| AdminHistory | In 1767 a meeting of Birmingham businessmen proposed a canal link from the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal at Wolverhampton to New Hall, Birmingham, via the coalfields and collieries of the Black Country. On the 24 February 1768, Parliament gave the go ahead for the navigation to be built. The committee, which included some famous Birmingham names including Matthew Boulton, Dr William Small and Samuel Galton, appointed James Brindley to be the Chief Engineer. The first section was completed in 1769, with the final section being completed on the 14 September 1772, with the opening of the 20 locks at Wolverhampton and Aldersley Junction, which linked the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal to the Birmingham Canal. The Birmingham Canal opened for traffic on the 21 September 1772 and on completion was just over 22 miles in length, with its highest point being the summit at Smethwick was 491 feet above sea level. However in 1787 the Birmingham Canal Company, decided to drop the summit at Smethwick by 18 feet to 473 feet. |
| The Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) began in September 1772, with the completion of a canal between Wolverhampton and Birmingham, by engineer James Brindley. The main aim of the BCN was to provide the short haul transport of finished goods and raw materials of the surrounding manufacturing region of the Black Country. By 1789, it had expanded rapidly and had already absorbed the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal. By 1840, it had incorporated the Wyrley & Essington Canal, and had amalgamated with Dudley Canals in 1846. By the 1850s, there were around 160 miles of canals with over 200 locks, 17 pumping stations, 7 tunnels and 6 reservoirs. However, by the end of the 19th century, canals were in decline due to the railways. BCN did not go under however, as they had an agreement with the London & North Western Railway (LNWR) where local deliveries and collections would be handled by boat, and long transport by rail. By the 1930s though, most of the heavy work on the canals had ceased causing many of the canals to fall into disuse and neglect. Eventually, in 1968, BCN were taken over by the British Waterways Board. They, along with local water authorities, set about to restore many of the original BCN canals. Consequently, they are now used for leisure and recreation. |
| In the mid-1820s the Birmingham Canal Company committee, proposed a new main line to link Birmingham and Wolverhampton. The committee called Thomas Telford to make a survey and give his opinion, who referred to Brindey's canal as something 'little better than a crooked ditch...'. Telford's new mainline included a new canal from Smethwick to Tipton, abolishing the summit at Smethwick. The new canal cut a through Smethwick Heath via a deep cutting, which at its deepest point was 71 feet deep. The new mainline has junctions with the Walsall Canal at Ryders Green, the Gower Branch which links the new main line to the Brindley's old mainline at Brades Village, Oldbury, and the Netherton Tunnel Branch Canal which links the new mainline to the Dudley Canal, via the 3027 yard long Netherton Tunnel. The new mainline improved much of Brindley's Old Mainline and all the work was completed in 1829. |
| The Engine Arm Aquaduct, often called the Telford Aquaduct after the designer Thomas Telford, with its distinctive gothic arch details, was built in the 1820s, and carries the old BCN main Line (Brindley Arm) over the BCM New Main Line (Telford Level), which provided water for the locks. |