| Kings Norton Junction | |
|---|---|
 The roving bridge crosses the Worcester and Birmingham Canal, while the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal starts at the top right. | |
| Specifications | |
| Status | Open |
| Navigation authority | British Waterways |
| History | |
| Date completed | 1807 |
Kings Norton Junction (grid reference SP052794 ) is the name of the canal junction where the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal terminates and meets the Worcester and Birmingham Canal at Kings Norton, Birmingham, England.
The Worcester and Birmingham Canal was authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1791, after overcoming opposition by the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal and the Birmingham Canal Company. The first saw the new route as direct competition, while the second would not allow a junction between the two canals. The canal was built southwards from Birmingham, where there was a 7-foot (2.1 m) gap between the canal and the Birmingham system. Shortly after passing through King's Norton, a ridge of hills was pierced by the 2,726-yard (2,493 m) Wast Hill Tunnel. Construction of it began in 1794, and by 1807, boats could reach Tardebigge. There was then a period of no activity, but the canal was finally completed to Diglis Basin and the River Severn in 1815. An agreement enabled a stop lock to be built to connect the canal to the Birmingham Canals in the same year. [1]
The Stratford-upon-Avon Canal was authorised in 1793, to ensure that the prosperity being generated by new canal routes would not bypass Stratford. Construction began at Kings Norton Junction, less than 3 miles (4.8 km) from Selly Oak Junction, where the Worcester and Birmingham met with the Dudley Canal No. 2 line which passed through the Lapal Tunnel. This route would give easy access to the Dudley coalfields. After the first three years, progress was slow due to a lack of capital, and it was not until the canal reached Kingswood Junction at Lapworth in 1803, where there was a link to the Warwick and Birmingham Canal (later part of the Grand Union Canal), that large volumes of traffic used the canal and Kings Norton Junction. The final section from Lapworth to Stratford was built between 1812 and 1815. [2]
Although the southern section of the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal was closed, the northern section did not officially do so, although there was little traffic after 1939, and Lifford Bridge, shortly after the stop lock, could no longer be swung after 1942, when the Great Western Railway repaired it in a way which prevented its movement. It was the scene of one of the first campaigns by the fledgling Inland Waterways Association, when Tom Rolt announced in 1947 that he intended to navigate through the junction and along the canal. The Railway company had to jack the bridge up, to allow his boat to pass, [3] and the event was widely reported in newspapers, gaining useful publicity. [4]
High on the wall of the Worcester and Birmingham toll house is a 1993 reproduction of the scale of toll fees in 1793. Fees varied from ½d per ton per mile for lime, to 1 3/4d for food or finished products.
The water of the two canal companies was kept apart by the nearby Lifford Lane guillotine stop lock, consisting of two wooden gates which moved vertically in iron frames. Now that both canals are managed by British Waterways, both gates are kept open, [5] and have been since nationalisation of the canals in 1948. The structure is grade II* listed, as the raked cast iron frames, columns and counterweights are original. [6] [7]
At the junction is a grade II listed house, built in 1802 of red brick, with doric column decoration around the central doorway. It is somewhat larger than most lock-keepers cottages. [8] [9] The junction bridge, which has a broad elliptical arch and carries the towpath over the Worcester and Birmingham Canal to reach the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal, is located just to the north of the junction, and is also listed. [10] [11]
From the junction, the Worcester and Birmingham Canal to the north is level to the junction with the Birmingham Canal Navigations at Worcester Bar Junction, 5.5 miles (8.9 km) away. To the south, it remains level for 8.6 miles (13.8 km) as it passes through Wast Hill, Shortwood and Tardebigge tunnels, until it arrives at the top lock of the thirty that form the Tardebigge flight. [12] The Stratford-upon-Avon Canal initially heads towards the east, before turning to the south-east, and is level for 10.8 miles (17.4 km), after which 19 locks drop the canal down to Kingswood Junction and the Grand Union Canal. [13]
The River Avon in central England flows generally southwestwards and is a major left-bank tributary of the River Severn, of which it is the easternmost. It is also known as the Warwickshire Avon or Shakespeare's Avon, to distinguish it from several other rivers of the same name in the United Kingdom.
The Stratford-upon-Avon Canal is a canal in the south Midlands of England. The canal, which was built between 1793 and 1816, runs for 25.5 miles (41.0 km) in total, and consists of two sections. The dividing line is at Kingswood Junction, which gives access to the Grand Union Canal. Following acquisition by a railway company in 1856, it gradually declined, the southern section being un-navigable by 1945, and the northern section little better.
The Worcester and Birmingham Canal is a canal linking Birmingham and Worcester in England. It starts in Worcester, as an 'offshoot' of the River Severn and ends in Gas Street Basin in Birmingham. It is 29 miles (47 km) long. There are 58 locks in total on the canal, including the 30 Tardebigge Locks, one of the largest lock flights in Europe. The canal climbs 428 feet (130 m) from Worcester to Birmingham.
Fradley Junction is a canal junction between Fradley and Alrewas near Lichfield, Staffordshire, England and the point at which the Coventry Canal joins the Trent and Mersey Canal. It opened in 1790, and several of the buildings around it, including The Swan public house, are grade II listed structures.
Lifford Reservoir in the Kings Norton district of Birmingham, England was built by the Worcester & Birmingham Canal company in 1815 to compensate Lifford Mill for water lost to the canal. It is located at the junction of the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal and the Worcester and Birmingham Canal and is on the River Rea Cycle Route. Angling is permitted subject to a charge outside the spring close season. Fish in the reservoir include tench, carp, pike, eels, perch, roach and bream.
The Dudley Canal is a canal passing through Dudley in the West Midlands of England. The canal is part of the English and Welsh connected network of navigable inland waterways, and in particular forms part of the popular Stourport Ring narrowboat cruising route.
Tardebigge Engine House is a former canal-pumping engine house at Tardebigge, Worcestershire, England. It is grade II listed.
Haywood Junction, or Great Haywood Junction, is the name of the canal junction where the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal terminates and meets the Trent and Mersey Canal near to the village of Great Haywood, Staffordshire, England.
The Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN), a network of narrow canals in the industrial midlands of England, is built on various water levels. The three longest are the Wolverhampton, Birmingham, and Walsall levels. Locks allow boats to move from one level to another.
Tardebigge Locks or the Tardebigge Flight is the longest flight of locks in the UK, comprising 30 narrow locks on a two-and-a-quarter-mile (3.6 km) stretch of the Worcester and Birmingham Canal at Tardebigge, Worcestershire. It raises the waterway 220 feet (67 m), and lies between the Tardebigge tunnel to the North and the Stoke Prior flight of six narrow locks to the South. The Tardebigge Engine House is also on this stretch.
Smethwick Junction is the name of the canal junctions where the Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line Canal from Birmingham splits into the BCN Old Main Line and the BCN New Main Line near to Smethwick, West Midlands, England.
The Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union Canal is located in Cheshire, in the north west of England, and runs between Middlewich, where it joins the Trent and Mersey Canal, and Barbridge Junction, where it joins the main line of the Shropshire Union Canal. It is 10 miles (16 km) long, and was planned as part of the Chester Canal, which was authorised in 1772, but the company ran out of money, and construction did not begin until 1827. The Trent and Mersey insisted that there should be no direct connection at Middlewich, and instead built the short Wardle Canal to join the two, charging large compensation tolls for traffic passing along it.
Rushall Junction is the southern limit of the Rushall Canal where it meets the Tame Valley Canal in the West Midlands, England. It opened in 1847, when the Rushall Canal was built to create connections between the Birmingham Canal Navigations system and the Wyrley and Essington Canal, following the amalgamation of the two companies in 1840.
Ogley Junction, on the Staffordshire county border near Brownhills, West Midlands, England, is a historic canal junction on the Wyrley and Essington Canal where the Anglesey Branch left the main line.
Kings Norton Stop Lock is a Grade II* listed building at Kings Norton Junction on the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal near its junction with the Worcester and Birmingham Canal. It is the only guillotine-gated stop-lock on a canal.
Kingswood Junction is a series of canal junction where the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal meets the Grand Union Canal at Kingswood, Warwickshire, England.
Spon Lane Junction is the original junction of the Wednesbury Canal and the Birmingham Canal, near Oldbury in the West Midlands, England.
Bromford Junction is a canal junction at the foot of the Spon Lane Locks where the Spon Lane Locks Branch meets the BCN New Main Line near Oldbury in the West Midlands, England.
Delph Locks or the Delph Nine are a series of eight narrow canal locks on the Dudley No. 1 Canal in Brierley Hill, in the West Midlands, England. They were opened in 1779, and reopened in 1967 following restoration of the Dudley Canal and the Stourbridge Canal in a joint venture between the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal Society and the British Waterways Board.
The Avon Ring is a canal ring which is located to the south west of Birmingham in England, and connects the major towns of Stratford-upon-Avon, Evesham, Tewkesbury, Worcester and the southern outskirts of Birmingham. It consists of stretches of four waterways, and is heavily locked, with a total of 129 locks on its route of 109 miles (175 km).
Media related to Kings Norton Junction at Wikimedia Commons
