, with the Walsall Canal behind us, it’s just possible to imagine a narrowboat cruising along here when the vegetation has been trimmed. The first 500m looks like this.

The towpath is walkable throughout the Bradley Canal, although the trees would make it difficult to pull a boat with a rope.

Lock 1 on the Bradley Canal is the first of nine locks which will lift boats from the Walsall level to the Wolverhampton level of the Birmingham Canal Navigations.

Lock 2, like lock 1, has been partially restored then filled in for safety and to preserve the work.

Looking down over the bottom two locks of the Bradley Flight from Bradley Bridge, the Midland Metro Bridge near the bottom lock.

Bradley Bridge crosses the Bradley Canal below Lock 3. The almost level road surface today hides the former hump backed bridge. The top of the arch is still just be visible in the brickwork near pavement level.

The route of the Bradley Canal is still preserved between the houses.

Looking up the Bradley Locks flight towards locks 4 to 9 the stepped appearance in the landscape indicates the location of the former locks.

Standing on the site of Lock 4 and looking down the flight.

The canal climbs up past the houses and will soon have wide ranging views across the landscape.

As we near the top of the Bradley Locks flight we can see Rocket Pool to the right between the houses.

The views from the top of Bradley Locks is one of the places with the longest range views around the BCN. The stepped descent in the footpath indicates where the locks used to be.

From Bradley Locks Junction at the top of Bradley Locks the former alignment to the south is still followed by the footpath.

From Bradley Locks Junction at the top of Bradley Locks a straight section of canal cut off some of the wanderings of the former BCN Old Main Line. The straight cut off was known to some as the Rotton Brunt Line.

The footpath dips to the right and below the line of the former canal line which ran close to the long buildings on the left of the photo.

The canal followed the line of the building at the top of the embankment where the modern footpath dips down to the right, as shown in the previous photo.

A former branch once left the Rotton Brunt Line and descended through three locks with the route still identifiable as the gap between the houses.

The Bradley Canal must cross this road from left to right to meet the end of the Wednesbury Oak Loop (sometimes called the Bradley Arm). The gradient on the road probably precludes raising it for a fixed bridge and a lift bridge seems the most likely solution.

Having passed under the proposed lift bridge the final obstacle is to pass through the pub car park to join the end of the Bradley Arm which is just the other side of the wall at the far end of the car park.